CINCINNATI — Ja’Marr Chase wants the Bengals to start acting – and playing – like they’re the champions they want to be.
He’s fully aware that the team is coming off a putrid offensive display against the Patriots in a 16-10 loss at Paycor. He’s also fully aware that the Chiefs, the team they’ll play Sunday at Arrowhead – have won two straight Super Bowls and three in five years and defeated the Ravens in an AFC championship rematch on opening night.
But that didn’t stop him from telling his teammates in the wide receiver room to start expecting more from themselves, starting Sunday in Kansas City.
“We couldn’t ask for a better chance to get a win right here,” Chase told me. “We couldn’t ask for a better chance for the receivers to go crazy, for the quarterback to go crazy and for the whole offense to be ourselves again. I told them this is our chance to make a mark for the receivers.”
Chase didn’t stop there. He insisted that the Bengals head into Kansas City as the team to beat in the AFC.
“100 percent. Everybody knows that, bro, it’s not no if. We are the team to be in the AFC, and we know it, and we got to act like it, and we got to play like it, too.”
“There’s not no if. We are the team to beat in the AFC, and we know it. We gotta act like it and we’ve got to play like it,too.” pic.twitter.com/8hWSX8MGyS
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) September 12, 2024
What about all the criticism of the team this week?
“We’re not really worried about outsiders, man,” Chase continued. “We’re not worried about that all. That noise y’all making and stuff, we see it, we hear it but we’re not worried about it. At the end of the day it’s about the team, and what we’ll be doing on the field and not about outside people not on the field, telling us what we’re doing on the field so I let them stay outside and make their own comments.”
If there’s one person on Kansas City that Chase respects a great deal it’s defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
“They always do a good job of coming with good schemes against us,” Chase said. “I feel like they are one of the best teams to scheme against us and know what we’re doing. So you got to be technique-sound and fundamentally sound, (know) the snap count, just be prepared for anything they bring out. We know what they do, so we just got to be ready for it.”
This is what is truly unique about Ja’Marr Chase, and why it was refreshing to hear some of the swagger back that was missing before last week’s game. Chase offers a genuine look inside the Bengals locker room and to what players really think of the outside and the criticism that’s been heaped on them by pundits – local and national – following their ugly 16-10 loss to New England.
Chase is of the belief that these Bengals are fully capable of getting back to the point where they were in 2021 and 2022 when they beat the Chiefs in the AFC Championship and lost to them in the same game a year later.
Of course, the execution has to be there on the field, starting with the star quarterback. Everyone knows that. But what Chase revealed Thursday is nearly as important. Those teams had swagger and belief that they were fully capable. That seemed desperately lacking before Week 1, and some of that of course is on Chase the lingering, unresolved contract status.
Thursday may be a sign that Chase is ready to get that football chip back on his shoulder and playing with attitude. Burrow certainly indicated a willingness on Wednesday to try and look downfield more because he knows the offense depends on it.
The Bengals are better when Chase brings it on and off the field. He showed half of it on Thursday. The other half needs to show on Sunday at Arrowhead.
