How Jamin Davis performed without Cole Holcomb
Cole Holcomb missed the Colts game, leaving Davis as Washington’s top linebacker. How did he do without his fellow linebacker on the field next to him?
With Cole Holcomb out injured, the Washington Commanders were left extremely thin at linebacker on Sunday against the Colts. To combat this, they worked heavily out of a three safety package and a 5-1 front with five defensive lineman and just one linebacker. They also opted to give Kam Curl the responsibility of calling the defense rather than trusting any other linebacker. The one linebacker that did play throughout the game was Jamin Davis. In fact, it was the first time in his career that he played every defensive snap.
After a poor start to the season which included him being publicly called out by the coaching staff, Davis has shown steady improvement this season and is now playing at a functional level at least, with flashes of being able to reach a significantly higher standard in the future. But without Holcomb next to him and an increased workload, how did he cope? Let’s take a closer look.
The first thing that stood out was that Davis didn’t look out of place despite being the only linebacker on the field a lot of the time. He continued to play at a solid level and made some nice plays, particularly in the run game.
Here we see the Colts line up in the shotgun but looking to run the ball inside. Davis is the only linebacker on the field, which can add some pressure to playing the linebacker spot as he’s the only second level defender in position to make an adjustment if a defensive lineman gets worked into the wrong gap. But Davis doesn’t panic and just reads the play out nicely. Off the snap he reads the run and steps up towards the line of scrimmage to fill his gap between the center and left guard. However, he doesn’t overcommit as he reads the running back looking to cut the run back early. So Davis adjusts his position, falling back a few gaps to suddenly emerge in the running lane and make the tackle to keep the gain to a minimum.
It was a nice play by Davis that showed he’s playing a lot more naturally in recent weeks instead of the hesitant, overthinking style he played with last season. It might not have been a spectacular play, but it was the correct read and he executed it well. Later on in the game though, Davis did make an eye-catching play.
Down on the goal line, the Colts face a third and one situation. Predictably, the Colts look to run the ball inside behind their pair of first-round lineman in center Ryan Kelly and left guard Quenton Nelson. The Commanders know what’s most likely to be coming here, so they use a run stunt to try and disrupt the blocking scheme. Off the snap, Jonathan Allen shifts to his right, attacking the B gap between the left guard and left tackle. Nelson at left guard was anticipating Allen to remain head up or dive inside to try and clog up the middle, so Allen surprised him with the stunt. That leaves a gap for Davis, who shows off his athleticism as he bursts through the hole and immediately makes the tackle in the backfield, forcing the Colts to settle for a field goal.
I’m sure this was the type of play the Commanders envisioned Davis making when they drafted him. Creating gaps for him with the talented defensive lineman they have up front and letting him use his athletic ability to burst through the line and make plays. It was a big play at the time and an even bigger one in hindsight given how close the game finished.
In coverage, Davis is still a work in progress. His athleticism allows him to play the underneath zones and match concepts that the Commanders like to run, but there’s still significant room for growth in this area. We saw earlier in the season he had some troubles matching up with running backs out of the backfield or receivers in the slot. At that point in time, he was failing to get tight enough to the receiver and take away a path inside, giving them a choice to cut inside in front of him or work outside. Then we saw some improvement as he got much tighter to receivers and took away the path inside. That was the case in this game too.
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