New York Jets defensive film roundup from loss to Kansas City Chiefs

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 . Davis' coverage is paramount to creating a stop on this third-and-4 play. Davis presses Chiefs wide receiver Demarcus Robinson on the line of scrimmage. Robinson gives a stretch release to the left and looks to cut inside, but Davis takes advantage of the five-yard contact window and gets hands-on early, stymying Robinson. This leads to Robinson getting tripped by Bryce Huff, blowing up the route. Davis passes Robinson off to Brian Poole, shoving him upfield (still in the contact window). Davis then transitions and picks up Travis Kelce. Mahomes has no chance to hit either Robinson or Kelce and dumps the ball off to Byron Pringle, where Austin makes the tackle to bring up fourth down. That's a small glimpse of the versatile coverage ability that gives Davis the potential to become a highly valuable jack-of-all-trades defensive back. Davis is essentially the strong side outside linebacker on this play. He takes the tight end (Nick Keizer) into the flat and shows off his excellent closing speed as he makes a fantastic tackle into the sideline that eliminates any extra yardage after contact. A rough game for Bless Austin Austin's coverage this season has been poor, but he has been lucky enough throughout the season for the ball to find other players. Against the Chiefs, the roof finally caved in. Hill toasts Austin for a 41-yard touchdown here (same play discussed with Davis above). Austin actually has this covered decently for a while, reacting well to Hill's speed release as he wastes little time turning and running up the field with him. However, at about the 25-yard line, Austin attempts to squeeze Hill towards the sideline, and that's where he loses him. Not only does Hill blow by Austin vertically (he's too fast to break your stride against him at all), but he gets an inside angle as Austin whiffs on the contact and drifts towards the sideline. Austin is unable to play the ball after giving up the inside, and Hill easily tracks it. That was the second touchdown allowed by Austin in about a seven-minute span. With 2:22 left in the third quarter, Austin was toasted by Robinson for a 26-yard score. Austin opens up outside against Robinson's speed release. Robinson sells a post, and Austin flips his hips back to the inside. The problem is that Austin flips by turning his body upfield and towards the end zone, which leads to him losing sight of Robinson for a sliver of a second. With no sight of Robinson because of his upfield turn, Austin has to make a guess on how to play the route once he turns back inside. He plays the inside aggressively and it backfires, as Robinson converts the post into a corner. Robinson creates plenty of separation and Mahomes drops it in for six points. Austin cannot lose sight of the receiver like that. He has to flip his hips over the middle, rotating with his head and body towards the opposition at all times. Turning upfield with your eyes and entire body facing the end zone is a death sentence. If you lose sight of an NFL receiver for even a tenth of a second, you're toast. Quinnen Williams shows more to love Williams had himself another positive performance with elite flashes. From the 4i-tech, Williams rushes against the left guard. The guard throws two hands and Williams destroys them with a violent double-swipe towards the inside. Williams' outside arm hits incredibly hard, opening up a window to the outside. Williams converts the swipe into a rip and brings down Mahomes for the hit to force an incompletion (milliseconds from being a sack). Williams' sideline-to-sideline range is special for an interior lineman. As the back side 1-tech on this screen play, Williams engages the right guard and notices the screen developing when he sees the center move to the second level and allow Neville Hewitt though unblocked. Williams is not suckered into penetrating and keeps his eyes on the running back (Clyde Edwards-Helaire), sprinting outside to make the tackle in space for a three-yard loss. Franklin-Myers, Fatukasi hang tough against the run John Franklin-Myers and Folorunso Fatukasi made some great plays against the run. Franklin-Myers lines up as the 4i-tech here. He skips inside, hits the right guard with a double-swipe, and blasts through the play side A-gap. Giving him a reminder of the blocking he ran behind for the Jets in 2019, Franklin-Myers hits Le'Veon Bell in the backfield for a three-yard loss. As the play side 2-tech on this second-and-6 run against a very light front, Franklin-Myers holds a potentially huge play to only three yards. Franklin-Myers looks to penetrate the A-gap and finds himself sealed to the back side by the center. At this point, there appears to be a ton of room for Edwards-Helaire, but Franklin-Myers is able to extend his arm to fend off the block and then turn on the afterburners to dash over and make the stop. One of the smallest interior defensive linemen in the league at 288 pounds, there are not many players at Franklin-Myers' position who can close ground as quickly as he did there. It's way overdue for me to give some love to Fatukasi, the native Long Islander. He is quietly having another great season against the run. Fatukasi has the sixth-best Pro Football Focus run defense grade (80.1) among qualified IDL after ranking fifth (87.6) last season. Aaron Donald and Cameron Heyward are the only players ranked top-six for the second consecutive season. As the 2i-tech on the play side, Fatukasi holds his ground against a double team from the center and right guard. Fatukasi explodes out of his stance and stays lower than the center to stand him up and create some penetration. At the same time, Fatukasi stays strong enough in his lower half to maintain his position while the right guard attempts to move him inside. Once the right guard hits the second level, Fatukasi has the play side A-gap clogged, forcing Darwin Thompson to bounce the ball outside. Reinforcements arrive and Thompson is stopped for a one-yard gain on first down - Fatukasi gets involved to share the tackle credit with Hewitt. Fatukasi is the play side 2i-tech. Tarell Basham clears the right tackle with a swim move to force a cutback by Darrel Williams. Seeing the cutback, Fatukasi plants himself and uses the center's lateral momentum against him, tossing him to the outside by his shoulder. Fatukasi peels off and gets inside to join up with Avery Williamson on the stop for two yards.