ARLINGTON, Texas _ At the behest of the orchestration surrounding The Simpsons' Monday Night Football telecast here at AT&T Stadium, Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase found himself celebrating the 27-20 win over the Cowboys by smashing a yellow donut into the face of quarterback Joe Burrow.
"I was told to do that. I didn't want to do that," Chase said.
Burrow returned the favor and Chase had to conclude, "I think he got the best of me. He like smeared it a little too far."
But that was nothing like what the NFL's Dynamic Duo did to Dallas with 61 seconds left in a tie game. Chase's last catch on a monstrous 14-catch night turned into a 40-yard-run-and-catch for a touchdown against dumbfounded Pro Bowl cornerback DaRon Bland.
A sideline out.
"It doesn't get any simpler than that," said head coach Zac Taylor. "That's a Day One install."
Except Burrow and Chase have been repping it like no one in the league. If Chase says it looked familiar, it is. It's the same play that beat the Saints for touchdown in the last two minutes of a win two years ago in New Orleans.
"it was just a quick-in and quick outs on the outside," Burrow said. "The guy was playing off to the field. Ja'Marr, that's a throw that we have all the time. We talk about throwing it inside shoulder so he can turn and make a play and if the corner is off, he's able to do what he does."
Chase ended the night re-gaining the NFL receiving lead with those season-high 14 catches that gave him 93 and a six-catch lead over Brock Bowers with 177 yards lengthening his lead in receiving yards. Meanwhile, Burrow became the first quarterback since 2018 to have five straight games with at least three touchdown passes.
That's what he got Monday night for an NFL-best 33 to go with 369 yards on a 33 of 43 clinic that allowed him to regain the NFL passing lead.
Chase came into the game already having the most multiple touchdown games in the league this season. The two on Monday give him a career-best and NFL-high 15 this season. He had to laugh when he was asked if he thought about sliding, not scoring, and the Bengals simply run down the clock for the field goal.
"I did," he said, breaking into laughter. "But I wanted to score."
It sounded like he knew he had 15, but he asked what the Bengals record is.
He was told 17.
"OK," he said.
Chase knows how to punctuate a moment The winning touchdown put him over 5,000 career yards. In his 58th game, he's the fifth fastest to do it. He took the pass in front of Bland and Bland gave himself enough rope because Chase spun into the extra space Bland gave him, swiveled his hips, and he was gone.
"It was just like eight, nine yards off leverage…It's a play we always run," Chase said At the end of that, it was like me and Joe were on the same page. That goes back to the New Orleans game, same play. We were both on the same page. He threw on my inside shoulder so I could turn up-field and run after catch. It was a good job of him giving me an opportunity to make a play."
THE BREAK
"Yeah," Burrow said after losing two primetime games by one score within three weeks, "I couldn't believe we caught a break. That was crazy the way that happened. It was nice to get one. We haven't got many over the last couple of years so it's nice to get one."
The play, which began with two minutes left in a 20-20, summed up the season. It went from heartbreak, when old friend Nick Vigil, a former Bengals draft pick, blocked Ryan Rehkow's punt on fourth and 27 from the Bengals 29.
But the ball not only bounded past the first down marker, the Cowboys committed the cardinal sin and touched it and allowed Bengals rookie linebacker Maema Njongmeta to recover it at the Bengals 43 and give the ball to Burrow and Chase.
It was Njongmeta who allowed Vigil to block the punt.
"I told him he saved his career," said linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither. "But he stayed with it."
And Taylor said that's exactly what his team has done at 5-8.
"They practice, they meet like they're still in it," Taylor said.
Usually a fumble recovery merits a game ball. But Njongmeta may be out of luck.
"Look at the whole play," Taylor said.
ANOTHER CHASE
Running back Chase Brown had another huge outing with 123 scrimmage yards to put him over 1,000 for the season. He took a 19-yard swing pass for one of his signature there-he-is-there-he-isn't speedy touchdowns. He was so sure he scored he leaped into the end-zone kettle, so he was stunned when they said he was out of bounds at the 3. But the Bengals won the challenge and the kettle jump stood.
"I've wanted to do that since I was a kid," said Brown, who sounded crushed when told that move has netted fines. "I hope not a big fine. I don't make enough money for that."
Burrow saluted him with, " I think Chase is really running as a top back. He's doing unbelievable stuff in both the run game and the pass game. His role is going to continue to evolve. We're going to continue to keep getting him the ball more in a lot of different ways."
Why not? That's three straight games with more than 100 from scrimmage, four of the last five, and five straight with 90 ...
Game ball for him, too.
SLANTS AND SCREENS
Burrow emerged with a limp after it was over, but waved off the hit on his knee as only "swelling." …
"It's nothing crazy. I just landed on it a couple of times. We'll see. It'll be sore for a while but I'll be alright," said Burrow, who got a Happy Birthday from the pilot as the Bengals' charter prepared to flee Dallas about two hours into Burrow's 28th birthday ...
Sackmaster Trey Hendrickson made it three-for-three for the Bengals' NFL leaders with his first sack in a month to give him 12.5, and 1.5-sack lead. And a game ball, too, because of his late sack ...
Taylor gave edge Joseph Ossai a game ball, too, for his third sack in as many games. This one came from inside Hendrickson on third down and allowed the Bengals to get the ball back for a 17-10 halftime lead ...
Cade York, filling in for the injured Evan McPherson, made all his kicks, his first two field goals since 2022, and three extra points in the city where he resides in front of his Cowboys cheerleader girlfriend. He matched McPherson with a game ball in his first Bengals game ...
Safety Geno Stone got a game ball for his red-zone interception that kept it 7-7. Last year, Stone led the AFC with seven picks and Bland led the league with nine. Guess who had the better day Monday. When Taylor flipped the ball to Stone, he batted it over to cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt. Taylor-Britt, who batted it back, had his hands on it first during the game and Stone caught the deflection ...
It was not lost on Burrow that Taylor sent out him, Chase, and his other favorite target, Tee Higgins, to take the coin toss. Usually, Taylor sends out some of the captains that were voted before the season. If not, it may be someone that has a particular tie to that city or the opposing team.
Burrow is a captain and while Chase and Higgins don't have the official "C," this was proof they are viewed as such.
"I don't know. It was fun. It was the first time we had done that. I liked that trio right there," Burrow said. "We've played a lot of football
together, made a lot of plays, scored a lot of touchdowns, won a lot of games. Us three are some of the best at what we
do. And we're great friends and continue to love playing with each other. I realized that in the moment, and that was kind
of a moment." ...
