CINCINNATI — Sunday looked and sounded different even before the Bengals and Chiefs kicked off at Paycor Stadium, as quarterback Joe Burrow got bumped from his customary headliner role to that of an opening act.
Burrow always goes last on days when it’s the offensive players’ turn to run for pregame introductions. And he has since the first game of his rookie year.
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But Sunday, Burrow went 10th. There was another teammate waiting behind him with a confident smile and nervous-energy bounce as public address announcer Nick Wiget boomed into the microphone: “At wide receiver, from LSU, No. 1 — he’s baaaack — Ja’Marr Chase.”
Chase returned from a hip injury that forced him to miss four games just in time to face the same Chiefs team he torched for a franchise-record 266 yards and three touchdowns last January. This time there was no cape, phone booth or bullet racing. Although there was some flying.
Chase didn’t have to be Superman in his return. Burrow took on that role, leading the Bengals to a 27-24 victory to keep pace with the Ravens for first place in the AFC North at 8-4.
Chase simply had to step on the field and play to help the Bengals secure a third win against the Chiefs — the team with the best record in the AFC — in the 2022 calendar year, while at the same time unlocking the full potential of the Bengals offense.
“I was excited and nervous,” Chase said. “If I’m nervous, that means I care. But I was so excited about the game, I had to not let my emotions get the best of me out there and just play football.”
He didn’t catch his first of seven passes until near the end of the first quarter, an unspectacular seven-yard gain to convert third-and-2 and extend what would be a second consecutive touchdown drive to open the game with a 14-3 lead.
But by the end of the game, Chase had a team-high 97 receiving yards and was on the receiving end of yet another toss during the postgame celebration in the locker room, when head coach Zac Taylor delivered the “He’s baaack” call, which many of the players enthusiastically parroted.
We can't say it enough: this locker room is special.
Locker Room Celly | @KetteringHealth pic.twitter.com/CAWdBbJtiQ
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) December 5, 2022
“Since he’s got back, I’ve kind of been surprised at how he looks the same as when he left,” Taylor said. “I hadn’t felt that after some reps last week, just watching him do routes on air. Before the Tennessee game, I knew the wise thing to do was communicate with him and keep him out. But watching him move, man, if he comes to me and says, ‘I’m definitely playing this game,’ I might have a couple plays ready for him. He’s just a freak.”
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Even Chase’s incompletions were freaky. All one of them. His lone target that didn’t result in a reception was a long pass down the left sideline in which he leaped and squeezed the ball with just his right hand but was unable to get both feet in bounds up returning to Earth.
Ja’Marr Chase, all the way up. pic.twitter.com/4RjP1n61vd
— Sam Greene (@SGdoesit) December 4, 2022
“That’s Ja’Marr Chase,” Tee Higgins said. “He’s gonna make those big-time plays. It sucks that one-handed catch didn’t count, but that was a hell of a catch.”
Chase did more flying later in the game, hurdling a Chiefs defender who tried to chop him down after turning a short catch into a 40-yard run.
“That was an instinct,” Chase said. “I just seen him coming too slow at me and I knew he had to go at my legs if he was coming that slow, so I just jumped in the air.”
Any concerns about the hip in that instant?
“I’m 100 percent, bro,” Chase replied.
As Higgins was answering a question about what it meant to have his teammate back, Chase yelled, “one-on-one” followed by a big laugh from the next locker over.
It didn’t take long for the Chiefs to shower Chase with attention. The Bengals won the toss, took the ball and drove to the 4-yard line. On first-and-goal, the Kansas City defense played one of the tightest double teams you’ll see, with a corner and safety pairing to take away both inside and outside leverage from Chase.
Burrow threw incomplete for Samaje Perine, who also benefitted from all the attention thrown at Chase to rack up a career-high 155 scrimmage yards. The Bengals went back to the same formation on second down, and so did the Chiefs. The defense spread thin and heavy on Chase, so Burrow kept the ball and ran up the middle for the game’s first touchdown.
So what did Chase’s mere presence open up Taylor as a play-caller?
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“Everything,” Taylor said. “No disrespect to anybody else. but you’ve got two of the premier receivers in all of football on the outside and TB (Tyler Boyd) in the middle, so that can stress a defense. They pay attention to that. That helps the run game. It really does, when they’ve got to devote a little bit more coverage over there to Ja’Marr and Tee.”
Without even touching the ball, Chase stressed the Kansas City defense and injected some extra juice into his offensive line.
“The psychology of an O-lineman when you know there’s a guy whenever he touches the ball can house it is a good feeling,” center Ted Karras said.
Not everything went great for Chase on his return. In fact, there were a couple of big mistakes that had people lighting into him. The first instance came after the Bengals scored their second touchdown to go up 14-3.
Chase got in the face of Kansas City safety Justin Reid, who made headlines earlier in the week with his rambling assessment that he was going to shut down tight end Hayden Hurst, although he referred to him as Higgins and seemed generally confused by what he was saying. Chase started doing the “make it rain” motion with his hands right in front of Reid, drawing a taunting penalty.
Taylor was screaming at Chase as he returned to the sideline.
“Nobody gets a pass on a taunting penalty,” Taylor said. “I saw it. He apologized afterwards. We had two of those, that’s uncharacteristic of our team and we’ve got to do a better job of controlling the emotions there.”
Chase said he would have done it again if it wouldn’t mean he’d be ejected.
“I was out of my mind,” Chase said. “I was losin’ myself, man. I seen 20 and just went crazy. I was just asking for my money. He didn’t want to talk to me.”
Chase also had an offensive pass interference penalty that negated his own 17-yard gain. And then on the first play after the Bengals took over with 3:19 remaining and the 27-24 lead, Chase caught a short pass from Burrow and ran out of bounds, saving the Chiefs from having to use one of their timeouts.
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Higgins let him hear it.
“He went off on me,” Chase said. “He said, ‘stay in bounds,’ but he just had an angry voice to it. I was just lost in the moment of trying to get the first down. They wasn’t trying to tackle me, so I was just going for it. I just ended up going out of bounds.”
The next three plays were runs that forced Kansas City to use its three timeouts. Then on third-and-5 from the 32, Burrow hit Chase for five yards and a first down that left the Chiefs with only the faintest of hope. The visitors still had a chance to get the ball back with a stop on third-and-11 with 1:59 to go, but Burrow hit Higgins on a slant pass for 14 yards and a game-sealing first down.
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As Higgins got up from the tackle, Chase was the first one there to greet him with a double flex.
“It was a lot of fun, just having him back and seeing him be the competitive player he is,” Higgins said. “Just seeing that makes me happy.”
Most of the 66,243 fans inside Paycor Stadium would agree.
The Bengals went 3-1 in Chase’s absence and put up some impressive scoring and yardage totals. But his presence, whether he’s catching passes or just garnering attention, elevates the Bengals from good to great, and from playoff hopefuls to Super Bowl contenders.
The Chiefs aren’t the only team yet to figure out how to stop Chase and the Bengals. They’re just the only team who has had three cracks at it in the last 11 months.
More will get their shot in December and January.
Boyd’s message was simple: Good luck.
“Now that we got the three-headed monster back, you can’t really stop us,” Boyd said.
(Photo: Kareem Elgazzar / USA Today)
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