BDL 2023 Week 6 - Camden Hood Rats @ Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

[RedGold]

BDL 2023 Week 6

Match:  Camden Hood Rats @ Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

Away Owner:  @TedLavie

Home Owner:  @RuskieTitan

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]

Camden

QB Baker Mayfield
RB Zack Moss
WR AJ Brown
WR Nico Collins
Slot Cooper Kupp
TE Tyler Higbee
LT Dion Dawkins
LG Quenton Nelson
C Cody Whitehair
RG Teven Jenkins
RT Lane Johnson

Bench

RB Austin Ekeler
RB Jerrick McKinnon
WR Gabe Davis
WR Rashid Shaheed
TE Gerald Everett 
TE Kyle Pitts
OL Zach Tom
OL Quinn Meinerz

 

RE Josh Allen
DT Aaron Donald
NT Harrison Phillips
LE Montez Sweat
LB Lavonte David
LB Frankie Luvu
CB L’Jarius Sneed
CB Rasul Douglas
CB Jonathan Jones
SS Jimmie Ward
FS Malik Hooker

Bench

Edge Carl Granderson
Edge Yannick Ngakoue
Edge Boye Mafe
INT Osa Odighizuwa
LB Nicholas Morrow
CB Asante Samuel Jr.
CB Darious Williams
S Marcus Epps

 

 

 

 

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

Ivory Coast Offense

QB - Sam Howell

RB - Miles Sanders

WR - Terry McLaurin

WR - Amon-Ra St. Brown
WR - Jordan Addison

TE - Evan Engram

LT - Trent Williams

LG - Damien Lewis

OC - Josh Myers

RG - Zack Martin

RT - Chukwuma Okorafor

------------------------------------

RB - Antonio Gibson

RB - Ezekiel Elliott

FB - Khari Blasingame

WR - Jalin Hyatt

WR - John Metchie

TE - Albert Okwuegbunam

OL - Josh Jones

OL - Dillon Radunz

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Ivory Coast Defense

DE - Myles Garrett

NT - Christian Barmore

DT - Da'Ron Payne

DE - Khalil Mack

MLB - Devin White

OLB - Alex Anzalone

CB - AJ Terrell

CB - Ronald Darby
NCB - Greg Newsome II

S - Jordan Whitehead

S - Kyle Dugger

------------------------------------

DE - Chase Young

DE - Darrell Taylor

DT - Devonte Wyatt

DT - Keondre Coburn

DT - Jaquelin Roy
LB - Patrick Queen

S - Jordan Fuller

S - Ashtyn Davis

Edited October 15, 2023 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Camden

Offense

Attack IC depleted secondary – Ivory Coast issues in the secondary are well documented – they have to rely on Darby, who’s just a part time player IRL, to start outside, and their safeties aren’t good. So, we intend to put pressure on this secondary and use a lot of 3 or 4WR sets. We want Cooper Kupp to work underneath, Gabe Davis will be used as a deep threat a lot when Collins and AJ Brown will run the full route tree. In 3WR sets, we will attack Darby a lot as we think any of our starting wideouts can beat him. The other outside WR (we assume Brown) and Kupp will also be looked out often, while we will use our tight ends and running backs more sparingly in the passing game.

Man blocking running game – Attacking IC secondary would be easier if we can sell the run to this defense. Additionally, for the weakness in their secondary, they are equally as strong up front and we want to slow that pass rush down. Finally, we want to use to play action to bait a safety down the box and attack more easily this defense on deep routes. That’s why we will run the ball on around 40% of snaps. Zack Moss gets the start off the back of his huge last week but him and Ekeler will split carries equally with Ekeler being the main back on 4WR sets. Our running game will be balanced, though we will aim a little bit more at the NT starting aside from Payne, especially if Tart, who’s a good rotation piece for IC, is out. 

Target IC zone coverage in 4WR sets – Because they lack cornerback depth, Ivory Coast has, the last two weeks, countered 4WR sets with a mix of cover 3 and cover 4. We’ve prepared for that and we want to use 4WR sets a lot this week. We will run some plays where we will line up Davis and Collins out wide, with AJ Brown and Kupp inside Davis on a lot of plays. Kupp will run short out routes, AJ Brown an option route between a corner and a dig and Gabe Davis will have the choice between a go and a post route. The goal will be to overload the sideline against a cover 3 or isolate Davis or Collins against a corner (preferably Darby) by baiting the cover 4 safety with the dig route. Here’s what it would look like:

Protect Baker – In a strength vs strength matchup, our OL will be tested against Ivory Coast defensive line. We think our tackles will be up to the task but in any case, in 3WR sets, we will have Higbee chipping in the edge rusher he faces. In 4WR sets, we will keep our RB (Ekeler or McKinnon in those formations) in pass protection, or at least he will run a delayed route for a checkdown. If things go south, we can go back to 3WR sets and leave the TE in pass protection if need be, but we don’t think we’ll have to rely on that.

 

Defense

Cover 2 Zone / Cover 1 Man – With Sanders questionable, and not very good to begin with, we don’t really fear Ivory Coast running game. Our goal in this game is to make sure we don’t get beat by Sam Howell & co. Ivory Coast receivers are extremely good but they all live in the intermediate area of the field. We will therefore focus on defending this area. We will mix zone and man today with the goal to stay unpredictable. In zone, we will principally work in a cover 2 (with some cover 3 looks just to throw off Howell) while in man, Hooker will be in a cover 1 man while Luvu will play middle zone.

In any case, Rasul Douglas will be on Addison side while Sneed will be on the other side and Jonathan Jones will play the slot. Ward gets the TE in man, David the RB. In 12 formations, Morrow subs in for Jones and gets the TE.

Occasional blitzes – Ivory Coast has a formidable OL – even without Lewis. They will be tough to beat, fortunately not many teams can present a pass rush as deep as ours. This other strength-on-strength matchup will be fun to watch and we expect our heavy rotation between our edge guys (Ngakoue exclusively on pure passing downs though) to come through in the end. Osa will play a ton of snaps in the interior as well as a rotation piece. The only weakness of this IC protection may be Sam Howell who tends to hold the ball too long and takes a lot of unnecessary sacks. We want to confuse him by throwing occasional blitzes, mainly Luvu, and force him into making mistakes.
 

 

 

 

 

Ivory Coast

Motivation: Try to beat Camden.

Offense

Primary Formation: 11 & 12 (Single Back, Shotgun and Bunch formations)

Running Game Focus:

We’re going to employ a running back committee, with Miles Sanders, Antonio Gibson, and Ezekiel Elliott getting touches this game. Khari Blasingame will operate as our fullback when we feel the need to pound the rock for short yardage as well as I-formation looks, and Josh Jones will provide the 6^th OL support in goal line situations.

·         Establish the run early to help set-up the play action pass in the second half

·         Leverage double team inside blocks to support the center and get to the second level (linebackers)

·         Use delays and counters to catch the defense off-balance

·         Run behind Trent Williams, the best left tackle in the game

Passing Game Focus:

We’re going to use pre-snap motion to allow Howell to read the defense and make adjustments at the line. We’re going to focus on keeping Howell upright, featuring chips and blocks by our tight ends and backs, primarily on the right side. Our receivers are fast and quick, and we plan on allowing Howell to dissect the defense, as we feel confident someone will be winning their route on every play. We welcome St. Brown back into the lineup, and like our receivers abilities to win and rack up yards after the catch.

·         Protect Sam Howell

·         Utilize the play action pass established from the running game

·         Focus on short and intermediate routes, leveraging crossing routes to allow for our quick receivers to separate and create space

·         Especially take advantage of the short crossing routes, our receivers have the agility and quickness to take the small reception and turn up-field

·         Take advantage of our athletic tight ends and shift them out for mismatch opportunities

·         Have a receiver threaten deep regularly and take the shot when the defense allows; otherwise keep one route deep to stretch and let us operate underneath

·         Against Zone we’ll utilize flood concepts against one side of the field

·         Against Man we’ll feature slants, rub routes, and stop-and-go routes

·         Against everything we’ll shallow crossing route them to death until they cheat up, then beat them deep

Defense

Defensive Formation:

The 4-2-5 alignment will be the primary alignment against three receiver sets. Payne and Baremore will man the middle. Garrett and Mack start on the edges, with rotations to keep them fresh all game long. Devin White and Alex Anzalone are the off-ball linebackers, with White being the primary linebacker stepping up to the line. Our trio of cornerbacks will be Greg Newsome II, Ronald Darby, and AJ Terrell. We plan to use Darby and Terrell as our boundary corners, with Newsome manning the slot and providing him with more playmaking opportunities. When Camden goes with 2 receivers or fewer, Darby will come out, and Patrick Queen will come on to take the weak-side linebacker spot, with Alex Anzalone taking the strong side and Devin White holding the middle. Whitehead and Dugger will operate at the safety spots, rotating the primary deep safety in cover-1 to avoid tipping anything pre-snap. If and when Camden uses 4 receivers, we’ll counter by having Anzalone come out and bring in Fuller as the dime back and third safety, and utilize zone defense. If they ever go 5 wide, we’ll play a mixture of zone coverages with 4-1-6 personnel. 

 

Against the Pass:

We’re going to have our defensive interior focused on penetration and eliminating room to step up in the pocket. We’re confident our edges will collapse Camden’s pocket, and prevent their quarterback from being able to slide out of the pocket. We’ll sprinkle some wide 9 alignments with our edges on obvious passing downs, as well as throw our pass rushers on the field together. We’ll primarily use man coverage to play tighter to the receivers, trusting our defensive line to make quick work of their offensive line, and we will keep eyes on anyone trying to come out of the backfield

·         Pressure up the middle

·         Utilize A-gap blitzes with Devin White (handful of times in the game)

·         Always keep at least one safety over the top

·         Play tighter to the receiver, but not focused on jamming necessarily – we want to force contested catches throughout the routes

·         Use the wide nine alignment on third and longs (8+ yards)

·         Alternate Mack and Garrett inside on certain third and long packages

Against the Run:

We want to limit the damage done by their backfield, and will have the defense swarm to the football. If needed, one of the safeties will drop into the box for additional support, regardless of cover 1 or cover 2 post-snap. We’ve got the players to rotate in throughout the game, and really keep their backs in check.

·         Swarm to the ball carrier and secure tackles

·         Once ball carrier is secured, take opportunities to try and force fumbles

·         Utilize a safety in the box pre-snap to provide additional support against the run if needed

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by RedGold

[TedLavie]

Miles Sanders, Damien Lewis and Keondre Coburn out for Ivory Coast

[Blue]

ICBR's defensive line is great, while Camden's offensive line is...not. But the lack of a serious run threat for ICBR along with poor safety play and Camden correctly calling ICBR's defensive scheme against their receivers leads to them winning what I think is an offensive display from both teams.

[InjuredReserve]

7 hours ago, Blue said:

ICBR's defensive line is great, while Camden's offensive line is...not. But the lack of a serious run threat for ICBR along with poor safety play and Camden correctly calling ICBR's defensive scheme against their receivers leads to them winning what I think is an offensive display from both teams.

This was what my eyes were drawn to as well in this matchup. I struggled, but went ICBR bc my heart believes in that DL in this matchup as the difference maker.

[TedLavie]

14 hours ago, Blue said:

while Camden's offensive line is...not

I disagree, especially when it comes to the tackles.

[Blue]

5 hours ago, TedLavie said:

I disagree, especially when it comes to the tackles.

Dawkins is...fine, but I don't think he's handling Myles Garrett one-on-one here.

[RedGold]

I think both offenses struggle with some personnel mismatches this week.   17-13 Camden in a dog fight.

[Ragnarok]

Both offenses struggle mightily.  But I think Camden has a more effective run game and Baker hits one deep pass.

[MD4L]

Pretty even game all things considered. Camden's passing game might have some troubles going 4 wide as I think they’d do damage in that staple set.

Baker does have some troubles against high level pass rushes and I could see some stagnant performances from Camden’s offense

The big difference maker here is Ivory Coast’s inability to run the ball. I think once Camden can stop the run, they get after QBs very well.

Close game but Camden.