BDL 2023 Week 4 - Berlin Blitzkrieg @ Raleigh Firebirds

[RedGold]

BDL 2023 Week 4

Match:  Berlin Blitzkrieg @ Raleigh Firebirds

Away Owner:  @Ragnarok

Home Owner:  @EaglesPeteC

Vote for who you think would win the game.

Rules:
One vote per person, duplicate accounts will be banned and action taken against those attempting to rig the results.

One vote per team involved in the match. Co-owners may vote in every match up except their own.

For members, who have been following along, and wish to vote.  Please join the conversation and maybe give a reason you voted as you did. This will alleviate any suspicions of unusual voting and will promote discussion.

Note: Players that have a (D) next to their name indicate that they are doubtful or unlikely to play. Players with (Q) are game-time decisions.

Good luck to you both

[RedGold]

Berlin Blitzkrieg
QB – Jordan Love
RB – Tony Pollard
WR – Drake London
WR – Garrett Wilson
WR – Brandon Aiyuk
TE – Dallas Goedert
LT – Kolton Miller
LG – Ben Powers
C – Jarrett Patterson
RG – Nate Davis
RT – Tristan Wirfs

RB – Isiah Pacheco
RB – De’Von Achane
TE – Darnell Washington
WR – Romeo Doubs
WR – Kadarius Toney
OL – Spencer Burford
OL – Mike McGlinchey

DE – Trey Hendrickson
DT – Quinnen Williams
DT – Derrick Brown
DE – Samson Ebukam
LB – Jordyn Brooks
LB – Tremaine Edmunds
CB – Deonte Banks
CB – Christian Benford
CB – Benjamin St-Juste
S – Antoine Winfield Jr
S – Juan Thornhill

Edge 3 – Justin Houston
Edge 4 - Nik Bonitto
INT3 – DeMarvin Leal
INT4 – Mazi Smith
LB3 – Kyzir White
CB4– Devon Witherspoon
CB5 – D.J. Turner
S3 – Amani Hooker

 

 

 

Raleigh

Offense

 

QB- Russell Wilson 

RB- Christian McCaffrey 

WR- Courtland Sutton

WR- Michael Thomas 

WR- TuTu Atwell

TE- Mark Andrews

LT- Jordan Mailata

LG- Landon Dickerson

C- Patrick Mekari 

RG- Issac Seumalo 

RT- George Fant 

 

RB- Chuba Hubbard

RB- Kareem Hunt 

WR- Quinten Johnston

WR- Darius Slayton

TE- Robert Tonyan

TE- Noah Fant 

Swing T- Andrew Wylie

Swing Interior OL- Matthew Bergeron

 

Defense

 

EDGE/Rush LB- Danielle Hunter

EDGE- Jermaine Johnson

DT- Jalen Carter

DT- BJ Hill

EDGE- Josh Sweat

LB- Shaq Leonard

CB- Darius Slay

CB- Sean Murphy Bunting

CB- Josh Jobe

FS- Justin Reid

SS- Reed Blankenship

 

EDGE/Rush DT-Brandon Graham

NT- Alim McNeill 

EDGE/LB- Nick Herbig

LB- Quay Walker

LB- Quincy Williams

CB- Troy Hill

CB- Kristian Fulton 

S- Jayron Kearse

Edited October 1, 2023 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Berlin

Offense
Raleigh has a very solid DL, but we feel our OTs can handle their edge players.  Patterson will help whichever OG has Jalen and we will see if the other DT can beat our other OG one-on-one.  Also, we get Aiyuk back which is huge for both the running and passing game.  We really want to get Aiyuk involved early and often as we think he will have a winnable matchup against whichever non-Slay CB he gets.  If Slay is on Aiyuk, Garrett will get more opportunities. 

Running Game
Pollard will get roughly 20 touches between the run and pass game.  Pacheco will get roughly 15 touches and Achane will get roughly 10.  All 3 can catch, so we will use all three in both facets.  That said, we want to stay balanced on offense, so we want to hit 30 rushes total between all three backs.  We want to utilize more stretch runs to allow our RBs to pick a hole and hit it.  If the defense starts flowing, we will make use of counters and dives to take advantage.

 

3 WR – 65% - Garrett/Drake/Aiyuk/Goedert/RB – Our base offense.  Garrett and Drake will be outside running every route.  Aiyuk starts out in the slot.  Sometimes he will motion across the formation, sometimes he will motion out to stack with the WR on his side, sometimes he will stay in place and we will snap quicker.  He will also run every route.  Goedert serves as a security blanket who occasionally pushes deeper.  We want to be balanced in this formation between the run and pass with a fair amount of playaction and roll outs.

2 TE – 10% - Garrett/Drake/Goedert/Darnell/RB –We will use this in short yardage and goalline situations.  We will make use of Darnell’s size in the red zone to score TDs and blocking abilities in short yardage to move the chains.  Between Drake, Goedert, Garrett, and Darnell, we feel confident about winning a jump ball.

4 WR – 10% - Garrett/Drake/Aiyuk/Doubs/RB – Spread offense for hurry up and 2 minute drill.  Love will typically be in shotgun here.

2 RB – 15% - Garrett/Aiyuk/Goedert/Achane/Pollard – Time to get Achane and Pollard on the field together.  We will move one or both out of the backfield to give a 4 or 5 WR look with the intent on isolating a LB in coverage in space.  If one stays in the backfield, Love will have the freedom to call a run or pass based on the personnel and alignment.

 

Defense
TL;DR – Contain CMC, erase the big play, play solid D.

CMC is a stud and Russell relies on the big play.  So we want to take those away.  Look for a lot of Cover 3 zone with some Cover 1 Man mixed in to keep Russell guessing.  This week, we will incorporate Cover 6 looks to add in an extra wrinkle while complimenting our overall gameplan.  All of these looks allow Winfield to be up in the box at the snap to give us an extra man to contain CMC.

Defensive Line
Raleigh has a very good OL.  That said, Hendrickson will keep Mailata very busy and our DTs will be a handful.  We will rely on our DTs to blow up the interior and keep our guys clean to limit CMC, especially considering we aren’t sure who Raleigh plans on playing at C.  Ebukam moves into the starting lineup this week as we think he will have a decided advantage against Dillard.  Houston will rotate in frequently to spell our edge rushers.  Our other DL will come in as necessary.

 

LBers
In man, Jordyn will have Andrews in 3 WR sets as we really like that match up.  Tremaine will have the RB.  In zone, they’ll drop into their normal Cover 3 or 6 zones.

If they run a 2 TE set, Kyzir will come in for Benford and have the 2^nd TE.  If they run a 2 RB set, Amani will come in for Benford and have the 2^nd RB.

 

Cornerbacks
Deonte will have Tutu to match speed.  St-Juste will have Thomas in the slot to match size.  Benford will have Sutton.  Witherspoon will come in for Jordyn in 4 WR sets and have Quentin.

SS
Winfield will be up near the LOS at all times.  In Cover 1 Man, he will be usualy doubling CMC with Tremaine and occasionally doubling Andrews with Jordyn.  In Cover 3 or 6, he will drop into a zone after keying the run game first.

FS
Thornhill will always line up deep middle.  He’ll slide into his zone from there, but he is meant to limit the deep ball.

 

 

 

 

Raleigh

Week 4

OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN

After back to back victories, Russell Wilson is behind center again. We see the weak point of Berlin being their secondary, so the overall plan will be to spread them out and get more DB’s on the field to both open up the pass and the run. We will run primarily out of 11 and detach Andrews from the line. This should force lighter boxes and allow McCaffrey space to find gaps in the run game. We anticipate Berlin putting Hendrickson over my RT, who this week is new arrival George Fant (who has only allowed one sack this season), so we want run a lot of plays off tackle left to the strong side of our line and avoid going right up the middle into Quinnen and Derrick Brown. We think with focusing our early run game to that side we will force Berlin to get Hendrickson off of Fant and have their defense flow to the left and then hit some counter plays as well as play action passes and WR screens to the right side and can hit some big plays.

 

In the passing game, there is a lot of youth at CB vs a couple veterans that know how to get open in Thomas and Sutton. In this game we will line Thomas outside the majority of the time to take advantage of his route running vs a rookie on an island and then line up the speedy TuTu Atwell inside. We anticipate Winfield covering Andrews leaving Thornhill in conflict in the back end trying to help out Berlin’s young CB’s. We want to run Atwell on crossing routes and deep posts to the middle to attack Thornhill and make it harder for him to help the CB’s on the outside. We also want to sub in Quientin Johnston more this game especially in the red zone and give him opportunities to win 50/50 balls in 1 on 1 situations on the outside.

 

2 RB formation

We also want to play a little bit more 2 RB formation this week with either Chuba Hubbard or Kareem Hunt on the field with McCaffrey.In that case we take off one of the WR’s depending on the matchup. This will allow us the ability to move McCaffrey as a WR to spread them out and still run, give us an extra block in pass protection to hit on deeper routes and give Berlin’s front more to look at and think about in the run game before McCaffrey gets the ball.

 

DEFENSIVE GAME PLAN

 

Base formation 5-1-5

Berlin has 2 young QB’s to choose from, so our plan regardless will be to attack, and make the young signal caller uncomfortable, get sacks and force take aways.

 

The biggest threat we see on this offense is their running game with Pollard and Achane with Linsley going on IR and their RG Spencer Burford being a liability this is where we plan on lining up Jalen Carter and forcing Berlin out of their plan to stop him otherwise he will harass the QB all game and push run plays to the edge. With our 5-1 alignment. We plan on putting Sweat and Jermaine Johnson on the EDGE and then moving around our best pass rusher Danielle Hunter, so that the young QB has more to read pre-snap and will have to adjust protections in order to account for him. We want to keep him thinking and uncomfortable all game long. We can also swap Johnson and Hunter at any time to continue to keep him guessing. We can also bring Hunter and drop Johnson to cover up short zones.

 

In coverage we want to keep Justin Reid deep, and Reed Blankenship in the robber position to clog up short zones and be available for run support. In coverage, man/Cover 4 press bail will be our main technique. Darius Slay will shadow Garrett Wilson, while Josh Jobe will get the start this week to cover Drake London. Jobe is bigger more physical CB than SMB or Fulton and when Jobe has been beaten this year it has been smaller, quicker WR’s. We think Jobe vs London is a better matchup for us. Murphy Bunting will play inside against the slot WR and/or Dallas Goedert 

 

Front formations and rush plans:

 

5 Man front

Early down or short yardage. Johnson comes off and Alim McNeil comes on to play nose while keeping Hill and Carter on the field. Hunter becomes more of an off ball rush LB.This can free him up to rush at times up the middle behind the 3 DT’s. A more pass rushing wrinkle could be swapping Hill with Brandon Graham as well to allow Graham to rush over a guard.

 

Nascar Package

On obvious pass downs, subbing out Hill with Brandon Graham and rushing one of Graham or occasionally Sweat from the inside against the guards.

 

Iknow who won this game regardless of outcome

Edited October 1, 2023 by RedGold

[EaglesPeteC]

With both Williams and Bradbury out, Patrick Mekari gets the start at C 

[Scoundrel]

9 minutes ago, EaglesPeteC said:

With both Williams and Bradbury out, Patrick Mekari gets the start at C 

Stop being lazy and change it in your plan you still have an hour

[EaglesPeteC]

12 minutes ago, Scoundrel said:

Stop being lazy and change it in your plan you still have an hour

Oh didn’t realize I could still edit 

[Scoundrel]

8 hours ago, RedGold said:

After back to back victories,

Love this Pete. Never change

[EaglesPeteC]

4 minutes ago, Scoundrel said:

Love this Pete. Never change

I know who won this game regardless of outcome 

[Blue]

Every week that goes by, the less faith I have in Jordan Love as a BDL starter. I think the time has come for Berlin to embrace the CJ Stroud future.

Raleigh is really not a bad team, and they've got some horses up front that I think get after Love and keep the clamps down on the Berlin offense here.

[bcb1213]

So, pete is running a five man rush, having one play robber, one play deep and also trying to play man?  I'm not a numbers guy but um, someone isn't going to be covered, either a TE or RB.  Am i reading that wrong?

[EaglesPeteC]

1 minute ago, bcb1213 said:

So, pete is running a five man rush, having one play robber, one play deep and also trying to play man?  I'm not a numbers guy but um, someone isn't going to be covered, either a TE or RB.  Am i reading that wrong?

It's press bail mostly with the LB Leonard and SS Blankenship covering the middle and Reid deeper, so yeah their might be some guys open at times but also will force quick throws and possibly mistakes from a young QB. 

[bcb1213]

It's a close matchup but I think Berlin getting the RB involved in the passing game and Raleigh ignoring them is going to be the difference here

[TedLavie]

I actually like much mire both teams than I thought I would. Berlin starts the wrong QB and RB for me and still they have a high powered offense. I think Raleigh scheme works against them here as it gives free space for Ayiuk but also for their RB. I also think Berlin is better in the trenches on both sides and wins there. Berlin in a high scoring affair

[Scoundrel]

McCaffrey is studding and making Raleigh a very competitive team I just question some of their defensive choices this week. Rags definitely needs to throw Stroud out there going forward. 

[EaglesPeteC]

1 hour ago, Scoundrel said:

McCaffrey is studding and making Raleigh a very competitive team I just question some of their defensive choices this week. Rags definitely needs to throw Stroud out there going forward. 

Hater….. 😎