BDL 2024 Week 2: Quebec Nordiques @ New Orleans Jazz

[RedGold]

BDL 2024 Week  2

Match:  Quebec Nordiques @ New Orleans Jazz

Away Owner:    @TedLavie @vikes635

Home Owner:    @WFLukic

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 September 15 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Quebec

QB Kirk Cousins
RB Joe Mixon
WR AJ Brown
WR Nico Collins
WR Cooper Kupp
TE Kyle Pitts
LT Dion Dawkins
LG Teven Jenkins
C Lloyd Cushenberry
RG Quinn Meinerz
RT Brian O’Neill (Q)

Bench

QB Tua Tagovailoa
RB Devin Singlatery
RB Jaleel McLaughlin
WR Rashid Shaheed
WR Tyler Boyd
TE Tyler Conklin
OL Zach Tom
OL Garrett Bolles

 

RE Josh Allen
DT Osa Odighizuwa
NT Harrison Phillips
LE Montez Sweat
WLB Jerome Baker (Q)
MLB Lavonte David
CB Tre’Davious White
CB L’Jarius Sneed
NB Kenny Moore III
FS Malik Hooker
SS Josh Metellus 

Bench

Edge Boye Mafe
INT DaQuan Jones
INT A’Shawn Robinson
LB Troy Andersen
LB Nakobe Dean
CB Asante Samuel Jr.
CB Benjamin St Juste
S Jalen Thompson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Orleans

Offense:

QB: Josh Allen

RB: Josh Jacobs

WR: D.J. Moore

WR: Brian Thomas Jr.

WR: Rashee Rice

TE: Juwan Johnson

LT: Jake Matthews

LG: Joel Bitonio

OC: David Andrews

RG: Mike Onwenu

RT:Rob Havenstein

Bench:

RB2: Derrick Henry

RB3/WR4: Wan”Dale Robinson

WR5: Mike Williams

WR6: Curtis Samuel

TE2: Luke Schoonmaker

OL6: Cam Robinson

OL7: Jonah Jackson

Defense:

DE: Za’Darius Smith

DT: Jeffrey Simmons

DT: Javon Hargrave

DE: Arik Armstead

LB: DeMarvion Overshown

LB: DeMario Davis

CB: Cam Taylor-Britt

CB: Rasul Douglas

CB: Stephon Gilmore

SS: Derwin James

FS: Julian Love

Bench:

DE3: Yaya Diaby

DE4: Preston Smith

INT3: Sheldon Rankins

INT4: Byron Murphy II

LB3: CJ Mosley

CB4: Jonathan Jones

CB5: Deommodore Lenoir

S3: Taylor Rapp

Edited September 15 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Quebec

We’d like to start by acknowledging the greatness of our opponent. New Orleans is obviously the team we beat in OT in last year’s Bizz Bowl and a regular title contender. We know they’re going to be out for a revenge this week and we’re ready for the challenge. GL Lukic.

Offense

Outside running game. Joe Mixon had a great week 1 and we want to build on that. But NOLA interior DL is pretty stout, so we’ll look to establish an outside running game here with outside sweeps, tosses, and off tackles with some mis direction counters to keep defense off balance on 1st and 2nd downs. We’ll also pull guards here and there to give us more blocking bodies outside. Conklin will see more 1st downs and Pitts more 2nd/3rd downs as Conklin is a better blocker – but we’ll also throw in some 2TE sets (like 20% of the time). Mixon is our lead back and will see most snaps. Singletary will give him a breather on running downs, McLaughlin on passing downs.

Quick passing game. We want to move the chains methodically with our running game and our quick passing game. We like our matchups everywhere but we’re in particular looking to target NOLA aging LBs with Pitts (vs man) and Brown/Kupp in the middle (vs zone). As said previously, McLaughlin is going to see some passing downs and we will use his big play ability in the passing game if he’s matched up with Davis or Mosley.

Playaction passes. We expect Derwin to play closer the LoS. In 2nd or 3rd  and manageable distance situations we can be a bit bolder and use play action to use our deep threats down the field. Collins and Brown are obviously our main guys there, but we’ll also involve Pitts and Shaheed off the bench as well to keep our WRs fresh. We’re not going to shy away from any matchup so Cousins will take what’s there – he has the experience to do so.

Pass protection. Not unlike last week, we face an interior duo that’s going to give us feats. Fortunately, we like our tackles 1vs1 against those edge rushers so we can focus three bodies on Simmons and Hargrave with Cushenberry providing help on whoever is creating the most chaos. Mixon is responsible for blitz pickups and is the emergency pass protection provider If need me.

Defense

Keep a spy on Allen at all times. We’re Josh Allen truthers here in Quebec and immensely respect him. We want to keep him in the pocket and let him beat us with his arm and not his legs. We trust our edge trio to play contain outside while still applying pressure. After his tremendous week 1, Boye Mafe played himself into a heavy rotational role and we’ll look to split equally the snaps between our three edge guys. Inside, Osa is our main pressure guy with DaQuan acting as a second pass rusher on passing downs/rotation piece for Osa when he's tired. Phillips will play split running downs with Robinson - both will play on obvious running situations.

Behind them, Baker (Metellus if out) will have spy responsibilities all game, except on 3rd and long situations where we’ll play more cover 2 (see later) and Metellus will have spy and zone duties. 

Man coverage (60-70%). We will play mostly cover 1 man and will switch to cover 2 man in 3rd and longs. Our coverage responsibilities will be as such:

Kenny Moore – Rice
Sneed – DJ Moore
White – BTJ
Hooker – deep zone over BTJ side
Metellus (Andersen if Baker is out) – Jacobs
David - Johnson/Schoonmaker
Baker (Metellus if out) – QB spy

In cover 2, Baker and Metellus swap responsibilities with Metellus deeper on the other side of Hooker.

Zone coverage (30-40%). We will mix in on some zone stuff with cover 3 / cover 6. Having Metellus in the box will help us keep in check NOLA running game since we think our DL is better than NOLA OL quite honestly. On passing downs we will switch to cover 4 as our main zone scheme.

 

 

 

 

 

New Orleans

Motivation:

Bizzbowl revenge match here as Quebec walks into New Orleans for our home opener. We’ve been waiting for this match all offseason and our players will be coming into this match with a point to prove.

Offense:

75% - 3 WR 1 TE 1 RB
10% - 4 WR 1 RB
10% - 2 RB 2 WR 1 TE
5% - 4WR 1 TE
 

Ball Control Offense: We remain committed to our ball control offense, with once again as many as 40-50% of our plays as runs, between Allen, Jacobs and Henry. In particular, our plan is to run it between the tackles, taking advantage of our strong interior OL and a relatively weak interior DL for Quebec. 

Our aim is to have Henry and Jacobs combine for over 30 carries, along with the occasional Allen designed run or scramble. Both these RBs have shown great success as workhorses, so we feel that splitting their workload will see us get the absolute best out of them both.

Moore will be our number 1 and given the full route tree, while Rice will work out of the slot primarily with the aim of being our YAC guy and finding soft spots in the zone when Quebec line-up that way. Thomas Jr. will be our deep threat, having already proven he’s capable of stretching defenses at the highest level and operating as a viable deep threat and end zone target. Although he was once a great CB, we really want to test out Tre’White deep if he draws the Thomas assignment as signs of age along with wear and tear from injuries have started to show and we think Thomas could punish him if he gets to full speed.

We’ll also frequently use rub routes in man coverage with Rice and Moore lining up alongside each other, with the idea that if we can execute one effectively and get one of them free, there should be plenty of ground to gain as Thomas stretches the defense. 

To mix things up, we also plan on getting Wan’Dale Robinson involved as a gadget player of sorts, seeing some snaps at RB and potential carries on tosses, or other creative run plays like sweeps or end arounds to make use of his space. We’ll also line him up as our RB and move him wide, where if he draws an LB in coverage, Josh will target him, or otherwise we’ll have Josh keep it and run up the middle where there is a gap left by the RB moving out.

Defense:

We’re assuming Kirk Cousins takes the field here given Tua’s all-time bad performance on TNF and his injury. If it’s Tua, well, Josh owns him. End of story.

Take-away the deep ball - Cousin’s success has long been based on using the play-option game to hit big plays down-field. We want to take that away primarily. We’ll do that by having Julian Love playing as our primary deep safety, with James being given more of a roaming role, but with a focus on also playing somewhat deeper and to help limit the intermediate passing game. We also want to wait and see AJ Brown’s condition. If he’s looking healthy, we’ll keep this as is, but if Brown is out or in any way limited, we’ll be putting some more focus on stopping Kupp and putting some doubles his way.

Aggressive Blitzing - We’re going to be more aggressive than normal and throw a bunch of blitzes in to mix-up Cousins’ rhythm and not let him get that clean pocket from which he needs at this age given his injury history and non-existent mobility. If Kirk can avoid our rush on his busted achilles, or if tosses a few deep balls in the face of pressure, then so be it. But we know that our best bet to stop a talented Quebec offense, healthy QB or not, is to take their weapons out of the game with pressure and make the most of the opportunity to tee off on the least mobile QB in the game today.

Heavy DL Rotation: While our DL this season may not have the same star power that it has had in years gone by, it is deeper than it’s ever been. Given our focus on getting after the QB,  it will be necessary to ensure our guys on the DL are as fresh as possible. Therefore we’ll see our players rotating with the aim that no one on the DL plays any more than 70% of the snaps.

Coverage:

Primarily cover 1 man, with a bit of cover 2 man. 

Love will be our deep safety, James will operate at the intermediate level, being given the choice to either stay there or drop back depending on what our pre-snap read of the offense is. In terms of man assignments, we’ll go with:

In terms of coverage, it will be as follows:

AJ Brown - Gilmore

Kupp - Douglas

Collins - Taylor-Britt

Overshown - Pitts

Davis - Mixon

Edited September 15 by RedGold

[TedLavie]

I can't believe I learnt how to spell Akureyri in 8 months only to be rewarded by being called the "Nordics".

[RedGold]

17 minutes ago, TedLavie said:

I can't believe I learnt how to spell Akureyri in 8 months only to be rewarded by being called the "Nordics".

I can see your point 

[TedLavie]

AJ Brown out (totally missed that when writing the plan ngl) so Shaheed gets the starting nod. That's why he was the first WR listed on the bench for those of you who like to make stuff up

[InjuredReserve]

36 minutes ago, TedLavie said:

AJ Brown out (totally missed that when writing the plan ngl) so Shaheed gets the starting nod. That's why he was the first WR listed on the bench for those of you who like to make stuff up

I feel like I didn't hear that until right before kickoff Sun myself. Not sure when the news officially dropped.

[MikeT14]

Good gameplan from both teams. AJ Brown is a needle mover. Shaheed brings some oomph to the table, but not like Brown. 

I like the aggressive blitzing on Kirk. Make him move and prove if he can. I think NO wins the rematch this time around led by some Allen hero ball and a stronger NO defense. It's close as hell though. 

[Blue]

Yeah, I love Shaheed but losing Brown and then Kupp fighting through injury before getting shut down is rough for an offense already relying on Kirk Cousins at QB with Joe Mixon coming back down to earth at running back. Not a fan of Cushenberry and Jenkins inside, and going up against Hargrave and Simmons, doubly so.

[TedLavie]

11 minutes ago, Blue said:

Yeah, I love Shaheed but losing Brown and then Kupp fighting through injury before getting shut down is rough for an offense already relying on Kirk Cousins at QB with Joe Mixon coming back down to earth at running back. Not a fan of Cushenberry and Jenkins inside, and going up against Hargrave and Simmons, doubly so.

You can vote for NOLA all you want, but afaik Kupp came in the game healthy

[Blue]

Just now, TedLavie said:

You can vote for NOLA all you want, but afaik Kupp came in the game healthy

Yes, but we have discretion to take in-game injuries into account.

[TedLavie]

Just now, Blue said:

Yes, but we have discretion to take in-game injuries into account.

Oh so we're making rules up now?

Be sure that I take that well into account

[InjuredReserve]

34 minutes ago, TedLavie said:

You can vote for NOLA all you want, but afaik Kupp came in the game healthy

I asked in Discord bc I thought he did too and to my knowledge that is right. So I am giving Kupp the benefit of the doubt.

[InjuredReserve]

I was really high on Quebec coming into the season and remain so this week giving them what I think is a narrow win against a very good roster Lukic trots out. AJ Brown is a loss in this week's lineup, but they still have Cooper Kupp (for the last time for the foreseeable future in this one) and Shaheed has been impressive irl this yr and a solid sub-in.

Quebec defensive gameplan was a highlight for me and love Mafe in the edge rotation plan.

I come away expecting this to be a potential postseason matchup again, but with concerns Quebec's injuries could see this being a loss next time as there is little room to spare against the squad Lukic puts out.

Quebec for now....

[Blue]

1 hour ago, TedLavie said:

Oh so we're making rules up now?

Be sure that I take that well into account

We had this discussion last year. If you don't like that I take into account that a guy got hurt during the game, tough.