BDL 2023 Playoffs Week 1 - #5 Rome Eternals @ #4 Camden Hood Rats

[RedGold]

BDL 2023 Playoffs Week 1

Match:  Rome Eternals @ Camden Hood Rats

 Away Owner:  @bcb1213

Home Owner:   @TedLavie

 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]

Rome
QB Justin Herbert 

RB D’Andre Swift 

RB Alvin Kamara 

WR Keenan Allen 

WR Jaylen Waddle 

TE Dalton Kincaid 

LT Tyron Smith 

LG Mike Onwenu 

C Ethan Pocic 

RG Chris Lindstrom 

RT Ryan Ramcyk 

 

WR Amari Cooper 

RB Jerome Ford 

FB Patrick Ricard 

TE Cade Otton 

WR Khalil Shakir 

WR Jonathan Mingo 

OG Ocyrus Torrence 

OT Terron Armstead 

 

Edge Bryce Huff 

DE Denico Autry 

NT Dalvin Tomlinson 

DE George Karlafitia 

LB Robert Spillane 

LB Nick Bolton 

LB Foye Oluokon 

CB Marlon Humphrey 

CB DJ Reed 

S  Andre Cisco 

S Kyle Hamilton 

 

Edge Andrew Van Grinkel 

Edge Shaq Barrett 

INT Andrew Billings

INT Quinton Jefferson 

CB Daron Bland 

CB Ja’Quan McMillan 

CB Patrick Peterson

DB Grant Delpit 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camden

QB Tua Tagovailoa
RB Zach Moss
WR AJ Brown
WR Nico Collins
TE Kyle Pitts
TE Gerald Everett
LT Dion Dawkins
LG Quentin Nelson
C Bradley Bozeman (Q)
RG Quinn Meinerz
RT Lane Johnson

Bench

RB Austin Ekeler
RB Khalil Herbert
WR Cooper Kupp
WR Gabe Davis
WR Trey Palmer
TE Will Dissly
OL Zach Tom
OL Teven Jenkins

 

RE Josh Allen
DT Aaron Donald
NT Harrison Phillips
LE Montez Sweat
LB Lavonte David
LB Nicholas Morrow
CB L’Jarius Sneed
CB Rasul Douglas
CB Asante Samuel Jr.
FS Malik Hooker
SS Jimmie Ward

Bench

Edge Carl Granderson
Edge Boye Mafe
INT Osa Odighizuwa
INT A’Shawn Robinson 
LB Frankie Luvu
CB Darious Williams
CB Mekhi Blackmon
S Jacquan Brisker

Edited December 11, 2023 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Rome

Motivation 

Camden kicked our teeth in two weeks ago. Not only is it a playoff game, we're out for revenge 

Offense 

This week we open and operate out of a two RB look but we will use all different personnel ranging to 11, four wide, two TE and traditional formations with a FB.  We're throwing the kitchen sink at Camden

Our main goal is to get a linebacker in coverage one on one in a wheel route scenario against a RB or out wide in space against Kincaid.   We want to line our two wr on the same side of the formation in the base to force Camden to show their hand of zone or man    Generally Camden likes to run a cover one in man so we are going to attack the deep and outer parts of the field with Waddle Kincaid and a RB.  We will discover which RB is being covered by a LB fairly early by motioning them out wide. We have zero issues attacking any of their LB core in coverage.  This also will help lighten the box against the run by forcing a LB out wide.  Whether it's Swift or Kamara, we are unconcerned as both are excellent pass catchers and runners.  In a cover two man look we are going to pepper Allen and the non wide running back on dig routes 

We will continue to use the strength of our offensive line to double up on Donald inside and let our tackles be their all pro selves.  The RB who remains in the back field can help block if we are seeing heavy blitzing.    Our running game will not concentrate on inside or outside as we try to keep a more balanced attack.  In off coverage we'll make sure to hit a quick screen now and then to take advantage as an extension of the run game. 

If we are seeing more zone looks we will switch to the 11 personnel more allowing Waddle too continue to distract safeties and hitting Allen and Kincaid underneath.  RB screens will be more prevalent to get blockers out front 

In our four wide formation we want to utilize Herberts legs as we don't believe the defense will have accounted for that and get some big gains on qb delays //draws. We also are going to run some read options out of the two RB sets against the lightened box after we spread a RB out wide as well as one or two speed options 

Despite all the talk of the passing game, we won't forget about the run and look to keep the defense honest and also allow us to utilize some playadtion passes. We have our two TE and fb sets for short yardage as well 

Defense

Our back seven gets a little healthier this week with the returns of Marlon Humphrey and Nick Bolton to give us some added weapons against a tough Camden offense 

Defensively we want to take away the big play as Tua struggles in the underneath part of the passing game when he doesn't get to throw pretty rainbows to his stud Irl receivers or hit intermediate crosses that Hill takes to the house.  So you have make Tua exercise patience to be successful . We are going to play off coverage regardless or man or zone and make them dink and dunk the get any sort of drives down the field

We will be utilizing a cover three heavy look with some zone blitzea from a LB mixed in with still playing three deep.  We will mix in some cover one and cover two man looks.  Cisco will be the deep safety for the zone looks with Hamilton in the box 

In those occasional man looks.  Humphrey gets Brown, Reed gets Collins, in three wide, Bland will be drawing Kupp and McMillan gets whoever is left.  Bland will be the slot in and cover three looks so he can juno the underneath routes.  Oluokon gets Pitts and Bolton gets Higbee in two TE.  Cisco draws Ekeler whenever he is in while Hamilton draws moss.  The other plays the deep middle with Spillane the underneath man. In three wide Bolton is underneath man with spillane out for a corner. 

Up front we have the second leading interior lineman in sacks, Karlaftis is top twenty in sacks, Huff is top five in win percentage and Tomlinson serves as the run stuffer who subs out for Jefferson in long distances with his top 10 sacks by interior players.  We'll zone blitz occasionally and drop huff back.  These blitzea will generally come from Tuaa left and he struggles when forced to roll right.  Barrett rotates in for Huff on short yardage as does Billings for Autry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camden

This might be the last home game in Camden. The crowd will be raucous for a possible last title run. And we will need that crowd against Rome which will be looking to avenge their loss against us 3 weeks ago.

Offense

Run the ball – Three weeks ago we opened the running game by establishing our deep passing game. We want to do it the other way around this week as we think our OL can dominate Rome DL in the running game. With a man blocking scheme, we plan to attack three specific areas of Rome defense. 

•    First, the space between Meinerz (Jenkins if Bozeman is out) and Lane Johnson. That is the strength of our run blocking unit, and both players should dominate their opponent. Especially if Rome tries to pull stunts to attack Meinerz in the passing game. Rome will be expecting us to run there, but we don’t think they can stop it. Depending on the formation (ours and Rome’s), we will use Nelson, Bozeman (Meinerz if out) or a tight end (preferably Dissly) to take on the LB at the second level and create huge running lanes.

•    Off the edge, particularly off Bryce Huff when he comes on the field. We like both our tackles over Rome edge defenders, and we signed Will Dissly this week to give us some run blocking ability at the tight endposition. With him, a tackle and a guard we can pull outside, we think we can create a lot of space for Zack Moss to run outside.

•    Technically this is not running the ball, but we will have a decent amount of screens planned. We anticipate Rome to throw some blitzes and we want to counter any sort of over aggressiveness on their behalf.

Zack Moss gets most of the touches this week. Ekeler comes in for passing downs mainly. We expect to have Moss with 20 touches, Ekeler with 10 and Herbert around 5 in a 70 snaps type of game.

At TE we will have a rotation planned between Pitts (70% of the snaps), Everett (50%) and Dissly (30%). Everett will be asked a bit of everything. Dissly will be mostly used as a run blocker and short yardage specialist. 

Pitts will be a part of most passing plays, but we will use him on 1st downs as well. We can motion him out to lighten the box for our running game. If he stays in line, we will put him on the left side and run on the weakside so that we can “hide” his lackluster blocking.

 

Be aggressive downfield – We think safety is a weakness for Rome. Especially with Cisco banged upthis week. Whether they play in zone or man, we want to attack them deep with playaction passes. As we establish the running game hopefully, we can get Rome defense to be more aggressive against the run and we can get good playaction opportunities for deep plays to Brown, Collins or Pitts. 

But even without playaction, we think we can attack downfield. Whether that’s with double moves from AJ Brown & Nico (or Gabe off the bench), wheel routes from Ekeler, deep crossing routes from Pitts & Kupp we think we can beat Rome defense deep. We will also have plays specifically called to beat zone as we expect Rome to have at least some Cover 3 looks – all verticals or four posts plays for instance. We will incorporate to those plays option routes for Kupp/Brown as well as delayed short routes by the RB to give Tua an escape if nothing is open.

The success of our deep passing will depend on the protection we can offer for Tua. We think our OL is more than good enough to handle Rome DL with Bozeman helping on Autry if Rome formation allows it. Our TE2 (Dissly when he plays, Everett otherwise) will offer a chip if Dawkins or Lane need help. More importantly, we expect some blitzes to come so Zack Moss will be responsible for blitz pickup.

 

Situational football – While we hope we can control the flow of the game with our running game and to get explosive plays through our deep passing, in order to win in the playoffs you need strong situational football. 
On 3rd downs, we will look go back to our meat and potatoes, which is the short passing game to Brown, Collins, Kupp and Ekeler. We will call plays that allow us to beat zone while suiting the qualities of our wideouts in case of man coverage (which we expect in this game) – for instance a combo of hitch routes outside to AJ Brown, deep corner route to Kupp and out route to Ekeler with can work against zone and man.

In the Red Zone, Ekeler get more running back duties and Everett becomes TE1 as we feel they’re especially effective in the redzone. We will bring heavier sets – 6OL with Tom or Jenkins or 3TE sets with Pitts who can be split out wide – and will look to use the size of our receiving targets in the passing game.

 

Defense

Formation versatility – Rome can offer a unique set of formations, but we feel like we can matchup with their versatility. Here are the following defensive formations we will use:

Against 11 – Standard nickel package with Samuel Jr.
Against 12 – Base package with Luvu at SLB in for Samuel Jr.
Against 21 with a 2nd RB – Brisker comes in for Samuel Jr.
Against 21 with Ricard – Robinson comes in for Samuel Jr at NT. 5-men front with Josh Allen at SLB who can drop back in coverage or rush the passer depending on the play called.
Against 20 – Brisker comes in for Morrow
Against 40 – Darious Williams comes in for Morrow

 

Stack the box – Rome has an awesome OL but our DL, which will rotate heavily as usual, isn’t too shabby either. It’s going to be a great battle, a battle neither team should expect to completely dominate. To give us an edge in run defense, we are going to provide an additional body in the box at all time in Jimmie Ward. If Kamara is in the game in 2RB sets and split our wide, Ward will follow him around and Brisker will still be in the box providing one more body in the box than Rome has.And Ward still provides run defense in the slot against a non run-blocker in Kamara.

Man coverage – We had success in man coverage three weeks ago and we see no reason to switch it. Here are the main coverage responsibilities.

Sneed – Keenan Allen
Douglas – Amari Cooper
Samuel Jr – Waddle
Ward – Kamara whenever is on the field, Kincaid otherwise
Morrow – Middle Zone, Herbert spy or blitz/blitz compensation
David – Swift, or Kincaid if Kamara is RB
Brisker – Kincaid in 2RB sets
Josh Allen (in 5 men front) – Blitz or Ricard
Hooker – Deep Zone

Focus on Kamara in the Redzone – As previously stated, situational football will be paramount. In the Redzone, we will double Kamara in the passing game with Hooker on top of Ward as we think he’s the main RZ threat for Rome. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by RedGold

[Blue]

I should definitely take a page out of Bcb's playbook and cherrypick different stats for players at the same position to make them look good.

I really don't care about Kincaid going up against a linebacker, Kincaid has done exceedingly little with his touches this year at 8 YPR. I do think Rome has a good strategy to attack the Camden defense with the backs, as Camden doesn't have a great answer for Swift even as Kamara has really struggled to be a consistently productive player, let alone a playmaker. On the other hand, Swift is currently having his worst pro season as a receiver. Herbert running with the ball is another area Camden didn't really account for and Rome made a great decision to execute this week.

I like Camden's plan to attack Rome on the ground early more for what it sets up than it's play-by-play effectiveness. While it's definitely a front six built more to stop the run than rush the passer, committing to consistently running the ball limits Autry's early aggression against the pass and forces the defense to creep up towards the line of scrimmage a bit. I think PA deep passing is a great call-out here, and I love situational football getting mentioned in the playoffs when teams are in the win-or-go-home setting.

I do NOT love DaRon Bland as the primary slot receiver. Almost all of his picks this year have come from undercutting balls thrown on the outside, and that gambling mentality got him roasted against Seattle just a couple weeks ago. I think it's more of the latter when he's lining up against Kyle Pitts or potentially Cooper Kupp in the slot, especially with Camden opting to attack the Cover-3 deep.

I don't love either team's ability to defend the middle of the field in the passing game. Rome OL vs. Camden DL is a great strength on strength matchup, and while I certainly think Rome gets theirs in the opposite matchup, Rome's pass rush simply isn't as good up and down the line as Camden's. I also have to go back to what I said at the beginning of the season: this is an emotional year for Camden, and GM/HC Ted is right to point out that this is likely their final home game ever. That energy won't carry through past the first couple drives of the game, but I think it's an extra edge and that pushes me to a close Camden win.

[bcb1213]

7 hours ago, Blue said:

I should definitely take a page out of Bcb's playbook and cherrypick different stats for players at the same position to make them look good.

I really don't care about Kincaid going up against a linebacker, Kincaid has done exceedingly little with his touches this year at 8 YPR. I do think Rome has a good strategy to attack the Camden defense with the backs, as Camden doesn't have a great answer for Swift even as Kamara has really struggled to be a consistently productive player, let alone a playmaker. On the other hand, Swift is currently having his worst pro season as a receiver. Herbert running with the ball is another area Camden didn't really account for and Rome made a great decision to execute this week.

I like Camden's plan to attack Rome on the ground early more for what it sets up than it's play-by-play effectiveness. While it's definitely a front six built more to stop the run than rush the passer, committing to consistently running the ball limits Autry's early aggression against the pass and forces the defense to creep up towards the line of scrimmage a bit. I think PA deep passing is a great call-out here, and I love situational football getting mentioned in the playoffs when teams are in the win-or-go-home setting.

I do NOT love DaRon Bland as the primary slot receiver. Almost all of his picks this year have come from undercutting balls thrown on the outside, and that gambling mentality got him roasted against Seattle just a couple weeks ago. I think it's more of the latter when he's lining up against Kyle Pitts or potentially Cooper Kupp in the slot, especially with Camden opting to attack the Cover-3 deep.

I don't love either team's ability to defend the middle of the field in the passing game. Rome OL vs. Camden DL is a great strength on strength matchup, and while I certainly think Rome gets theirs in the opposite matchup, Rome's pass rush simply isn't as good up and down the line as Camden's. I also have to go back to what I said at the beginning of the season: this is an emotional year for Camden, and GM/HC Ted is right to point out that this is likely their final home game ever. That energy won't carry through past the first couple drives of the game, but I think it's an extra edge and that pushes me to a close Camden win.

I'm not gonna say much but from a scheme perspective, a cover three the slot corner plays the underneath flat, this jumping routes while the boundary corners are the deep men and he will never be assigned Pitts so I'm unsure your statement on bland

Edited December 13, 2023 by bcb1213

[rackcs]

This is a close matchup. I think the Camden defense is really going to get after Herbert in this one and keep him uncomfortable in the pocket. On the other hand, I like Rome's gameplan on defense to slow down the Hood Rats. It's a close call with two talented rosters but ultimately I think Rome can pull a few more big plays on offense/defense to make the difference.

[Blue]

4 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

I'm not gonna say much but from a scheme perspective, a cover three the slot corner plays the underneath flat, this jumping routes while the boundary corners are the deep men and he will never be assigned Pitts so I'm unsure your statement on bland

Bland's interceptions have almost all come along the sideline for a reason. There is no out of bounds area for him to rely on in the middle of the field.

Your opponent explicitly stated he's putting Kyle Pitts in the slot, which is where you are playing DaRon Bland. If you're going to play him like a tight end regardless, fine, but I have many exquisitely fond memories of Foye Oluokun looking like a patient from the burn ward wandered onto a football field.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Blue

[bcb1213]

17 minutes ago, Blue said:

Bland's interceptions have almost all come along the sideline for a reason. There is no out of bounds area for him to rely on in the middle of the field.

Your opponent explicitly stated he's putting Kyle Pitts in the slot, which is where you are playing DaRon Bland. If you're going to play him like a tight end regardless, fine, but I have many exquisitely fond memories of Foye Oluokun looking like a patient from the burn ward wandered onto a football field.

and I explicitly said that Bland is on Kupp only, and Foye is on Pitts.  You can have that point of view on Foye, as much as I disagree with you on his progress since he's left Atlanta, but at least get the alignment right

Edited December 13, 2023 by bcb1213

[Blue]

19 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

and I explicitly said that Bland is on Kupp only, and Foye is on Pitts.  You can have that point of view on Foye, as much as I disagree with you on his progress since he's left Atlanta, but at least get the alignment right

NFL teams often play Pitts as a receiver. Your opponent explicitly said he was going to put Pitts in the slot. You explicitly said Bland was covering the slot. If you're still going to cover him with Oluokun, fine, but don't get ******* snippy with me for explaining my reasoning.

[bcb1213]

21 minutes ago, Blue said:

NFL teams often play Pitts as a receiver. Your opponent explicitly said he was going to put Pitts in the slot. You explicitly said Bland was covering the slot. If you're still going to cover him with Oluokun, fine, but don't get ******* snippy with me for explaining my reasoning.

If more than one NFL team has played Pitts at WR, I'd be impressed by my incompatance.  Regardless, I consider Pitts a TE, Camden lists him as a TE so again, there is zero chance Bland is covering Pitts one on one as you know, I assigned a player to him not named Bland.  Derek Carr often lines up as outside WR when Taysom Hill is at QB, do you consider him a WR?

Also, I'm not getting snippy.  I made zero comments on your opinions.  For anyone reading  and having not yet voted I wanted to make sure it was clear on what my alignment was

Edited December 13, 2023 by bcb1213

[Blue]

8 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

If more than one NFL team has played Pitts at WR, I'd be impressed by my incompatance.  Regardless, I consider Pitts a TE, Camden lists him as a TE so again, there is zero chance Bland is covering Pitts one on one as you know, I assigned a player to him not named Bland.  Derek Carr often lines up as outside WR when Taysom Hill is at QB, do you consider him a WR?

I'm not talking about what Pitts is listed as. I am talking about how 31 other teams choose to treat him in their coverage schemes to defend against him.

[bcb1213]

2 minutes ago, Blue said:

I'm not talking about what Pitts is listed as. I am talking about how 31 other teams choose to treat him in their coverage schemes to defend against him.

ok.  I'm not trying to be argumentative.  My original point was to make sure alignment was noted correctly.  I've been trying not to comment on stuff in game threads

[RedGold]

This was a tough one.  I've went back and forth multiple times.   In the end I trust Rome's offense to come through a bit more.

Rome 24-20

[Scoundrel]

This one is tough. I’ll get a vote in before the deadline but it’s taken me a bit going back and forth 

[Ragnarok]

Two excellent gameplans.  Two excellent OLs.  Two very good back 7s.  Very nice weapons on both sides.

For me, this comes down to the Camden OL being able to exercise their will more effectively against the Rome DL while the Camden DL and Rome OL are much more equal in ability.

In a game this close, a play or two by the DL can make the difference and I think it does here.