BALTIMORE _ It is unfathomable to believe that Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow played his best this season in the two biggest games he had to and riddled the Ravens for nine touchdowns and an interception with 820 yards for a stunning passer rating of 121.4 and lost them both.
It's even harder to believe that Bengals three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase could have had the two biggest games of the year in the NFL this season, both against the Ravens with 193 last in month's 41-38 overtime loss to go with Thursday night's indescribable 264 yards. And lose them both.
Unless, of course, Baltimore's Lamar Jackson ripped eight touchdowns with no interceptions for 638 yards and went for 129.8 in his two wins over the Bengals.
Which is what happened Thursday night when Prime Video aired Jackson streaming to four straight touchdown drives, the last one capped on his five-yard jump shot to wide receiver Rashod Bateman running away from cornerbacks Cam Taylor-Britt and Josh Newton along the back line of the end zone with 1:49 left for a 35-34 victory.
Burrow, matching the reigning NFL MVP for every off-platform throw and decimal point, now leads the NFL in passing yards and is tied with Jackson for the league lead in touchdown passes while Chase is now flirting with the receiver triple crown won just twice in this century in leading the league with 66 catches, 981 yards and 10 touchdowns.
And yet, this off weekend they mull a 4-6 record before they jet next Friday to Los Angeles for another prime-timer Sunday night against the Chargers.
"It's crazy to say that," Chase said. "I would never in a million years expect me to play this well and him to play this well and still have a record like this."
Burrow, off his fourth-best career game with 428 yards and with nine touchdown passes in the last four days, was also thinking about Trey Hendrickson. Hendrickson didn't have a hit on Jackson, but still leads the league with 11 sacks.
"When you look at how we are playing, and then you look at Trey Hendrickson and how he is playing, yeah, it's a tough pill to swallow," Burrow said. "We had our opportunities, obviously. We know it's tough, and you feel like you're playing well enough to win, and you're not. But there's always more to do."
It's hard to believe Chase could.
He added three more touchdowns in historic highlights that show the versatility of his game. He became the second man to score 12 career touchdowns from 60 yards out before his 25th birthday while also eclipsing Bengals Ring of Honor member Issac Curtis' club record of ten in a career. He's also now the only Bengals receiver with three 200-yard games.
And he did it continuing to YAC the Ravens to death with a 67-yarder leaving the secondary in the dust on a simple crossing pattern against the team he stunned on a 70-yard screen last month and an 82-yard whirlaway here three years ago as a rookie.
He also added another 70-yarder when he chased down a Burrow moonball with five minutes left that tied it at 28 with five minutes left. Then he put the Bengals on the doorstep again with 38 seconds left on a completely different play, a crafty five-yard red zone touchdown.
It conjured up the destruction wide receiver A.J. Green wrought upon the Ravens as a Bengal in the previous decade. Green had his biggest game against Baltimore with 227 yards and three of his top 13 games came against Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, who once moaned, "Maybe we'll cover him once before he retires."
Harbaugh had a similar sentiment Thursday after he watched Chase have his second -best game ever with 264 yards to give him three of his four top against Baltimore.
Chase is now trying to do what Cooper Kupp did in 2021 and Steve Smith Sr., in 2004 in leading the NFL in catches, yards, and touchdowns for the triple crown.
"He's a great player. I was looking for him after the game and couldn't find him. Maybe that was appropriate," Harbaugh said amid news conference laughter. "I couldn't find him either, but we doubled him a bunch of times. Those plays we didn't, we were in zone coverage there. He should have been covered. Those plays shouldn't have happened. There's no doubt about it. Those are not tough plays. Those are basic routes that should be covered in the coverages that we're in, so that's not the standard."
Or, as his frequent target, Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, said, "I'm tired of that dude. He's just different. It's not even so much about the route he runs whatever. It's just [when] he gets the ball in his hands, if you don't tackle him soon, it can get really ugly."
And as Chase ticked off the coverages the Ravens tried, it seemed nothing worked as he burned them for 11 catches.
"They played two-man in the second half one time. It was really just rolling through a lot of coverages," Chase said. "I was moving all over the place, so they were in quarters, three-man [and] two [man coverage]. It was just throwing a lot of different coverages at me."
The chemistry with his college teammate Burrow has such and long storied history that they have looks for everything. Like on fourth-and-two with nine minutes left and the Bengals clinging to a 21-20 lead. Burrow took a deep shot to rookie wide receiver Jermaine Burton breaking free on a go pattern for a touchdown. Burrow slightly overthrew him.
"Me and Joe both know when we mess up with each other," Chase said. "At the end of the day, we don't have to go off on each other or talk to each other. We give each other a look and we move on."
But, of course, that's why Chase is so good. He believes he's always open. Like on the two-point play the Ravens stopped after his final touchdown. But Burrow didn't have time to get to Chase on the back side as he later pondered if he should have escaped out of the pocket.
"Live and learn," Burrow said.
When a reporter asked Chase if he thought that was his best game ever with Burrow, he shot back, "I don't know, what do you think?"
The answer was yes.
"I'll agree with you then," Chase said.
But Chase isn't agreeing with the consensus that after losing three games by five points to the Ravens and Chiefs that they are out of the playoff picture.
"It sucked losing to those guys, but if we keep playing and win, we'll be where we want to be," Chase said, "and have another opportunity to play them."
