After each game, we’ll be highlighting three defensive and three offensive players and looking in detail at their performance. We’ll wrap up today with the offense:
It’s a brand new Davis
Breece Hall made a ton of headlines on Sunday, but Isaiah Davis also had the best game of his career. Prior to Sunday, his best output had been 67 yards on 13 touches in last year’s overtime loss to the Dolphins, which Hall missed. However, in Cincinnati, Davis had 109 yards from scrimmage on 12 touches.
In this game, Davis had the longest play of his career when he burst for 50 yards over the right side. However, he was otherwise not that effective as a runner with just 15 yards on his other six carries.
Instead, it was as a receiver where he really excelled. He was targeted six times and all six were successful completions with 44 yards and a two-point conversion.
His longest play was a 26-yard gain after he lined up in the slot and used his speed to break into the open.
While none of his other catches was a first down, he had some useful chunks of yardage as a safety valve, including a nine-yard catch down to the six-yard line on the game-winning drive.
His two-point conversion proved to be a huge play, without which the Jets would have needed to go for two again just to tie the score after their late touchdown. He showed good instincts here to keep moving and give Fields a target to throw to in desperation and obviously it was a tough catch that had to be clean otherwise he wouldn’t have been ruled to have possessed it while the ball was breaking the plane.
Davis continues to be an excellent option as a change-of-pace back, with Braelon Allen’s injury seemingly having had no effect on this position group.
At the time of writing, a Hall trade is still something that has been speculated on, but for Davis, it would probably be for the best if Hall remains and he continues to establish himself as the number two.
SurprIsaiah Williams
With Garrett Wilson and Josh Reynolds out, there was some discussion about who might step up in their absence. Arian Smith? Brandon Smith? Jelani Woods? However, literally nobody outside the organization expected Isaiah Williams to be the guy.
Williams entered Sunday’s game with just one offensive snap and was arguably lucky to still be with the team following a few mental errors during his early days in the return specialist role here. However, on Sunday, he played 30 snaps and did a surprisingly good job.
The 24-year old, who entered the game with two career catches for six yards, came up big in the first half with a 25-yard run on a jet sweep and two first down catches.
The first of his two first downs came on a 3rd-and-10 as he broke to the outside and then he had another a few plays later on this play:
He ended up with 56 yards on four touches and also had a key block on Hall’s 27-yard touchdown run.
Williams was also named as the AFC’s special teams player of the week after having had punt returns of 17 and 21 yards, and a kickoff return of 37 yards on his way to 226 all-purpose yards.
The Jets just traded for John Metchie and should get Garrett Wilson back soon so it will be interesting to see if Williams gets more opportunities off the back of this performance. If he does, it should be at the expense of Allen Lazard’s rep count, not either of the Smiths.
Olu – is it me you’re looking for?
The offensive line played a huge role in Sunday’s win, as their young tackles didn’t give up a pressure between them and the running game racked up over 250 yards. While Trey Hendrickson being banged-up certainly helped – the all-pro was limited to 23 snaps and had just one tackle and no pressures – there were clean pockets all day for Justin Fields and this was a big part of him re-finding some confidence and rhythm.
Let’s focus on a few of Fashanu’s contributions in the running game, though:
On this play, he is tasked with kicking out the defensive end who is standing up and lined up wide. Fashanu not only seals him off but overpowers him, moving him back off his spot with impressive strength and good technique as he gets his pad level low before the initial contact.
On this one, a cornerback has to deal with the terrifying sight of Fashanu pulling left and leading the way. Fashanu deals with DJ Turner easily to set up another nice gain.
For the season as a whole, Fashanu has given up three sacks (including one each in the previous two games) but has just three penalties after he had seven in seven starts last season, although his pressure rate is up slightly.
Hopefully this performance from the 22-year old sets him up to have a big second half of the season.
Previously: Three on D: McDonald, Thomas, Quincy Williams