CINCINNATI — It’s no secret that the crux of the Bengals offense is centered around Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase.
The two stars are having All-Pro seasons at their positions and producing at a level that is keeping Cincinnati’s flickering playoff hopes alive.
Ja’Marr Chase has taken his game to the next level this year, finding new ways of getting open on intermediate and short routes that have led to explosives.
There was the 64-yard touchdown at Carolina in Week 4. The next week, Chase caught a flare in the right flat, split the Baltimore defense and took off for a 70-yard TD. There was the pass over the middle against the Ravens in the third quarter last Thursday that Chase caught before outracing the entire Ravens secondary on his way to a 67-yard score. And then – one quarter later – Chase did it again, taking the top off a Ravens defense designed to stop him for a 70-yard bomb.
JA'MARR CHASE 70-YARD TD.
FIVE TOUCHDOWN PASSES FOR JOE BURROW.
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“What you’re finding with Ja’Marr is you are accessing them with him on the move, so now instead of him catching the ball as a stationary or work back target he’s catching the ball as an on the move target that can continue his speed through the catch,” Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. “That’s what you see in Carolina with the touchdown. That’s what you saw on the first play of the second half the other night. If he maintains his speed through the catch at the second level of the defense and into the third level watch out.”
Burrow took 13 hits in Thursday’s loss to the Ravens, including one egregiously late hit by Marlon Humphrey, and knows that he might have to continue to take the abuse to get the ball to his targets down field, including Chase.
“Where we are right now, that’s how I’m going to have to play,” Burrow told me.
“The protection, number one. We are not just a six-man protectin dropback team right now. Our offensive line is giving us a lot of ways to move the pocket, extend the drop a little bit to find ways to maneuver in the pocket so we can push the ball down the field in those situations,” Burrow added. “I think that’s a credit to our offensive line.”
Chase leads the NFL in touchdowns with 10. He leads the league in yards with 981 yards and in catches with 66. With numbers like that, Chase doesn’t have to remind Burrow to get him the ball.
“No, he’s not (in my ear),” Burrow said. “But you know if you have a guy like that if you are not trying to find ways to get him the ball then he maybe isn’t going to let you know directly, but he’ll let you know in his way, for sure.”
And, what exactly, is that way?
“Depends. Sometimes it is on the sidelines. Sometimes it is individual conversation in the locker room. Sometimes it is through (media),” Burrow replied. “There’s a lot of different ways that a receiver can tell you, ‘Hey, get me the fucking ball.’”
The best way to get Chase the ball this year has been to make him less predictable in the pre-snap presentation.
“We’re moving him around,” Burrow said Wednesday. “It’s a credit to him how smart he has been this year. Understanding when he is in the slot, when he’s in the stack, when he is outside, when he is in the backfield. Credit to our coaching staff for coming up with finding all these different ways to get him the ball.
“I think he’s really taken a step this year as far as understanding zone coverage, understanding what his job is and all these different little details on these routes. I think he’s just continuing to get better, as crazy as that sounds.”
“I think some of that has meshed with increased utilization of some different play-action concepts that we’ve dabbled in in the past that we’re doing more of now,” Pitcher said. “You create this stretch in the defense later in the down. Joe by all means is still getting rid of the ball very quickly, but when we call certain things it allows him to hold onto it a little longer and then you can kind of access those areas.”
Pitcher explains exactly why moving him around can compromise a defense.
“We’ve been building toward this usage of him. Ja’Marr has shown he’s fully capable of wherever we ask him to go, whatever we ask him to do he’s going to be able to do it,” Pitcher said. “When you rise to the level of player he has risen to it is incumbent on us to do those things so he can continue to be the elite player from a production standpoint so we are not putting him in one spot so they know where he’s going to be and dictate everything to that.
“That’s what we set out to do. In a lot of ways we’ve done a good job of it. We have to continue finding novel ways to get him in spots where they dont’ expect him to be. Every time you put him somewhere new they got to have a new rule. If they have some type of ‘Cover Ja’Marr’ element to whatever they are doing to where they are checking where he’s at, every time he lines up in a new spot they have to have a new rule. That gets heavy. That gets expensive. It might discourage them from doing it altogether or could limit what they could do outside of that. It’s what we are trying to do with him.”
Burrow sees moving Chase around as a way to force defenses to make a choice, something that might be a bigger deal this week if Tee Higgins returns.
“If we are doing that and moving him around teams can’t take him away,” Burrow said. “Just finding ways to get him the ball in so many different situations. When we are moving him around like that teams can’t just focus in on him and say we are going to cloud this side or double when we play man. You just always have to be aware of where he’s at.”
When Burrow joked Wednesday about Chase letting him know in different ways to get him the “F-ing” ball, he smiled because everyone knows Burrow isn’t stupid. He knows the best option if he has time in the pocket to deliver the ball. This is the same quarterback that said after beating Kansas City when Chase had 11 catches and 266 yards in Jan. 2022, “F-it. Ja’Marr’s down there somewhere.”
“I think it fit a bigger picture of what we’re trying to do, and then now you get to put Ja’Marr in any and all spots,” Pitcher said. “There have been plenty of times this year where we’ve called those concepts and he’s the low part. He’s the part that your counting on the defense to grab so that we can throw in behind them. If they don’t grab him, then, shoot, we’ll just throw it to him in front and now you have to go tackle him anyway. I think they’re good, sound concepts. We have to figure out ways to continue to use him that look different to the defense and just move Ja’Marr all around.”
NOTES:
“I guess I hadn’t really thought about it. I don’t know. I hope it doesn’t really feel like anything. Just get ready for this one,” Burrow said, before offering, “Yeah, that day sucked.”
“I feel great. After about 24 hours, I was back to normal,” said Burrow, who indicated he wasn’t upset about all the hits except the Humphrey blast in the fourth quarter. “I don’t know why that is. I’m sure everyone feels that way to some degree. I think there was one that absolutely should have been called. But other than that, I don’t think there were many that I was upset about. There was just one.”
And why doesn’t Burrow lobby the officials?
“I don’t pay attention to that,” Burrow said. “I don’t think you can. I’m not going to be the guy to argue with refs about calls through the whole game. It gets me out of my thought process and the zone that I’m in. I don’t think it’s my job.
“Yeah, there’s not a ton of time between plays. Get your mind set on the situation. What the call is going to be. What the personnel group is going to be. What I’m expecting from the defense in this situation. I don’t want to waste five seconds complaining to the ref about a call that I didn’t get and then I have to flop my mindset back where it’s supposed to be. It’s a waste of time.”
