The Pittsburgh Steelers employed a bold strategy in Week 18 against the triple-crown receiver of the Cincinnati Bengals. Cory Trice Jr., in his first NFL start, was predominantly matched up against Ja’Marr Chase. Baltimore Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey had some thoughts about this strategy.
On one hand, he is impressed with Trice given the relatively decent results and thinks the Steelers have a lot of confidence in him. On the other hand, he questionted if the Steelers really were trying to win that game.
“It’s a bold move, in my opinion,” Humphrey said via his Punch Line Podcast. “I just feel like, I don’t know how much playing experience he’s gotten, right? And I’m not saying he’s a bad player. I know nothing about his game. But I just felt as though he was one-on-one with Chase quite a bit.
“I feel like there was no safety. I was quite surprised at that game plan. And it actually, being that they did not give up 450 yards like we did, it seemed like it worked decently well. But they got a lot of confidence in that kid because I was like, ‘Are they trying to win?'”
According to Next Gen Stats, Trice covered Chase on 32 of his 50 routes for a 64-percent shadow rate. Chase had 10 receptions on 14 targets for 96 yards and a touchdown, but with Trice in coverage, he had eight receptions for 80 yards and a touchdown on nine targets. By no means did Trice lock down Chase, but the damage wasn’t as bad as you’d expect.
Joe Burrow would be the MVP this season had his team made the playoffs, and Chase will likely receive some votes for Offensive Player of the Year. In his first career start, and only his fourth game playing at least 20 snaps on defense, that isn’t half bad for Trice.
What didn’t make a lot of sense, and where the Steelers have been receiving some criticism, is why they didn’t switch Joey Porter Jr. to Chase once Tee Higgins exited the game with an injury. Does that speak to their level of confidence in Trice? I don’t see how else you can explain their failure to switch Porter over to Chase in that situation.
After the game, Patrick Queen said the defense didn’t blink with Trice covering Chase, saying they know what he is capable of.
At the end of the day, the Steelers allowed 19 points to the hottest offense in the NFL. That was the fewest points the Bengals had scored since Week 8. Whatever their plan was, it worked pretty well. If you were given the option to roll the dice on the defense with another result or take the 19 points, I think most people would be just fine with how they did overall.
Chase didn’t absolutely kill them, and Trice deserves some credit for that.
