Bengals All-Pro wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase got his voice back just in time to sit down with Bengals.com senior writer Geoff Hobson for this week's conversation.

They talked about his halftime speech before Sunday's second-half rout of the Ravens, as well as his car collection, his need for speed, and his fast friendship with Tee Higgins.

The Conversation

GH:  Have you stopped yelling from Sunday?

JC: I did. I actually lost my voice when I got home.

GH: I'm not surprised. You were headed that way after the game.

JC: It was a bit raspy.

GH: But you got it back. Did you do much talking on the day off?

JC: Drank a lot of tea.

GH: What do you do on a regular day off?

JC: Mondays are kind of like a day off, but Tuesdays are like my real day off, obviously, but those are my days where I already did my recovery, so all I've got to do is eat breakfast. If not, I mess with my cars a little bit, jump in the car shop, and then I go back home, and I nap. But before I nap, I have to shoot my podcast.  They get there around 12. I start shooting at 2 o'clock. Finish around four.

GH: Did you have your voice by then?

JC: I had my voice by then. It was still a little raspy, but I still had my voice by then.

GH: People on the field were saying after halftime, you were still …

JC: I didn't stop.

GH: Was there any halftime speech that you ever saw when you were a player that you said, "That was good. That helped us.'

JC: Not really. I really don't. If I'm going to be honest, we've had a lot of chill guys. Even though (Joe) Mixon would scream every here and there, we still had chill guys in the locker room. So it wasn't really that much screaming.

GH: Is that the most anybody's ever gone off in your six years here?

JC: Maybe. Maybe.

GH: Can you reveal?

JC: I can't say who. I can't say who because I don't think that's who it was. But it's probably a chance.

GH: Did it help you guys?

JC: I can't remember. I can't remember fully.

GH: I asked Zac this. It was an organic thing, right?  You didn't go up to him and say, "Hey, Coach, can I talk?"

JC: I didn't ask to talk. I think it was me talking to everybody. I wasn't really talking to the players and coaches specifically. I'm talking to the units as one whole. Like if I'm talking to the defense, I'm talking to the defense and coaches. If I'm talking to the offense, talking to the offense and coaches … So I think it was just putting light on what was obvious. Nobody was making any plays. We didn't have any energy. It was pretty dull out there, and somebody needed to make a play.

GH: Is there anything that set you off?

JC: I just felt like we had opportunities that we didn't have the best looks for. Like the D-line was getting after us a good bit in the first half I want to say. Stuffing the run game, making it hard. And I just know our guys are better than that. I know we're way better than that. I know it takes us maybe time to wake up, but it's not the case anymore. We need to be ready every game.

GH: Have any teammates come up to you and said, "Hey, we really needed that."?

JC: A couple guys have.

GH: Have a good conversation with any of them?

JC: Not really. Those guys know I don't really talk that much about stuff like that.

GH: Did Joe (Burrow) say anything to you?

JC: He said I'm surprised you didn't cry, actually. He knows when I'm overly angry and stuff. He knows I just have tears fall … I just think I'm really mad and I can't hold all my energy in, so it's got to come from my tears.

GH: But you didn't cry this time.

JC: No, I was just really upset. I was just highly upset. I just knew we were better than that in that moment.

GH: You couldn't figure out when you cried, though. We couldn't figure that out.

JC: It was after the Broncos game.

GH: Last year?

JC: Yeah.

GH: You never really know what time the game is, right? Somebody has to tell you, but you certainly know when to play it.

JC: On and off switch, yeah.

GH: Where's that on and off switch come from? Have you always had that?

JC: I want to say I've always had it. I'm just so so competitive with everything that I do. I just always want to try to be good at what I'm doing, or try to be leading at something, or just trying to be great for myself.

GH: Are you competitive with cars?

JC: I'm not really competitive with cars, but I am slowly getting into that road, yes.

GH: Right now you basically collect them, right?

JC: I do have some good cars. Yes.

GH: How many do you have now?

JC: I've got six of them.

GH: Have you thought about racing them?

JC: I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that.

GH: Why?

JC: Well, that costs us money to put it into the car to put them on the track. You've got to pay for the track. You've got  to pay for the engine, the exhaust, the tune, the pipes, the springs. There's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into trying to make a race car, and I don't want to do that. I feel like at the end of the day, I could just get a dream car that I always wanted, and not lose value on it, and still sell it. I think that's the best thing about it.

GH: Have you got a dream car now?

JC: I do have one. It's my Lamborghini. That was my dream car growing up.

GH: How did a Lamborghini strike your eye?

JC: I was growing up and I played Need for Speed, and that was always my favorite game in Midnight Club. And my favorite cars were to get with Lamborghinis. And ever since those younger days, I always wanted to have one of those cars

GH: How many Lamborghinis do you have?

JC: Just one.

GH: What is your favorite non-Lamborghini?

JC: My GT 3 RX, my Porsche. I've got three exotic cars, but I have two muscle cars and one fancy car.

GH: What's a fancy car?

JC: A Maybach. Mercedes-Benz Maybach. Luxury.

GH: So what do you take if you go down to get a quart of milk?

JC: Maybach. Or I've got a Blackwing Cadillac that's pretty regular. It's my everyday car, but it's manual, though. So it makes me feel like I'm in a video game. With the clutch. It makes me feel like I'm in a game.

GH: Do you have a self-driving car?

JC: Nah. I don't trust it. I don't trust it. I don't trust no computer driving me around.

GH: Do you drive fast?

JC: Yes. I think I'm in very fast cars. Yeah. I think the best time to hear the muscle on the car is when you drive fast.

GH: Do you have a track or something that you go to?

JC: Actually, that's a great question because I don't want to give too much away with this, but I am about to be on the track with these cars.

GH: So you're a race car driver?

JC: Nah … it sounds pretty crazy, but I like the fun of the jerking of the cars. I love to drift them. I like that.

GH: How fast do you go?

JC: How fast do I go? I can't say that. I can't say that.

GH: Really? Is it three digits?

JC: No. Of course not. No. Not out here. Too much traffic.

GH: No, no, no. I know. But on the track.

JC: If I could, yeah. I haven't been on the track and did that. I haven't hit top miles on my cars yet.

GH: Everybody's waiting for the breakout game, but you seem pretty happy if you're just winning.

JC: I want a breakout game. I think it's overdue. I want one, but if we're going to keep winning, then so be it. I think it's all about winning,  and trying to get us to a championship and getting us a step closer to where we want to be.

GH: Would you just say it's simply a matter of the defenses are covering you, and they're going to Tee? Or is it more than that?

JC: It's a matter of time. It's a little bit of me and the defense at the same time. I could have had 100 yards last game. I dropped a 40-yard bomb. At the end of the day, I finished with 60 (62) yards. That would have been 100 yards.

GH: Talking about one in the end zone?

JC: Yeah.

GH: Tough catch.

JC: Yeah, but still though, that's what it … I'm in the NFL. That's what I'm here for. You know what I'm saying? Contested catches. That's the biggest moments. And those right there set me apart with 100 yards.

GH: The thing I think about Tee is he's a guy who could be a number one receiver anywhere, and he decided to stay here with you. You guys ever talk about that?

JC: We talked about it. We talked about it right before we did our deal. Actually, we talked about if we wanted to stay with each other or not, and then we ended up talking and saying we wanted to stay and weighing our options about how good it is with each other and without each other. Knowing how we can make such a difference on the other side of the field, changing the whole defense, and that also helps us with the run game.

GH: Did you talk him into staying do you think?

JC: I didn't really have to. His heart is really in Cincinnati. He loves Ohio. He loves the Bengals. I didn't really have to say much. At the end of the day, it was all up to him.

GH: You wanted him back, though?

JC: I did. I did. But at the end of the day I told him, I'm your best friend, and I'm always going to support whatever you do.

GH: I wanted to ask you about the state of the offense. Are you pretty comfortable with what's going on?

JC: Yeah, pretty good. Doing pretty well.

GH: Was that second half basically you guys saying, "Look, we're a shotgun, three-receiver team and nothing else." Or what do you think?

JC: I really couldn't even tell you. I was so hot walking into the locker room.  I was going off. By the time I stopped going off, it was time for the coaches to start talking to us about the plays, and it was just calling some of the shot plays that we had and explosive plays that we were going to call in the second half, and that's what we did.

GH: You and Burrow have been together for so long on the field and in the locker room. What's the best time you ever had with him off the field?

JC: Off the field? Off the field, I would probably say after the national championship in college. That night and the next day.

GH: What did you guys do?

JC: Just a whole bunch of just hanging around. It's just stuff that he doesn't normally do. He was just hanging with us and being uncomfortable and being comfortable at the same time. But just hanging out, going to parties and catching up, eating food and stuff like that.

GH: You and who else?

JC: Receivers, running backs, maybe Clyde Edwards-Helaire was there.

GH: What was your favorite moment from Sunday?

JC: Just how the guys responded after the game. I think that was the biggest part. How they responded after the halftime. I think that was the biggest part. And just seeing the accountability that was taken.

GH: My cameraman here, Will Laterza, wanted me to ask you this. What is your favorite color?

JC: Red and gray.

GH: Are your cars all red and gray?

JC: All my cars are gray. The majority of my cars are gray. I've got two black ones.

GH: Why?

JC: For one, I love gray on cars. Because they don't look dirty when they're dirty. For two, I think it's just a very common car to blend in on. Because a lot of cars are black, white, or gray. And three, I just think it's such a cool color to match any color with. I can do gray and red, gray and yellow.

GH: Are your clothes like that too?

JC: No. I'm not really a colorful type of guy. But I can be a colorful type of guy.

GH: What about your favorite animal?

JC: Dog. Favorite animal is a dog.

GH: You don't have any, though, do you?

JC: I have a Pocket Bully (mix of Pit Bull and German bulldog). I gave it to my brother for emotional support, though. She's still around here and there. I see her. She stays in New Orleans … I couldn't take care of it because I was always at work. It was hard. I get a sitter when I leave and go out of town. It was hard, and it was a little better for me to just bring her back at home where she's in a safe place.

GH: If I can speak for all of Bengaldom, please don't drive that fast.

JC: Of course, of course. I've been hearing it.

GH: Probably your whole life.

JC: It doesn't help that I've got a crazy exhaust on my car, so I can sit there and go 30 miles per hour, and it sounds like I'm going 70. So I mean, it doesn't help.

GH: I guess it depends on how it's going if we're going to expect another halftime speech.

JC: I can't answer that. I don't know. Whatever my heart and my mind is doing in the moment.