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Bengals Film Breakdown: Ja'Marr Chase's Spectacular Performance Against Cleveland Browns

The Bengals' best playmaker showed off a unique set of skills in Cincinnati's latest win.

Mike Santagata

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The Bengals looked to be in bad shape on Sunday after the first couple of plays in a 23-10 win over the Browns. Tee Higgins' hamstring injury flared back up and Tyler Boyd injured his finger on the second play of the game, which led to both of them sitting out the rest of the game. 

The Bengals were already down Hayden Hurst in this game so they did not even have their tight end. 

Ja’Marr Chase was the only starting receiver left on the field. He had to step up in these players’ absence and that's precisely what he did. 

Chase tallied 10 catches on 15 targets for 119 yards and one touchdown against a variety of looks and coverages. That’s exactly the performance that Joe Burrow and this passing offense needed with the multitude of injuries plaguing them. 

Let’s get into Chase’s performance on Sunday.

Chase Beats Ward

While there were quite a few different ways that the Bengals utilized Chase, the one that sticks out the most is Chase’s performance against Denzel Ward. 

Ward is the Browns’ best cornerback and despite a down year, they still treat him as such. Because of that, Chase matched up against Ward for the majority of this game.

This is a skinny post from Chase in the high red zone. Pre-snap this looks like a two-high coverage, but the safety rotates down and takes the No. 2 receiver to the trips side in man coverage while the slot corner over him blitzes. 

This is something that the Browns probably cannot get away with if the Bengals were not injured, but you can trust your safety to guard their fourth or fifth receiver on a play. To go with that, the Browns are playing tight man coverage on Chase while cheating the single high safety to his side. 

Burrow has talked about throwing to Chase despite a shaded safety and it showed up here. With no wasted movement, Burrow takes a three-step drop and immediately fires this ball to Chase. This throw is in the tightest of windows between Ward and the safety and Chase did not even see this ball until it was about five yards away from him. 

The play shows the trust and belief in each other that the two players have. It also shows off Chase’s ability to win leverage on Ward at the snap and Burrow’s uncanny accuracy and improvements in arm strength. 

The skinny post from Chase has to be very tight to stay inside of the safety as well and it’s well run by him. Awesome play from two elite talents that ends in a touchdown.

This is a very similar coverage from the Browns with Ward in tight man and a single high safety. This time it’s not in the red zone which means that Chase can threaten Ward vertically. 

Insert a classic Burrow to Chase throw: the back shoulder fade. 

Chase starts off by taking an outside release and pushing vertically. While Ward stays over the top of Chase, this presents an opportunity to throw to his back shoulder. Especially considering Ward is out-of-phase. 

Out-of-phase means that Ward is watching Chase and playing off of him rather than keeping an eye on the quarterback. This is exactly where Chase and Burrow want him to be. Due to Chase’s fantastic body control, tracking, and ability to use late hands, being out-of-phase with him is a death sentence. 

If the corner plays over the top, it’s an unguardable back shoulder ball. If they play underneath, then it’s going to go over the top. Here Burrow throws this to the back shoulder due to Ward’s positioning and it works out perfectly. 

Chase continues to sell a vertical route and then at the last second spins around and catches this ball. Ward cannot do anything to break it up and it ends in a good gain for the Bengals.

This play is not tight man coverage. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite. 

This is loose zone coverage with Ward keeping an insane amount of cushion between him and Chase. While this allows him to play in-phase, it also makes life way too easy for Chase and Burrow. Chase runs an 18-yard out route and Burrow puts it on him. Ward is at nearly 25 yards of depth at the end of his backpedal. 

While this stops the touchdown over the top, the Browns are just freely giving up anything under 20 yards. The Bengals will take this look all day for easy chunk plays.

Ward had his fair share of wins in this game as well, but a corner will be judged by his losses much more than his wins. Similar to an offensive lineman, a corner can lose the matchup due to just a few plays.

Chase In The Slot

The injury to Boyd, while devastating, did open up the inside for Chase.

The Bengals decided to use him in the slot on early downs because the Browns refused to give him extra attention there. Cleveland likes to play quarters defensively. The safety is responsible for the slot receiver if he gets to about 10 yards. 

On a chalkboard this is fine, but when it comes to the personnel on this matchup it’s Chase against a player who is not used to covering someone that talented. 

This is a drive sail concept and Chase is on the deep out. On this concept, the safety should drive on the out to cover it. The corner is going to be preoccupied with the vertical route, so he cannot help. 

Chase runs his out well and does not allow John Johnson to properly drive on this to break it up. Really it’s coaching malpractice to put your safety in this position, but either way, it’s a smart way for the Bengals to exploit the Browns' early down defense.

The Browns play a fire zone here, but they still need Johnson to match with Chase on this play. Predictably, Chase wins once again for another free first down. Johnson cannot cover Chase one on one when matched up like this. 

It’s the same concept from the Bengals with drive sail once again. Chase is on the sail route because the Bengals know that the Browns are going to match him with the safety. Without some type of jam or reroute, Chase is free to do whatever he wants.

The Bengals did a good job of attacking the Browns' mixed-down defense with Chase rather than just trusting the run game or quick game in that scenario. The best way to stay ahead of the chains as an offense is to just pick up first downs before third down and that’s how the Bengals kept these drives moving with Chase.

Utilizing Chase After The Catch

Finally, the Bengals used Chase’s incredible ability to pick up yardage after the catch. 

Some of these were designed opportunities to get him in space while some of these YAC plays happened just because Chase is an awesome playmaker.

This may not be a screen, but this is really a play designed to allow Chase to pick up some extra yardage after the catch. This is a stick-flat RPO. 

The read for Burrow is the off-ball linebacker. The linebacker comes up to fill the run here so Burrow pulls the ball and throws it to Chase. 

Because the linebacker vacated that area, there is plenty of room for Chase to run after the catch. The safety comes down to attempt the tackle, but Chase flashes a disgusting juke move to make him miss. This gives Chase roughly three more yards on the catch and run. 

Not much, but it adds up.

This play is more designed to let Chase work in the open field. This is an orbit RPO where Burrow is making his decision to throw or hand it off pre-snap based on alignment and how the defense reacts to the motion. 

The linebacker to that side is in poor position, so Burrow tosses this out wide to Chase. After the catch, you can see Chase’s unreal acceleration. He makes the defender’s pursuit angle obsolete giving him an additional 10 yards on the play.

While a hitch route against off coverage does put Chase in a position to work after the catch, it’s not really designed to go to him to take advantage of this. 

This play shows Chase’s strength as a runner. First, he quickly accelerates after catching the ball, similar to the last example. Once he gets moving down the field, he runs right through the defender to push for additional yardage. 

Chase uses his bulldog running back mentality to punish the defense, rather than trying to preserve his body. It’s something that makes him a unique NFL player.

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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