For as bad as things are going in Pittsburgh right now, I’m sure fans of the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t feeling much better. Following yet another bad loss, this time to the Tennessee Titans, they are sitting at 1-3 and in sole possession of last place in the AFC North.
Offensively, they have scored exactly 49 points this season, including a field goal in yesterday’s 27-3 loss. They have four touchdowns on the season, like the Steelers, including two to WR Tee Higgins, who has a rib fracture now that will likely cause him to miss some time.
One player who hasn’t found the end zone yet is WR Ja’Marr Chase, who is one of the most talented players at his position in the league today. While he did catch seven passes for 73 yards in the loss on nine yards, his impact has been muted.
Asked after the game if he felt that he had less time to get open in this offense right now with defenses not respecting the passing game and sending a heavy amount of blitzes, Chase said, “I’m open. I’m always fucking open”, via Joe Danneman of FOX 19 on Twitter. “Excuse my profanity, I’m sorry”.
In the 48-second clip, Chase actually appears rather calm, cool, and collected, even when he suddenly dropped the F bomb, so it’s hard to know precisely what to read in it, if anything. There will obviously be some degree of frustration failing to find the end zone while your team is getting blown out, but this didn’t strike me as an uncontrollable emotional discharge of aggravation.
Chase struggled to make plays the first two weeks, but QB Joe Burrow, still dealing with a significant calf injury, said last week that he made a conscious effort to feed him the ball. The wide receiver went from a combined 10 catches for 70 yards in the first two games to 12 catches for 141 yards against the Los Angeles Rams.
The wide receiver added of his quarterback in the above-linked video that Burrow was going through “a little adversity” and that he would “be back in no time”, presumably meaning back to his old form, though for the moment he is not looking like the same player who led them to conference finals two years in a row.
After yesterday’s game, Chase now has 29 catches on the season for 286 yards, but, again, without a touchdown. Burrow only completed 20 of 30 passes for 165 yards against the Titans. Though he didn’t throw an interception, he did lose a fumble.
Following last week’s victory, Burrow made it very clear that the team’s 0-2 start was a driving force in his pushing his way back onto the field after aggravating his calf injury, acknowledging that he is seriously risking an even more significant issue.
I would assume that he remains at heightened risk of more severe injury, however, so if he is not going to be playing at a winning level, the Bengals should seriously consider sitting him, because it will probably only make things worse in the long run.
And once he’s back healthy, he will have Chase, who is always, ahem, open, to lean on.
