Don't look now, but Bengals All-Pro wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase is back in the NFL lead in one of the Triple Crown categories and is in range of the other two as he guns to be the first receiver since World War II to win it back-to-back.
And that's with 26 catches, 255 yards, and two touchdowns coming within four days from a quarterback who got here nine days before the record effort.
Even more amazing is that on Friday, as he mused about how many actual reps Chase has taken with Joe Flacco in practice, head coach Zac Taylor revealed an astounding low number.
"Live? However many we got last Thursday. And some of the walk-through reps on Friday, so I don't know," Taylor calculated, taking in account Chase's illness last week and the truncated prep for this week.
"Live balls he's thrown to him? Five. Maybe."
Taylor agreed. Astounding.
"It's like, you and I aren't Joe Flacco and Ja'Marr Chase. It's just they do amazing things, and credit to them. It's they put in the work, and in the moment their heart rate, they're just like this," said Taylor in a stress-free presser. "And it's because they work. When you work, and you've got confidence in your work, and then you go out there to get an opportunity. Then you get a great opportunity, make the most of it. And that's what those two guys have done."
After his club-record 16 catches netted him 161 yards and a touchdown Thursday night in the 33-31 win over the Steelers, Chase has 58 catches for a four-catch lead over the Rams' Puka Nacua that could hold up until next week.
Nacua (ankle) is out this week. The next closest pursuers are 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (46) and Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson with 44 each. No byes for either for a few more weeks.
Chase's 629 yards trail Seattle wide receiver Jaxson Smith-Ngiba by 67 yards and lead Nacua by 13. The next closest pursuer, Dallas' George Pickens, trails Chase by 104 yards.
Chase's five touchdowns trail the six of Pickens and St. Brown and are tied with Bucs wide receiver Emeka Egbuka and the Bears' Rome Odunze.
Corner Competition
Cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, who took Pro Bowl wide receiver D.K Metcalf out of a game two years ago, had to watch DJ Turner II do it Thursday night while he was on the bench in sweats.
Inactive for the first time since his 2022 rookie year, Taylor-Britt manned up and helped talk Turner through holding Metcalf to three targets, via Pro Football Focus. The one catch for 39 yards came basically in the first minute of the game on a bomb down the left sideline.
"I told him stop fighting with him," said Taylor-Britt on Monday, knowing how physical the 6-4 Metcalf likes it. "He does those moves because he's strong as hell. But that doesn't make you a good receiver."
The appreciative Turner couldn't say enough about his friend. Maybe doubly appreciative, knowing how much CTB was hurting.
"I love him to death. You couldn't ask to have a better teammate than him," Turner said. "It was like he was out there. He gives off so much energy. He was giving pointers to everybody."
The nation saw Thursday what the Bengals have known for the last month. Turner is playing at an elite level.
He ripped such a momentous interception from those monstrous hands as Metcalf went out-of-bounds that defensive coordinator Al Golden, Taylor's oldest assistant coach, said, "That's one of the best interceptions I've seen in my career," and the officials were confused before they had to give it to him.
(Huge play with 40 seconds left in the half and gave them an Evan McPherson walk-off field goal for a 17-10 halftime lead.)
Plus, Turner had two more passes defensed to add to his league-leading total of 13. Like this one:
"When he's coming around the tight end and knocks the ball free, but it's really not even a pass deflection," Taylor said. "It's almost trying to force a fumble. The guy was catching the ball. So just the little details that Al and his staff have been preaching over and over and over."
Turner says it's pretty much mind over matter.
"I have the same size and speed when I came in. It's not like I got faster," said Turner, the fastest man at the 2023 NFL scouting combine in a 4.26-second 40-yard dash. "Just mentally better. I do a lot of mental preparation."
After Turner came on late in training camp, Taylor broke the news to him that he wasn't starting the opener. Competition. It turned out to be Taylor-Britt's last start.
"Competition," Turner said. "That's the way it should be."
Taylor loved Taylor's response when he told him the news seven weeks ago.
"He said, 'Bet. Hey, I'll go out there and I'm going to get it back.' And I said, 'Great,'" Taylor said. "And he said, 'Just promise me if I work at it, that I'll have the opportunity.' He's had the opportunity, and all he's done is stand on his word.
"And he's gone out there and worked, and he's been a tremendous example of leadership and working in practice and doing all the detailed stuff we just preach. "
Cornerbacks coach Charles Burks says Turner cares deeply about being regarded the best in the game. "If you don't want to be the best in your profession, I don't know what you're doing," Turner said Monday. And he's not ready to declare himself All-Pro.
"I have to do it for a whole season. We have to find out," Turner said. "Next week, I've got the Jets."
As for Taylor-Britt, he plans to do what Turner did seven weeks ago and get back in it. He said after talking to Taylor and Golden, there have been words such as "discipline," and "consistency," when it comes to his game on the field.
But as he strives to get back, he says, he'll be there for his mates.
"It's not hard at all," Taylor-Britt said. "You want to be there for your brothers."
Situational Masters
The Bengals flawlessly handled two key situations in the last 90 seconds.
The first was Tee Higgins hitting the deck after his 28-yard catch very easily could have been a 35-yard touchdown catch with about 1:30 left and the Bengals trailing by one.
But the word had come down from the coaches' booth and director of football research Sam Francis at the two-minute warning. Slide at the Five if it looks like you're going to score in order to keep the ball away from Rodgers. It was left to tight end Noah Fant to tell the huddle.
"It starts with Sam Francis. We are in the two-minute warning and he told me we are in a slide-at-five situation. For all the things you have to manage as a coach on the field, that's why someone like Sam is so important," Taylor said. "He's the one looking at all the numbers.
"Joe Flacco was next to me on the sidelines at the two-minute (warning), Noah was right there. I said, 'Noah, go run over there in the huddle and tell everybody slide at five. I just wanted Joe to focus on … he might not even know what the term slide at five meant. Noah went in there and communicated to those guys. Obviously, he did a good job of that."
The other play was the obligatory Aaron Rodgers' Hail Mary on the last snap, which put fear into the kids. They grew up watching Rodgers conspire with the heavens four times to pull out miracles.
"It's A-Rod," Turner said. "He's been doing it since I've been alive."
Yes, they walk through defending a Hail Mary before every game. Golden puts senior defensive assistant Sean Desai in charge. It looked like four guys each had a man in the end zone. Turner on Metcalf, cornerback Marco Wilson on wide receiver Roman Wilson, cornerback Dax Hill on Bengals killer and tight end Pat Freiermuth, and rookie linebacker Barrett Carter on tight end Jonnu Smith. It appeared as if safeties Geno Stone and Jordan Battle and cornerback DJ Ivey were responsible for hunting the ball.
It was Ivey who saw it, high-pointed, and smashed it into the turf. Game, set, match.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The guy threw the ball 70 yards," Golden said. "I mean that was very real … Bat it to the ground. There's always debate over that, catch it cleanly, bat it to the ground, but whatever you do, just don't let it deflect. Open the air, try to get it down.
"The one thing I was proud of our guys is it's easy to do it in your walkthrough. It's easy to teach it or to show it on the screen, and Coach Desai does that great. But everybody had their eyes on their man when the ball was coming down, and sometimes guys start to look at the ball, and that's not their job if they're on a body all the way down the field. And the three guys that were back there, they have a job relative to the ball, but the other three guys, they have to be on body and they did a really good job of doing that. They had a chance, but our guys defended it well."
Slants and Screens
The offensive line looked the best it's looked all year, generating 142 yards on the ground, their most since the '23 finale. They hung with rookie right guard Jalen Rivers even though vet Lucas Patrick was freshly activated from injured reserve. It looked like rookie left guard Dylan Fairchild (knee) wasn't quite ready to return so they stayed with vet Dalton Risner.
Taylor wasn't ready to say if he was going to keep that guard combo intact for the Jets a week from Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) at Paycor.
"I think as of right now we'll keep working through it, but a lot of guys we know we can rely on. That's critical," Taylor said. "Young guys that are ascending; veteran guys who we can depend on and that's really good to have." …
It sounds like NFL sack champion Trey Hendrickson (hip) is back for the Jets.
"He was pushing to play yesterday," Taylor said. "I can't speak on that today, but I'd have to feel reasonably optimistic given that he was pushing to play yesterday."
The Bengals didn't sack Rodgers and hit him once and that was from the interior (tackle B.J. Hill). Joseph Ossai led the edge with four pressures, PFF said. First-round pick Shemar Stewart, who has barely practiced since injuring his ankle 32 days before, started in place of Hendrickson and PFF had him for one hurry on 14 pass-rush snaps …
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