BDL 2017 Quarterfinals: #8 Gotham Gashslayers @ #1 Louisiana Jazz

[Whicker]

BDL 2017 Quarterfinals: 

Vote for who you think would win the game.

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

[Whicker]

Gotham Gashslayers

OFFENSE

QB - Matthew Stafford

RB - Doug Martin

WR - Demaryius Thomas

WR - Jarvis Landry

TE - Vernon Davis

TE - Luke Wilson

LT - Jake Matthews

LG - AJ Cann

C - Maurkice Pouncey

RG - Shaq Mason

RT - Mitchell Schwartz

 

RB - Derrick Henry

RB - Jacquizz Rodgers

WR - Breshad Perriman

WR - Amara Darboh

OL - Andrus Peat

DEFENSE

EDGE - Ziggy Ansah

INT - Bennie Logan

INT - Austin Johnson

EDGE - Charles Harris

LB - Bernardrick McKinney

LB - Reuben Foster

CB - Xavier Rhodes

CB - Josh Norman

CB - Xavien Howard

S - Justin Simmons

S - Clayton Geathers

 

CB - Jourdan Lewis

CB - Demarious Randall

S - Eric Reid

LB - Navorro Bowman

LB - Zach Cunningham

INT - Vernon Butler

EDGE - Marcus Smith

 

 

Louisiana Jazz

Offense:

QB: Tom Brady
RB: LeGarrette Blount
WR: Michael Thomas
WR: Jordy Nelson
WR: Doug Baldwin
TE: Zach Ertz
LT: Laremy Tunsil
LG: Josh Sitton
C: Travis Frederick
RG: Trai Turner
RT: Jack Conklin

RB2: Bilal Powell
RB3: James White
WR4: Emmanuel Sanders
WR5: Tyler Lockett
TE2: Eric Ebron
TE3: Dion Sims
OL6: Bobby Massie
OL7: JR Sweezy

Defense:

Edge: Jabaal Sheard
DE: Chris Jones
NT: Damon Harrison
DE: Jurrell Casey
Edge: Brian Orakpo
LB: Lawrence Timmons
LB/S: Reshad Jones
CB: Chris Harris Jr.
CB: Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie
S: Eric Weddle
S: Antoine Bethea

DE3: Cameron Wake
DE4: Bud Dupree
DT4: Tyrone Crawford
LB3: Todd Davis
LB4: Craig Robertson
CB3: Logan Ryan
CB4: Darelle Revis
CB5: Orlando Scandrick

[Whicker]

Gotham Gashslayers

OFFENSE - 2 WR/2 TE/RB

Matt Stafford takes the reins heading into the playoffs and we expect his skill set and familiarity with this team will serve him well.  The Jizz have some talented players on their defense, but also some glaring holes that we plan to exploit.  Here’s how we’ll do it.

-We’re coming out firing.  Stafford plays at his best in schoolyard mode and we’re going to let him loose early.  First play is a play action bomb to Demaryius as far as he can throw it.  Want to set the tone to expect to be tested deep often.  We want to keep Weddle from creeping up in the box and making sure he knows he has to stay deep or get beat.

-The middle of the Jazz defense is suspect.  With playing a heavy 5 man front, something has to give and that is the middle of the field.  Employing our 2 TE set gives us freedom to target them in open zones up the seems.  If Timmons drops in coverage on one our guys, we’re targetting him relentlessly.  I’m to assume Reshad takes one, but either no one is covering the other one, the middle of the field is vacated with both in coverage, or there is a 2 man zone to cover the short and intermediate field.

-Stafford is highly adept at avoiding pressure and has a singular ability to change arm slots to throw around pass rushers in his face.  We expect him to be under pressure against a five man front, but believe he can escape and throw outlets in the short and intermediate areas.  With 2 TE sets, if our line isn’t getting it done against their 5 man front, we will use chips from our TEs and run some delayed handoffs to take advantage of their aggression.

-Our run game will look to get to the soft second level.  Would love to see Martin and Henry teeing off on the Jizz’ back 7.  We have a very good run blocking O Line and its likely these guys are bulldozing DBs often.  If we see more midgets in the box, then hey let’s throw it 60 yards downfield again.

Tl;Dr - Get past the hard shell and enjoy the gooey center

 

DEFENSE - 43 Cover 2

We feature our Base 43 Nickel to match against Looseanus’ offensive 3 wide package.  Its fairly obvious this offense is predicated on Brady and what he can accomplish.  The run game is an afterthought featuring phased out and ineffective players in Blount and Powell.  With that in mind we will employ these strategies to prevent Tom from having a successful day throwing the ball.

-We will mostly rush 4, but mix in blitzes from time to time.  This will force Brady to throw into 7 man coverage schemes while allowing read react duties with our LBs to limit the run game.

-Our CBs will play very physically at the line against their WRs.  Playing sides, Rhodes and Norman are 2 of the best man cover corners in the league and excel at physical play on the line.  Brady’s success IRL depends on his timing with his receivers.  This will eliminate the success of his 3 step drop plays and force him to make 3rd and 4th reads downfield, if he has time to get there.

-Man coverage scheme will be our base, but we will mix in some zone looks to keep Brady honest.  Aside from playing sides, we are bringing in Xavien Howard to man the slot this week.  Dude has been on fire recently, with 4 picks and a Defensive Player of the Week in his last two games.  Two of those picks against one Tom Brady last week while shutting down Brandin Cooks.

-Zach Ertz will command bracket coverage from Foster and Geathers.  Brady always looks to his TE when things on the outside look bleak, but we WANT Tom to look outside and throw into the strength of our defense.  Ertz will not be a factor in this game.

-Getting pressure on Brady will be a challenge, but we feel we can get pressure employing some exotic blitzes featuring delays and stunts with McKinney and Foster, CB crashes from the slot and safety blitzes up the middle.  Generally, we don’t mind flushing Brady out of the pocket where he is less comfortable, and we’ll look to take advantage of JR Sweezy with Trai Turner out.

-I’d be surprised if Louisiana thinks they can effectively run the ball in this matchup.  With Logan clogging lanes and my LBs cleaning it up, I think they will struggle to effectively move the chains over the course of the game.  On obvious running downs, we will bolster the front 7 further with Bowman coming in for Howard.

Tl;Dr - Stop Brady

 

 

Louisiana Jazz

Offense:

The focus in this matchup will be the passing game and in particular going deep and trying to take advantage of the safety situation for Gotham, particularly with both safeties in Justin Simmons & Kam Chancellor being put on IR in the past week and Clayton Geathers, a part-timer and Eric Reid who isn’t particularly great being the duo now.

We have complete confidence in our OL to hold up against a Gotham defensive front who will be missing a number of talented players and only has Ansah available in terms of generating a pass-rush, who even then, has struggled at times this year and not been at his usual high level. With our OL able to hold up, we should be able to take advantage of the safety situation as well as be able to get some wins against Norman and Rhodes, who while pretty great corners, can’t cover forever.

Although we are starting in a 3 WR 1 TE base set, expect to see plenty of action in our 4 Wide setup with Nelson playing significant snaps as our intermediate-deep threat, Thomas on the outside and Sanders & Baldwin doing a bit of everything both split out wide and in the slot on crossing routes or up the seam.

The running game will feature a healthy mix of both Blount and Powell as Blount should be able to muscle up against a defensive front which will be spread out, while Powell should be able to pick up a few sizable gains given the resources which will be devoted to the passing game.

Defense:

Wentz being out is obviously a huge boost for us but we’re still wary of Matt Stafford who is still one of the better QBs in the league and certainly capable of doing the same damage. We’ll stick with the same 5 man defensive front, all of whom have been having excellent seasons thus far providing both a fierce pass rush while being resolute against the run. As per usual Wake & Crawford will rotate in as necessary but come crunch downs this will generally be our line-up.

In terms of coverage, Timmons & Jones will take turns on the two TEs assuming the two TE set, or should it be a 3 WR set then we’ll just have Ryan come in and take the third WR. We’re not too concerned about the receiving threats out of the backfield for Gotham either, but of course will adjust if necessary and it is a focus of the Gotham offense.

For the WRs, DRC will take Thomas and CHJ will take Landry. Both are pretty good WRs but not exactly game planning nightmares and we’re pretty sure that our CB duo will take care of them for the most part with Bethea/Weddle offering DRC a bit more help where required.

[pheltzbahr]

Lol, I guess Simmons is on IR.  Reid take this spot

[SirA1]

Trai Turner Inactive this week too.

[Scoundrel]

This should have been my chance at Goliath... there is no David in this matchup.

[WFLukic]

there is no doug either.

[pheltzbahr]

Geez Mo and Martin thugging out.

[SirA1]

7 hours ago, Counselor said:

This should have been my chance at Goliath... there is no David in this matchup.

You would have come up short many times just like A-Rod.

[DingoLadd]

11 hours ago, Counselor said:

This should have been my chance at Goliath... there is no David in this matchup.

Doesn't matter who it was we were all gonna get smoked against the Jizz.

I like Gotham's decision to ignore the running game for the most part since they weren't going to have success there and Stafford does fit best in the offense they're using here. But sadly they don't really have the weapons to make it work, Davis is a solid TE but he's not a massive threat and while Thomas and Landry are both pretty good WRs DRC and Harris are more than capable of limiting them. Given gotham would have little success in the run game and the fact they're missing their MVP QB so Stafford would be a little bit rusty I'm swinging towards the Jizz.

On the Jizz side they have a tough matchup against a damn good but banged up Gotham defense, I trust Brady and his WRs to make enough plays to pull out the W though Gotham's CBs are capable of limiting them to a degree but Gotham's Safeties are blegh and Brady will make them pay. Zach Ertz and James white as mismatches Gotham doesn't have an answer for so I see the Jizz being able to score more points.

This is a tough fought win but the Jizz would eventually pull out the win, 28-25.

[Scoundrel]

13 hours ago, SirA1 said:

You would have come up short many times just like A-Rod.

You are about to come up short against Cuba

[Scoundrel]

This one goes to the Jizz. Just enough weaponry for Brady. Although that corner group for Gotham is very nasty. Brady works some kind of voodoo on the Gotham Gushers.

[TedLavie]

Gotham just lost too many players to stay with the Jizz. Lack of pass rush especially will hurt them. Well protected, I think Brady has time to find the open wide receivers, and even though Gotham has a good secondary, it won't be enough. On the other end, I like Lousiana DLine against that interior OL and Gotham passing game is too limited to carry them in this game. 31-13 Jizz

[Hockey5djh]

15 hours ago, WFLukic said:

there is no doug either.

[Hockey5djh]

The injuries to Gotham I think are too much to overcome.

While they may sport one of the best set of CBs in the league against the deepest set of WRs I think that starting two back-up safeties will be a downfall against Brady. On the other side of the ball I don't see an offense built primarily on chunking the ball down the field with two back-up TEs as the best way to gain yards.