Detroit Lions' Jarrad Davis moving past 'bone-headed mistake' vs. Giants

Carlos Monarrez | Detroit Free Press

Detroit Lions linebacker Jarrad Davis isn’t worried about his struggles in pass coverage and chalked up a major gaffe in last week’s game to a “bone-headed mistake.”

Davis, the Lions’ first-round draft pick last year, had constant difficulty in pass coverage as a rookie and for a time lost his job in nickel and dime packages. This year, he has made improvement in coverage an emphasis.

But the New York Giants proved Davis could still be a liability in coverage. They isolated running back Wayne Gallman on Davis for an 8-yard touchdown in the Lions’ 30-17 preseason loss. On third-and-goal from the 8, Davis stepped forward to cover Gallman, who simply cut inside and blew past Davis untouched for an easy touchdown.

Giants 2nd year RB Wayne Gallman was impressive last night, could be a nice complementary back to Barkley. Here he is absolutely cooking the Lions 2017 1st round LB Jarrad Davis for a TD. pic.twitter.com/YtuvC0ws1J — Mad Man Scouting (@MadManScouting) August 18, 2018

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Davis insisted Tuesday he wasn’t worried about any issues with his pass coverage.

“Not really,” he said. “I’ve been working at it all summer and all throughout camp and I’ve gotten a lot better than I was last year.

“But when you get in that game situation, you’ve got to really just stick to your technique. I just got over-excited right there and just really stepped outside of myself and made a bone-headed mistake.”

Coaching and film study has told Davis that he has to remember his technique and carry over good habits from practice to games.

“I’ve just got to get back to the basics, man,” he said. “I’ve just got to definitely play with my leverage and play with better eyes. Look at the receiver versus the quarterback. The quarterback, you see a ball thrown, you’ve got to see the ball caught.

“So I’ve just got to make sure I’m really focusing in practice and when I get in that game situation just, eh, just do what I do in practice and make the play in the game. It’s no different.”

Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.