CINCINNATI — Ja’Marr Chase is embracing everything about being a captain.
Being a captain at the NFL level means doing everything possible to make sure your teammates are doing everything they can to fight. This means whether you’re winning or, more importantly, getting outscored 76-13 in two humbling losses. How do you keep your teammates from hanging their heads in defeat or keep them from sulking or worse, backbiting when it could be easy or convenient to throw a teammate under the bus?
On the Bengals, with so many things to correct over the last two games, it would be easy to blame others. But Chase is not one for finger pointing but rather trying to motivate everyone to be better. Offensively, that means more than nine first downs, not false starting from the offensive line, post-snap penalties from the receivers or lining up on the correct side of the formation, which Chase was guilty of, or dropping a first down pass over the middle, which was another mistake Chase committed Monday.
Chase is the right man to speak up because of his resume. Teammates know he’ll correct them, be reliable going forward and eventually return to his All-Pro level.
“The biggest thing about adversity, you gotta face it, look at in the eye, and attack it, just like us on the field,” Chase said. “We make mistakes. We gotta look at it on a film, correct it, and move on to the next play. The energy is always there. I want to say our DBs is our energy of the team. They always make an (effort) to be energetic. But overall, think it’s there. I think it’s just the will to fight the whole game when we face an adversity, that’s that’s the biggest thing.”
That’s what hasn’t always come across in the 48-10 and 28-3 losses in Minnesota and Denver. Zac Taylor says it’s been there. His antennae have been up for players who might make a “business decision” and protect themselves in a game that is hopelessly lost. Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher would agree.
“Nobody feels the outcomes of this more than the players and the coaches in this building, when you, when you go through something like you’ve gone through to the last two weeks, it’s a gut punch,” Pitcher said. “You viscerally feel it, but you have to turn the page and become problem solvers very quickly. And so that’s just what we do. That’s our job. How do you respond when you when you’re in a position where you know you’re not you’re not happy with how you’re playing, you’re embarrassed by how you’re playing, and so how do you respond? And that’s a challenge to our guys. I believe in the character of our players. I believe in the character of our coaches, and I believe we have all the ability in the building to get this turnaround.
“When you look at it and go to the board, the number one problem we have to find a way to sustain drives, move the ball down the field and score points. That sounds like a really generic answer, but there is no one solution. It’s all of us. It’s greatest team game on earth. Like we win as a team, we lose as a team. Single players have success because their teammates put them in position to have success. Single players struggle because their teammates aren’t supporting them enough. … I won’t sit here and say one party is more responsible for our struggles than another. We win as a team, we lose as a team. We grow as a team, or we don’t grow as a team, but we do it as a team.”
When the best player on the team is disgusted with the way the team is playing, the rest of the team should be, too. That’s why Chase wants to see more of his teammates uncomfortable. The wide receiver hinted too many of his teammates might be feeling too accepting of defeat after the last two losses, and he suggested without going into detail that he made that clear in his address to the team after Monday’s game.
“If I’m being honest, I don’t mind when the players get mad, I don’t, I don’t mind that, because that mean they care,” Chase said. “I’m saying I want guys to play with passion. I want them to play with anger. I’m saying because you never know how guys may respond. And I told my guys that recently, after the game, I just want them to play with a little more fire and anger.”
The Bengals may not be as talented as the Lions on Sunday but he wants to see a focus early in the game that’s produces results on the scoreboard. Chase knows as well as Zac Taylor and Dan Pitcher know that the offense has put the defense in horrible position the last two weeks.
“I stepped into more of a leader role. Now that Joe’s out, I felt like I had to, it’s a lot of accountability I’ve got to take going forward. As for the offense, the receiver room, just the whole team in general. Those guys look up to me as one of the best in the league from my work ethic and the way I handle things. So going forward, I gotta be that guy.”
Jake Browning must find a way, though his line hasn’t exactly given him clean pockets, to inspire an offense much in the same way he did against the Jaguars and Vikings in back-to-back weeks in 2023.
“We’ve got confidence in Jake,” Chase insisted. “Jake’s been here before. We all been here with him. We know what it’s like. Unfortunately, we’re going through a bump in the road. Something’s gonna happen. But like I said, it’s adversity, we got to face it, move on.”
Of course, on Monday night in Denver, everyone saw Chase walk up to Zac Taylor and discuss what was going wrong on the field, and why the ball was coming his way more often. Not everyone can both the head coach during a game like that. But Chase, as a captain, has Taylor’s ear and approach him with thoughts if he sees something he doesn’t like.
“Everything I do is pretty much overblown,” Chase laughed. “It happens, you know me, that’s normal. I feel like, for me, that’s not my first time doing that. Zac lets me walk up to him and talk to him like he wants me to do that. Sometimes my emotions, you know, pick up and, you know, I might look like I’m yelling, but I’m definitely just talking to him sometimes, but that’s normal… at the end of the day, you’ve got to remember, we receivers are we can’t get the ball to ourselves. So, that’s the hardest part about our job at the end of the day. So if a receiver wants the ball, then that’s good. If he doesn’t want the ball, then that’s not so good.”
There’s a passion and a fire Chase plays with that he wants to see others play with as well. That doesn’t mean they’ll go out and perform at his level but the effort and desire has to be there.
Whether or not Joe Burrow, who walked out of Paycor in a walking boot on Friday and not a scooter, will be on the sideline or not doesn’t concern Chase. Chase had a direct message for Burrow: Just get back on the field healthy in December or whenever he is healthy and ready to help the Bengals win.
“Sunday, Joe, hell no. You get ready. Don’t come out there. They don’t need to see you. Probably don’t need to see Joe face. Just get healthy. Come back later.”
His only message this week to him?
“I said ‘What’s up 9?’ and went to my little cave and hid.”
Until then, Chase will try and fill the void in leadership. Hopefully, the results will follow.
