BDL 2023 Playoffs Week 1 - #7 Singapore Sentinels @ #2 Cancun Kaiju

[RedGold]

BDL 2023 Playoffs Week 1

Match:  Singapore Sentinels @ Cancun Kaiju

 Away Owner:   @SirA1

Home Owner:    @Blue @MWil23

 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

Edited December 10, 2023 by RedGold

[RedGold]

 

Singapore Sentinels
QB: Josh Dobbs 
RB1: Kyren Williams
WR1: Davante Adams
WR2: DeVonta Smith 
TE1: Sam LaPorta
TE2: Jonnu Smith 
LT: Tyler Smith
LG: Will Hernandez
OC: Evan Brown 
RG: Will Fries 
RT:  Orlando Brown Jr.
--------------------

QB2: Desmond Ridder
RB2: Josh Jacobs 
RB3: James Cook
TE3: Irv Smith Jr.
TE4: Davis Allen
WR3: Jakobi Meyers 
WR4: Jerry Juedy
OL6: Sidy Sow
 

DE: Leonard Floyd 
DT: Zach Allen
DT: Larry Ogunjobi 
DE: Jonathan Greenard

ILB: Blake Cashman 
ILB: Dre Greenlaw 

CB: Jaylon Johnson
CB: Charvarius Ward 
NCB: Darius Slay 
S: Brian Branch
S: Jabrill Peppers
--------------------
LB3: Kaden Ellis
CB4:  Isaiah Oliver
CB5/S3: Sydney Brown
DE3: Azeez Ojulari 
DE4: Arden Key 
NT: Keeanu Benton
DT2: Maliek Collins
DT3: D.J. Jones

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cancun

QB Patrick Mahomes

RB Devin Singletary

FB Kyle Juszczyk

X WR Chris Olave

Z WR Noah Brown

TE Michael Mayer

LT Laremy Tunsil

LG Isaac Seumalo

C Ryan Kelly

RG Zion Johnson

RT Broderick Jones

 

RB Aaron Jones

RB Emari Demercado

WR Dontayvion Wicks

WR DJ Chark

WR Josh Reynolds

TE2 Foster Moreau

TE3 Kylen Granson

OL7 Rasheed Walker

 

DE Kayvon Thibodeaux

DT Travis Jones

DT Jonathan Allen

DE Gregory Rousseau

LB Zaire Franklin

LB Ernest Jones

CB Steven Nelson

CB Cam Sutton

Star Jalen Pitre

FS Kevin Byard

SS Geno Stone

 

Edge Dorance Armstrong

Edge Cameron Jordan

DT Shy Tuttle

DT Justin Jones

LB Pete Werner

CB Carrington Valentine

CB Zyon McCollum

S Marcus Williams

 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Singapore Sentinels

Here We Go.

https://media1.tenor.com/m/Hn4RPDx7TtYAAAAC/joker-the-dark-knight.gif

Motivation: Our improbable season continues against the Kaiju. They might have the better QB but we have better weapons and can squeak one out as injuries mount on both sides. Just Win Baby.

Offensive Strategy

Scheme:  Pass (50%) vs Run (50%)

Formations:    2 TE (50%) / 3 WR Bunch (30%)/ 4 WR (20%) 

Keeping it balanced and looking for long drives to take time OTC and not give Mahomes many opportunities. This is a marathon, not a sprint and we are going to use as much of the play clock as possible. We have the better skill players in this matchup and look to use them to our advantage.

Every day we’re shuffling and the OL is no exception. With McGary OUT we will flip Brown to the right side where he has been an All Pro. Tyler Smith will slide out to LT, where he played last year and likely be playing next season. Will Hernandez will go back to his LG spot he played when he came into the league. Will Fries enters into the RG slot and Sidy Sow to the bench to be used in Jumbo packages. 

Rushing - Kyren Williams, the TD machine, is back and he will get his 20 touches as a dual threat back. Josh Jacobs will be the thunder with about 10 touches. We have the advantage in RB depth and will use Cook to keep our guys fresh so we can grind it out in the 4th quarter. We are a team committed to the run as we use our heavy OL to wear down defenders into the second half. Old fashioned Jumbo packages, like the Hogs of yesteryear, with Sidy Sow will get the tough yards and keep drives alive.

Passing - Dobbs will use play action and take his shots down the field, but we will primarily play in 12 formations to both get an extra blocker on Thibs and attack the middle of the field. (I honestly had to look up the Cancun LBs) LaPorta will likely draw a safety in the box which should leave a LB on Jonnu Smith. We love that option for Dobbs in the seam and will target Jonnu. Davante Adams and DaVonta Smith should be able to get some crossing routes and curls into the flat to keep those chains moving. Jakobi Meyers steps in as our #3 WR and will be a chess piece moving all over the LOS. Again we will use some Orbit Motion to allow Dobbs to decipher the Kaiju D. Jerry Juedy will be our fourth WR when we spread their secondary out.

TL:DR; Balanced attack using our superior weapons to grind out a win in the second half when the Cancun run game is gassed.

Defensive Strategy

In BDL QB is everything but Mahomes weapons here aren’t much better than IRL. Receivers are marginally better but TE is vastly worse in BDL with a rookie. Our back 7 match up well and should create problems for Patrick keeping this offense going.

Formation: 4-2-5 Cover 1 Hybrid

DL - Focus this week is going to be getting pressure on Mahomes with just four rushers. Our starters alone have 28 sacks this season so can get pressure. With Stevenson done for the BDL season we expect some throwing but will always honor their run threat in Singletary and Mahomes has wheels too but that opens him up to more hits. 

Greenard and Floyd will set the edge and look to make the pocket hot for Patrick. Ogunjobi will stuff the run and occupy guys to keep our LBs free. Zach Allen steps in and is having a good season with 6 sacks so helps in our four send plan. Collins and Jones keep the IDL fresh with Key and Ojulari doing the same for the Edge guys.

LB - Our LBs are excellent in coverage and will look to take the middle away from Mahomes. Cashman is the field general this week to help with TE coverage on underneath routes and prevent any quick crossers in his area. Greenlaw will set up as a spy on Mahomes as he is a threat to run and if we blitz he will be the guy. Ellis can come in as needed.

Secondary - Cover 1 Hybrid

With their running game hampered we expect a lot of quick passes to help simulate one. Limiting Mahomes by taking away his best short yardage receiver will further compound the issue.

Darius Slay will be in the slot this week on Chris Olave and looks to press him at the LOS. Disrupting the timing of these routes will be key to giving our DL time to get to Mahomes. Charvarius Ward and Jaylon Johnson will stay at the boundaries. Johnson will be on Brown to take away their one real deep threat. Oliver and/or Sydney Brown will come in on 4WR sets.

Jabrill Peppers will be the single high safety to help on deep routes over the top. Brian Branch will be covering TE Michael Mayer for some nice Rookie on Rookie action. We think taking away Mahomes’ middle options will force a lot of chancy stuff that our coverage should be able to handle and get a turnover or two. 

Coverage Assignments:

·        Elijah Moore / “Mooney” Ward - CB 

·        Chris Olave / Darius Slay - CB

         Noah Brown  / Jaylon Johnson CB 

·        Michael Mayer / Brian Branch - S

TL:DR; Limit Mahomes opportunities. Pressure him with four rushers. Take away the middle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cancun

Offense: Facing the Singapore defense and a strong defensive back group, we want to focus on getting the ball out quickly in the passing game and running the ball against a very light front six.

Despite potentially being down our top two backs, Devin Singletary has been having a great season and will be seeing around 25 carries as well as a handful of targets in the passing game. Demercado and Jones, if he plays, will pick up a handful of those carries each and push for closer to 30 total carries from the backs if Jones is available, but we still aim to get Singletary 20 carries in this game no matter what. We want to run the ball heavily up the middle against rookie Keanu Benton and Larry Ogunjobi, who hasn’t been a very good run defender throughout his career. We will wear down the interior of this defense early, using counter, trap, and pull plays where we leave the backside end blocked by Juszczyk.

Pre-snap motion is a huge part of what we want to do to set up both the pass and run. We’ll motion Juszczyk in particular out of the backfield in-line (next to either the tackle or Mayer/Moreau) and vice versa. We’ll motion a receiver in 2WR sets from one side of the field to the other to expose zone vs. man coverage. Lastly, we’ll motion Singletary out of the backfield and into the slot for routes into the flat to clear out the middle of the field.

Passing will mostly happen in conjunction with play action, both under center and out of the shotgun. This will help us attack the zone and zone blitz coverage we expect to see by forcing Singapore to show their coverage pre-snap and give Mahomes a heads-up on where the soft spots in the zone are. We are going to run a lot of quick, short routes like curls, flats, and slants to get the ball to Olave and Mayer quickly.

We love the matchup of Mayer against fellow rookie Brian Branch, so if we see that coverage, we’re going there regularly and trusting Mayer to win a jump ball against Branch. Mayer will be split out into the slot for a dozen or so plays throughout the game, both run and pass. We want to see how Singapore chooses to match up with him; if they stick a safety on him, we’ll run to the outside and use him as a blocking mismatch, while if he draws a backer, we’ll use our 6 on 5 blocking advantage to run inside.

We also want to use some 3 WR sets to pull a tight end or fullback off the field for Moore or Wicks. Moore/Wicks will replace Olave on the outside as he moves into the slot or pulling Brown off the field and sliding Moreau or Juszczyk into the slot. Two or three times throughout the game, we want to run a jet sweep to Moore/Wicks with a guard pulling as a lead blocker for them. We will also have four or five plays where we fake the sweep and have them run a wheel route instead, looking for Brown on the outside running deep and Moreau over the middle if the post route is covered.

In the redzone, we’ll go with Josh Reynolds or DJ Chark at Z receiver instead of Brown, utilizing under centerplay-action exclusively outside of 3^rd and long. Our No. 1 reads in this area of the field are the tight ends, with the receivers running back corner fades and becoming the No. 1/2 options if the defense opts to focus on defending the middle of the field on first down.

Lastly, Mahomes is going to get 4-5 designed QB runs out of the shotgun between draw plays and QB options where he can hand off to Singletary out of the shotgun or keep the ball himself. We want to force Singapore to respect him as a runner, not just a passer, and force them to dedicate a defender to him.

Once we pass the opposing 20, we will go for it on any 4^th down of three yards or less. We will bring out our 2 TE set with Olave out wide, Juszczyk in the backfield, and Singletary pounding it right up the middle; we fully believe we can get the first down against a defensive front down Arik Armstead and starting two undersized ends in these situations. We don’t believe Josh Dobbs or Desmond Ridder can put points on us consistently, and limiting their number and time of possessions will put pressure on them to score with limited opportunities and result in ill-advised, low-percentage passes.

Defense: It’s playoff time! We are excited for the opportunity this week to take on a very scrappy Singapore team led by SirA, a savvy coach and manager.

The quarterback position leaves a lot to be desired between Dobbs and Ridder, with a very good couple of skill players outside at WR with Smith and Adams, as well as rookie sensation Sam LaPorta.

We are looking at trying to create a lot of varied and yet simple front alignments to confuse Ridder/Dobbs, looking to create turnover opportunities which has plagued both quarterbacks this year.

We are confident that KT and company can consistently get pressure on the QB as well as stop the run on earlier downs. We expect a heavy dose of play-action passes to LaPorta as well as them trying to get the ball on the perimeter to the receivers, and therefore we will stay in a single high safety look, playing a lot of Cover 1 and 4, denying quick outside throws early, and on third and long switching to Cover 2 to deny big plays downfield. In Cover 1 we want to bring another guy down into the box, either Jalen Pitre against 3 WR or a linebacker against 12/21 personnel.

We will run match and trap with robber variations to force some turnovers and get extra possessions for our offense.

We like the presnap Cover 4 look with the ability to use a cover 2 variation to deny the middle of the field and have the opposite corner read vertical or out, both having S support.

Getting a Robber look out of presnap Cover 4 is a matchup we love vs crossers and boot action to the TE/slot.

Here we show cover 2/man presnap with a cover 4 bail, and we like the ability to slam windows shut if they go slants or sticks.

We will be content to get a lot of pressure with our front 4 and an occasional blitz look but as a whole will save those for 3rd Down, while moving to our NASCAR package with Jordan at DE and Rousseau kicking inside.

Edited December 11, 2023 by RedGold

[SirA1]

 

[SirA1]

I seriously considered including a plan to have the Riddler come in in the second half ala Tua in the Alabama-Georgia game. But didn't think people would like it. 

[TedLavie]

Josh Dobbs couldn't muster a single point with a solid supporting cast against the Raiders. I honestly can't seriously consider voting for him to outduel Mahomes in the BDL playoffs. I hate reasoning like this, but I have to be realistic here, sorry SirA.

[bcb1213]

I have to agree with Ted here, Josh Dobbs getting benched (I can say that this time right?) is just to big a factor here.  Another defensive slugfest as the Cancun offense is limited as well in its weapons.  Give me  Cancun 13-6

[Scoundrel]

This was a great run for Singapore all things considered and they are a promising team moving forward with a lot of talent. The run ends here though as Dobbs even if he wasn’t benched isn’t going to be able to execute the passing offense even as friendly as they tried to make it for him. I think the Cover 4 scheme matches well against the Dobbs play action and take shots deep while the robber will help disrupt the middle plan attack. Cancun wanting to target Mayer against Branch is interesting and I feel Branch has played very well. I think the Singapore secondary can limit a lot of the passing attack of Cancun and the Singapore running game can keep this game close. Singapore planned to take away what Cancun wants to do with the short passing game. It’s low scoring but Cancun gets the nod at home. 

[SirA1]

GG @Blue

[InjuredReserve]

19 hours ago, TedLavie said:

Josh Dobbs couldn't muster a single point with a solid supporting cast against the Raiders. I honestly can't seriously consider voting for him to outduel Mahomes in the BDL playoffs. I hate reasoning like this, but I have to be realistic here, sorry SirA.

This feels like real unlucky timing of how brutally rough of a showing Dobbs had in that game - Bad break for Singapore on the optics of that and doubt it sheds into the gameplan. But, great season.

[RedGold]

Sira really had fun making this gameplan,   and with a different QB I think they would have given Cancun a real scare.    Cancun 27-6

[Ragnarok]

I don't think either team scores a ton, but I have to agree with the consensus.  The QB sinks Singapore in the playoffs after a very successful overall season.

[rackcs]

I think Cancun is going to have little problem getting pressure on Dobbs in this one and I don't see him being able to make up for that fact. I think Singapore can limit the Cancun passing attack and offensive scoring to an extent but ultimately I just don't see them putting enough points on the board.