Chase and Burrow relive LSU glory days
Joe Burrow's arrival to the Cincinnati Bengals was framed as a proud Ohioan coming home to rescue one of the NFL's beleaguered franchises.
If Joe couldn't save the Bengals, wrote a veteran local columnist in 2020, perhaps no one could. The team might have to be relocated.
To where?
To San Diego?
If the scenario seemed farfetched for many reasons, it now seems moot in light of one large football development.
Burrow, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2020, has caught fire, passing for nearly 1,000 yards, eight touchdowns and no interceptions in his past two games. The second-year quarterback is solving NFL defenses with apparent ease.
“Burrow is just 10 times smarter than he was” earlier this season, Bengals receiver Ja'Marr Chase said Sunday after a 34-31 victory against the Chiefs clinched Cincinnati's first AFC North title in six years and dropped Kansas City behind Tennessee for the AFC's top seed and playoff bye.
Chase, a rookie, may be outperforming even Burrow.
Burning the Chiefs for assigning him single coverage most of the game, Chase caught 11 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns.
So, 24.2 yards per catch. On third-and-27 in the final quarter, Chase outdueled cornerback Charvarius Ward to pluck a sideline pass, good for 30 yards.
It sent the Bengals (10-6) to a game-winning, 20-yard field goal.
Told his 266 yards exceeded the passing output of Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes, who went for 259 yards and two TDs, the rookie expressed disbelief.
“Excuse my profanity,” Chase said after shouting.
Chase is masterful at read
ing the defense and tailoring the best route to defeat it, said Burrow.
Also: He's both very quick and very fast, wins the contested catches and eludes tacklers.
“If you are going to play him one-on-one a lot of times, it's going to be a very long day for you,” said Burrow, who was 30 of 39 for 446 yards and four TDs.
Magical things happen to feline-themed offenses that enlist Burrow and Chase.
As teammates with the LSU “Bayou Bengal” Tigers, the duo drove an offense that averaged 48.4 points and took the 2019 team to a 15-0 record and the national title.
Burrow, a transfer from Ohio State, learned that if he threw deep toward Chase, he'd bag some fruit: either a reception or interference flag.
Chase, who played high school ball in New Orleans, led the nation in receiving yards in 2019 when he averaged 21.2 yards per catch.
Twenty of the sophomore's 84 receptions went for a touchdown.
Reunited via the No. 5 pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, Burrow and Chase are replicating a large chunk of their collegiate success.
Chase is up to 18.1 yards per catch on 79 receptions.
The 6-foot-1 receiver, who won't turn 22 until March, has joined Hall of Fame wideout Randy Moss as the only players to log
1,200 receiving yards and 12 TDs before age 22, per Football Perspective.
Unlike LSU's team, the Bengals have a major personnel deficit to overcome: a subpar, injury-weakened line that's contributed to Burrow suffering the NFL's highest sack percentage across the past two seasons.
Burrow took hard hits and scrambled often Sunday against blitz-happy K.C.
Two plays before Evan
McPherson kicked the winning field goal, Burrow exited with a knee injury. He described it as not serious, confirming it wasn't the knee that was surgically reconstructed last year.
From the sideline, Burrow looked at the stadium video board and saw McPherson's kick that ensured Cincinnati will be at home when its pursues the franchise's first playoff victory since 1991 (when neither Burrow nor Chase had been born).
“I would say it means more because I'm from Ohio,” said Burrow, who threw for 525 yards against Baltimore in the previous game. “I know the history of the Bengals.”
Chiefs took a hit
The Chiefs lost both first-string tackles to injury, scored three points in the second half and seldom, if ever, stopped Chase, who also converted on third down via a 14-yard interference flag.
So, if the Titans (11-5) win Sunday at Houston (4-12) to claim the top seed, the Chiefs (11-5) will have to play at least three playoff games, not two, to reach a third consecutive Super Bowl. Beating the Chiefs in Week 7 gave Tennessee the tie-breaker.
It wasn't a great game for the officials. “Bad,” said CBS analyst Tony Romo of two key flags on K.C.'s defense. Also: Expect the NFL to acknowledge Monday a Bengals guard should've been flagged for a false start at the Chiefs 1 on the decisive drive.
A Chiefs radio broadcaster likened the officiating to the much-critiqued performance by basketball officials in the 1972 Olympics game, in Munich, between the United States and Soviet Union. (Hint: The Bengals were the Soviets.)
On balance, this happened: The Bengals outplayed a Chiefs secondary that amassed six flags (one of which was offset), missed numerous tackles and busted coverage that Chase exploited for a 69-yard TD, pulling his team to 28-24.
“We've been unlucky for two years,” said Burrow. “We'll take a little luck on our side.”