Heading into Thursday Night Football, Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase is not only leading the Triple Crown categories, he's on pace to dismantle the Bengals' single-season record book with 1,632 yards, 113 catches, and 19 touchdowns.
That would break T.J. Houshmandzadeh's 2007 record of 112 catches, Carl Pickens' 1995 record of 17 touchdown catches, and Chase's record of 1,455 yards set in 2021.
With Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow on pace to throw a club-record 42 touchdowns, they're looking at ending the regular season with 46 career connections.
More than the 44 touchdowns of Chad Johnson and Carson Palmer. And only one behind Pickens and Jeff Blake. The 51 of Isaac Curtis and Ken Anderson and the record 58 of A.J. Green and Andy Dalton loom.
"I will say it until I am blue in the face. We are player-centric. Everything we do is going to be about our players and accentuating strengths. Minimizing their weaknesses. They are our two best players," said Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher this bye week.
"When you have two players like that who can change a game at any moment, if you are doing something other than giving them a chance to do that, that's in some ways an opportunity lost. You can't go too far in the other direction because you have to be balanced. We have a lot of other players who can change a game too so that all goes into the chemistry of a game plan, calling a game, and all of those things."
Chase reached 40 receiving touchdowns in his 56th regular-season game last Sunday night in L.A., and now has 41. He's the eighth-fastest in NFL history to 40 receiving touchdowns, behind Lance Alworth (43 games), Jerry Rice (44), Randy Moss (44), Rob Gronkowski (47), Bob Hayes (48), Tommy McDonald (53) and Odell Beckham Jr. (54).
Chase is also on top of the Bengals list after 56 games. At this point, Green had 34, Pickens 33, and Curtis 32. He's now tied with Eddie Brown for fifth on the Bengals' all-time touchdown catches list with 41.
SLOT STUFF
Chase has been talking a lot lately that the key to this year has been how the Bengals are lining him up in different positions, particularly the slot. He's got the ninth most slot targets in the league with 43, according to Pro Football Focus, only two behind the Rams' Cooper Kupp, the last receiver to win the Triple Crown. He's also got three touchdowns in the slot, one more than last season.
Chase has almost as many slot targets as he had all last year when he had 49. That's because Bengals slot receiver Tyler Boyd had the fourth most in the league with 71 slot targets. With Boyd in Tennessee and the Bengals without a true slot receiver, they've used it to their advantage and moved Chase in and out of there.
"We were just constructed differently in the past. There were more defined roles," Pitcher said of last season. "I think that's who our players were and we did the right thing there. I think if (last year's OC) Brian Callahan was the offensive coordinator of this group of players, we would be doing the same thing. I don't think this is a, 'Dan Pitcher does it differently than Brian Callahan,' thing.
"I just think we (personnel) are a little bit different. We have been intentional about moving him around. We'll continue to be intentional. He is our best player. We have some other really good ones but we have to always be inventive and intentional about putting him in spots to get the football."
It's also allowed wide receiver Tee Higgins to move in there, too, although not as much, and he's actually rated PFF's top slot receiver, grabbing 14 of 16 targets in his six games.. After he caught a 42-yard touchdown out of there last Sunday night on a play that worked to perfection, he's got as many slot touchdowns as Chase with three.
With Chase doubled on the left side, Higgins lined up in the slot on the right and was able to split cornerback Elijah Molden and safety Ja'Sir Taylor and outrun them to gather in Burrow's bomb with ease behind the defense.
According to Next Gen Stats, Higgins recorded his most receiving yards against off-coverage since a 2021 game also against the Chargers with 138 yards. Higgins also caught two for 65 yards and one touchdown on three deep targets (20-plus air yards), his first deep receptions of the season.
MAN UP
Sunday night was another big night in Burrow's biggest season. The Chargers came in playing the second-most zone in the league on more than 80% of the snaps, but they showed Burrow something different when played man-to-man on a season-high 34.5% of the snaps, via Next Gen Stats.
No matter. Burrow hit all three second-half touchdowns against man and piled up 120 of his 356 yards on eight of 17 passing. He also finished four of nine for 109 yards and two touchdowns on deep passes (20-plus air yards) in his most efficient long ball game of the year.
"It's very clear they called the game to beat the Cincinnati Bengals. I give them credit for that," Pitcher said. "They just did some different things they hadn't shown. We saw it and I felt like they adjusted to it. They made a couple of plays in the first half because of it."
HOT JOE
Burrow also has the Bengals record book under construction, but they are his own records. He's on pace to break his touchdown record of 35 set in 2022, as well as his record for yards (4,679), completions (414), and attempts (631). He had 46,111 yards in 2021, and 606 attempts and 414 completions in 2022.
In his 64th regular-season game Dec. 1 against the Steelers, he needs one touchdown pass to become the third-fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 125 behind Patrick Mahomes (50 games) and Dan Marino (54).
He's certainly the fastest Bengal. The closest Bengal to Burrow is Carson Palmer with 104 touchdown passes in his first 63 starts. Andy Dalton and Boomer Esiason each had 97.
POCKET JOE
Burrow's concentration on his offseason weight-room regimen is showing up with his brute play in the pocket. Big pass rush man Joey Bosa slid off Burrow's hips for three missed tackles Sunday night. Burrow's Ohio State buddy was 0-for-3. Three quarterback hits, no sacks.
Of course, with Burrow, the more the merrier. He has a 77.8 PFF pass grade under pressure this season, the second-highest grade among quarterbacks with at least 50 dropbacks under pressure.
"The savviness, the awareness, the pocket presence are all things that he intuitively has. I think the strength plays into it, too," Pitcher said. "You see that when he has two hands on the football and he rips through contact, and he's able to get out of contact to his lower body, extend plays. It happened more than a handful of times (Sunday) night. I do think the strength plays in that facet."
