BDL 2023 Week 11: Cancun Kaiju @ Anchorage Trappers

[RedGold]

BDL 2023 Week  11

Match:  Cancun Kaiju @ Anchorage Trappers

Away Owner:   @Blue @MWil23

Home Owner:    @Scoundrel

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]

Cancun

QB Patrick Mahomes

RB Rhamondre Stevenson

X WR Josh Reynolds

Slot WR Chris Olave

Z WR Elijah Moore

TE Michael Mayer

LT Laremy Tunsil

LG Zion Johnson

C Ryan Kelly

RG Isaac Seumalo

RT Broderick Jones

 

RB Devin Singletary

RB Aaron Jones

H-Back Kyle Juszczyk

WR DJ Chark

WR/TE Mike Gesicki

TE2 Foster Moreau

OL/FB Nick Harris

OL7 Rasheed Walker

 

DE Kayvon Thibodeaux

DT Travis Jones

DT Jonathan Allen

DE Cameron Jordan

LB Zaire Franklin

LB Ernest Jones

CB Steven Nelson

CB Jerry Jacobs

Star Jalen Pitre

FS Kevin Byard

SS Geno Stone

 

Edge Michael Danna

DL Gregory Rousseau

DT Justin Jones

DT Shy Tuttle

LB Pete Werner

CB Carrington Valentine

CB Zyon McCollum

S Marcus Williams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anchorage

Offense:

QB- Aidan O’Connell

RB- Jonathan Taylor

X- Hollywood Brown

Z- Ja’Marr Chase

Slot- Josh Downs

TE- David Njoku

LT- Andrew Thomas 

LG- Frank Ragnow

C- Erik McCoy

RG- Graham Glasgow

RT- Spencer Brown

 

Bench:

RB- Breece Hall

RB- Tyjae Spears

WR4- Jaxon Smith-Njigba

WR5- Jameson Williams 

WR6- Tre Tucker

TE2- Tanner Hudson

OL- Jamaree Salyer

OL- Ikem Ekwonu

 

 

Defense:

RE- Haason Reddick   

NT- Vita Vea

3T- Ed Oliver

LE- Micah Parsons   

MLB- David Long Jr 

SLB- Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah

CB- Patrick Surtain ll

CB- Paulson Adebo 

CB- Kristian Fulton

S- Jessie Bates lll

S- Talanoa Hufanga 

 

Bench:

Edge- Aidan Hutchinson 

Edge- Alex Highsmith

DT- Jordan Davis

DT- Jarran Reed

LB- Micah McFadden 

CB- Derek Stingley Jr

CB- Christian Izien 

S- Kam Curl
 

Edited November 19, 2023 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Cancun

Offense: We want to open the game with several running back and wide receiver screens, taking advantage of the athleticism of our line to get out and block Anchorage’s small linebackers in space. Mahomes will also have several QB draws out of the shotgun early to keep the defense honest and force them to respect him as a runner. Play-action will be a heavy staple of our passing game, with a handful of run-pass option plays scripted for the opening drives of each half.

Generally in the running game, we want to rush to the outside. We will utilize toss, pitch, and off-tackle plays, splitting carries roughly 60-30-10 percent between Stevenson/Jones/Singletary. In addition, we’ll be including trap and veer plays, using Johnson to pull to the right side of the formation where Seumalo and Jones are stronger run blockers. The goal here is to have our offensive linemen matching up with the small Anchorage backers at the line where we can push them around and get our backs into space. We also want to bring a much heavier lineup on the field with three tight ends, Mayer/Moreau/Juszczyk, and Nick Harris at fullback (as he’s actually done IRL this year!). In this formation, we’ll split between running up the middle and trap plays with a guard pulling and Harris plugging the hole the guard vacates. Lastly, we’ll sprinkle in a couple end arounds and jet sweeps to Chris Olave and Elijah Moore, taking advantage of their speed to stretch the defense out.

In the passing game, we want to target Fulton heavily in the slot, as we feel we have a big mismatch there against Olave. To help us identify zone vs. man, we’ll be utilizing motion heavily. The first type of motion is jet or fly, moving the slot receiver across the quarterback’s face to help us identify zone vs. man coverage. We’ll also have the tight end split out into the slot before motioning back in-line or next to the opposite tackle to see how the linebackers and safeties respond. Lastly, we’ll motion a back into the slot to run a slant, flat, or wheel route to once again test how the backers and safeties shift. We’ll be rotating Elijah Moore at all three receiver positions, and Mike Gesicki will see playing time exclusively at the outside receiver positions as we use him as a jump-ball specialist and deep reserve.

Defense: This week we get Anchorage, led by Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase, as well as a nice stable of RB in JT and Breece Hall. To be honest, Hollywood Brown, JSN, David Njoku, and Josh Downs/Jameson Williams don't really scare us one bit. We anticipate Anchorage wanting to stay balanced throghout the game, looking to pass the ball roughly ~60% of the game and put Ja'Marr Chase in the slot and perhaps rotating him in bunch formations to get him looks, anticipating zone coverage. We plan on combating this by playing almost all trap coverage, forcing Burrow to get rid of the ball quickly with pressures, matching personnel with our deep bench in the  Front 7, and making his outside WR not named Ja'Marr Chase beat us.

We will be playing trap to primarily blanket Ja'Marr Chase, allocating safety help over the top to the outside of the single WR, rotating the other safety to the slot side, linebacker and/or apex help underneath, and playing off to the other #1 WR from the corner.

For those unfamiliar with trap coverage, here is the primary philosophy, the idea here is simple: Create chaos, force the quarterback to panic and then capitalize by taking away a quick option underneath in a scheme that allows the defense to limit the deep ball. 

The Basic Rules of Trap Coverage

Think of this scheme as a double read for the cornerback versus a two-receiver side of the formation with the safety over the top and an inside defender that matches No. 2 (count outside-in) up the field. This allows the cornerback to read the release of No. 2 while the defense is protected against vertical concepts that can stretch the top of the secondary.

We like forcing early throws or daring Burrow to force passes in on the sideline with a tight window safety over the top, making him dunk and dunk down the field on early downs or hitting low percentage throws deep, giving us an advantage in the run game while getting off the field on third downs.

The beauty is showing Cover 2, Man, and Cover 6 from 7-8 man box looks on early downs, whether the linebacker or apex is to the slot or field depending on where Chase is aligned.

Burrow does struggle with pressure and holding onto the football too long, being sacked 3 times or more in 6 of the last 7 games, and turning the ball over a bit recently while under pressure. We like utilizing Werner in nickel and dime packages (to the TE coverage side), and we like using some NASCAR packages on our Front 4 with Thibs, Jodan, and Rousseau with Allen in the mix to generate pressure with that Front 4. We will also be rotating linemen in and out regularly to keep fresh bodies on the field. In particular, we want to get five different players (both our backup DTs as well as Jordan and Rousseau) snaps next to Allen on the interior, with no player getting more than a third of the snaps there. At defensive end, Armstrong, Danna, and Rousseau will give us quality run defense while continuing to bolster the pass rush (4.5, 5.5, and 4 sacks, respectively).

We can also do overload to or away from the slot and plan on completely denying the boot action game, not allowing Joe to escape the pocket or beat us with his legs outside the pocket, while sending an assortment of looks inside or outside blitzes and “away” drops.

If he reads Ja’Marr as hot, it’ll be a sack or INT.

The beauty is that almost all of these are 5 man pressures, maintaining a numbers advantage on Chase, giving us safety help to his side and the play side, and only having 1-1 coverage to the backside. We believe those 5 men will win often on the 5 OL set to block, and if they keep a RB or TE in to chip, even better, giving us a bonus defender in that backside flat to deny in breaking routes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anchorage

Overview:  
Touch matchup against a playoff team led by the great Pat Mahomes. This is a critical matchup in the seeding determination for the playoffs so we want to bring our A game. 

 

Offense: 

3 Wide (40%), 3 Wide Twins (25%), 2TE (20%), 4 Wide (15%)

• 55/45 Pass/Run split this week looking to control the Time of Possession 
• Chase will be used in heavy presnap motions getting him ideal matchups against the Cancun secondary 
• Get Josh Downs heavily involved out of the slot as our consistent chain mover and utilize Hollywood at all levels
• Combo routing to stack depths of routes to attack various levels of the field allowing O’Connell to pick on preferred matchups 
• JSN operates as the additional slot in four wide and he will get a couple tunnel screen opportunities as the screen merchant he is 
• Jameson gets some rotation in for Hollywood and will get a couple screens and a couple deep shots to take advantage of his speed
• More 2TE sets this week as Tanner Hudson has shown some nice ability in recent weeks
• Primarily zone rushing attack utilizing inside and outside zone to play off each other as defense adjusts
• Utilize backs as safety nets on underneath routes and utilize screens to neutralize pass rush
• JT/Breece share a 60/40 play split with Breece taking majority of third down work
• Some RPO’s to give a variance in tempo and attack against the defense
• Give AOC high percentage opportunities in this game to move the sticks and control the game

 

Defense:

•Base Nickel against 3 Wide

•Buffalo Nickel against 2TE or 2RB/1TE 

•Dime against traditional 4 Wide and Empty

•4-3 against traditional 2RB/1TE

•5-2 against Heavy extra OL sets or any 3 Tight jumbo package. 

• Mix of Zone (Cover 3/Cover 3 Match/ Cover 2) and Single High Man
• Rotate front four enough to keep players fresh when the hurry up isn’t preventing personnel changes
• Disciplined gap responsible defense against the run
• Primarily pressure with front four with some backer blitzes from Long or JOK mixed in
• Occasional stunts and twists to provide pressure variance 
• Zone heavy against 4 wide/empty sets
• JOK is lone LBer in 4 wide with Hufanga in the box as well
• Adebo has Olave on the outside, Surtain has Reynolds outside and Fulton has the slot. We will move matchups across in zone as well to help disguise coverage and shift zones accordingly
• Sting is the Dime this week
• Kam Curl is our Buffalo nickel 
• When in Buffalo Nickel or 4-3 we will look to play Davis more next to Vea to provide even more beef in the middle to clog lanes

Edited November 19, 2023 by RedGold

[SirA1]

Picture Overload! ftw

[MD4L]

Burrow was available to play so not using him is an interesting choice.

[Scoundrel]

1 hour ago, MD4L said:

Burrow was available to play so not using him is an interesting choice.

Meh there was a bunch of talk of pre injury and didn’t feel like going down that rabbit hole and turning this game into a circus. We are locked in the playoffs regardless of this game so we will keep fighting with the players we have healthy. 

[Malfatron]

2 hours ago, MD4L said:

Burrow was available to play so not using him is an interesting choice.

Burrow was truly benched by Soundrel

[Scoundrel]

17 minutes ago, Malfatron said:

Burrow was truly benched by Soundrel

That damn Soundrel

[InjuredReserve]

I was excited for this matchup and shame Anchorage gets screwed by the Burrow injury.

[Ragnarok]

No Burrow means no chance this week.

[WFLukic]

Anchorage is still really good and they put up a spirited fight but Cancun's come prepared and generally a well prepped team will do the job against a backup QB. Also that Mahomes fella doesn't hurt to have.