With second-year Pittsburgh Steelers’ cornerback Joey Porter Jr. shadowing Cincinnati Bengals’ WR Tee Higgins early in the matchup Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, that put fellow second-year cornerback Cory Trice Jr. in a rather tough position.
Trice, starting in place of the injured Donte Jackson, found himself matched up with star receiver Ja’Marr Chase throughout much of the game. At times, Trice held his own.
At other times, the young cornerback had a rough go of things. That included a 12-yard touchdown from Bengals’ QB Joe Burrow to Chase on a play in which Trice was left alone on an island and was easily beaten for the score. Trice was later nearly beaten for another touchdown by Chase, but the ball went through the receiver’s hands.
For Steelers’ linebacker Patrick Queen, who spoke to reporters after the 19-17 loss to the Bengals, the Steelers knew exactly what Trice is capable of at the position and never blinked, even when Trice was slow out of the gate against Chase and allowed an early touchdown.
“He going against the best in the world and that’s what comes with this job and stuff. So, I don’t even think nobody said anything to him, but let’s go and go play again,” Queen said of Trice and the touchdown allowed to Chase, according to video via Steelers.com. “That stuff is gonna happen in this league and it’s football. It’s football.
“At the end of the day we got his back as teammates. We know exactly what he’s capable of. So when it comes to stuff like that, we don’t even blink our eyes. Just go on to the next route.”
The Steelers had Trice’s back from a teammate perspective, but putting the young cornerback making his first career start on the best receiver in football, and sometimes leaving him on an island, wasn’t exactly a smart gameplan.
According to Next Gen Stats, Chase was targeted nine times with Trice in coverage. He hauled in eight passes for 80 yards and a touchdown with Trice in coverage. Chase finished with 10 receptions for 96 yards and a score.
Check out the route chart.
Based on the Next Gen Stats charting, Trice was aligned on Chase on 32 of his 50 routes, good for a shadow rate of 64 percent. That includes 30 of 38 routes when Chase was aligned outside, good for a shadow rate of 78.9 percent. That’s rather high for Trice, especially in his first career start, and doing so against the best in the league.
When Trice wasn’t in coverage, Chase was targeted just five times, hauling in two passes for 16 yards.
Once Higgins exited the game with an injury, the Steelers took a bit to shift Porter to Chase. But once they did, they had success slowing down the superstar receiver.
It was a tough test for Trice, one that he struggled in. But that comes with the job, especially with a receiver like Chase. Hopefully the young cornerback can learn from the tough night at the office and build off of it.
