Ashtyn Davis and Bless Austin struggled, while Quinnen Williams and the defensive line showed some promising things.
Ashtyn Davis: The bad
Predictably, Davis struggled in his starting debut. Making your first NFL start against Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, and the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium is probably the most daunting challenge you can draw up for a young safety.
Davis lines up as the boundary side safety in a Cover-2. Kansas City brings Mecole Hardman in motion pre-snap and gives him a pop pass on the jet sweep to Davis’ side. Davis takes far too much of an outside angle and lets Hardman dash straight up the field for a touchdown.
That’s a tough position for Davis to be in with no help in any direction, but as the literal last line of defense, has to play the ball-carrier more aggressively and try to make the tackle. There was no teammate to funnel Hardman to. Lack of awareness there on Davis’ part.
Davis is the field side safety in Tampa-2. He finds himself isolated against Tyreek Hill, who runs a corner-post route. Davis bites hard on Hill’s sell towards the sideline, allowing Hill to break wide open on his cut back towards the middle. Easy six for Patrick Mahomes.
Too aggressive of a break by Davis on the initial corner route sell. He needed to stay over top and force the quarterback to fit the ball into a tight window.
Blessuan Austin gets toasted by Hill for a touchdown on this play, but Davis misses a chance to stop it shy of the end zone. Davis is the single-high safety to the boundary side, while Mahomes throws to the field side, giving Davis a lot of ground to cover. With his track-runner speed, Davis is plenty capable of covering the long distance, but he runs a poor route to the catch point, taking too flat of an angle. Davis arrives at the wrong spot and cannot do anything to stop Hill.
Hopefully, Davis’s feel for situations like that one will improve with more reps. His target point needed to be much closer to the goal line, a spot where Hill would smack right into him after making the catch. Instead, Davis targeted the catch point, looking to break up the pass. That could have worked if Davis were closer or had more time to get there, but with so much ground to cover, Davis needed to focus on preventing the touchdown, not the catch.
Ashtyn Davis: The good
While Davis’ debut was mostly bad, he did make some impressive plays that showcase the .
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