Ja'Marr Retro.
If you want to know why wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase is the leader in the NFL triple crown receiving derby of yards, catches, and touchdowns, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor starts with "Ja'Marr Retro." An improvised play they called on the run and Chase ran for 21 yards in the last minute of Thursday night's AFC North classic in Baltimore.
In Exhibit A of their franchise cornerstone connection, quarterback Joe Burrow got roughed and somehow hit Chase perfectly. Chase, who lines up in more spots than a political ad, was in the slot and about to and the second-greatest day of his career with 264 yards.
Chase seemed headed to the middle, but he lost Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey when he spun back around and headed to the left sideline.
Suddenly, the Bengals were at the Baltimore 12, a minute after all had seemed lost with the Ravens' go-ahead touchdown.
Taylor and Burrow, and then Chase, had time to implement the play while the refs meted out a facemask penalty on Humphrey. In the past, the Bengals had run a similar play, but not with Chase lined up against a slot cornerback.
"It's amazing how much he can handle. Truthfully. Some of the stuff would confuse me the first time I see it on the plan," said Taylor, who is also the Bengals play caller as he reflected Friday on the good, the bad, and the ugly of the 35-34 loss.
"He gets it all. And maybe when guys know they're getting the ball, there's a little more, but he's amazing what he can take in and digest."
This time they were talking "Ja'Marr Retro," and they weren't talking 2014 for A.J. Green or 1985 for Cris Collinsworth. Those are the two Bengals greats Chase passed Thursday as the club's most prolific receiver in his first 55 games.
"That was just during the drive a made-up play that is an example of what Ja'Marr can handle," Taylor said. " ' Hey, put Ja'Marr on the slot, tell him to run a retro route.' We just called it 'Ja'Marr Retro.' and he did it on a ten-second notice. But it's a concept that we carry. Everybody knows these concepts, it's just we didn't have it in the plan out of that."
NUMBERS GAMES: Few have done what Chase has done in those first 55 games.
According to Pro Football Reference, with 4,698 yards, only Justin Jefferson, Odell Beckham Jr., and Julio Jones had more. With 39 touchdowns, only Rob Gronkowski (46), Jerry Rice and Randy Moss (45), and Beckham (40) had more.
On pace to become the first Bengal to have a 1,600-yard season, tie Carl Pickens' 29-year-old record of 17 touchdown catches that's older than him, as well as tie T.J. Houshmandzadeh's 112 catches in a season from 17 years ago, Chase is what Taylor calls, "One of the top athletes on planet Earth. That's as simple as you can put it. I mean, it's not just about the NFL, it's about planet Earth. He's one of the best to do it."
The Ravens did to Chase what other teams have done to him ever since he came into the league in 2021. Try to take him out with clouds and zones. He's having his greatest year and with wide receiver Tee Higgins (quad) missing four games this season, Chase has received more targets and still made the plays as Taylor, offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher, and passing game coordinator Justin Rascati scheme to get him open.
"Every space you can think of, he has occupied," Taylor said. "I mean, it's number one, number two, number three. We like him on the edge and then getting him the ball. Trying to put him in the backfield, come across underneath, same side deal. Isolated over there by himself. We put him everywhere.
"He's on the line of scrimmage, he's off the line of scrimmage in the stack. He's on the line of scrimmage in the stack. He's releasing underneath the five yards and breaking. He's pushing vertical through five. So they got to be accountable for all that. We put it all on him and he answers the bell."
JOE LOBBY: How tough is Burrow? Taylor said he's sore Friday and that's what it felt like. The Ravens hit him 13 times and he still had his fourth-best game with 428 yards and a four-touchdown game to go with his two fives this season.
(No Bengal has thrown for 24 touchdowns in the first ten games. Burrow came close with 22 in '22, 21 in '21 and now 24 in '24.)
Some of the hits are a byproduct of throwing it 56 times (the most since the second game of his rookie year), but he also seemed to be the object of several late shots. Take the last play of the night. Never mind tight end Mike Gesicki tackled on the goal line. After Burrow let go of the incomplete pass to tight end Tanner Hudson, defensive tackle Travis Jones got his hand in Burrow's facemask.
After the game, Burrow said he's never seemed to get those calls during his five seasons and he's not expecting them now. Taylor wants people to be aware of it.
"I think I've got to fight harder for Joe to get some of that. He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to disrupt from the flow of the game," Taylor said. "I've just got to keep fighting for some of that stuff. You don't want to lose him on a play that's over."
POINTS ON TWO POINTS: Taylor knew he was going to go for two as the Ravens drove to take the lead with 1:49 left. So he had plenty of time to not only come up with a play, but also the analytics of it from football analyst Sam Francis in the booth.
In hindsight Thursday night, it sounded as if Burrow pondered if he should have extended the play instead of going to his first read. On Friday, Taylor said he knew Chase, on the back side, had to be a factor in the play. But he also knows he's got one of the best decision makers in the game in Burrow and Taylor was fine with his call to hit Hudson at the goal line.
The 6-5 Hudson had position and height on 5-8 safety Ar'Darius Washington. But the pass went high.
"Ja'Marr's having a heck of a game, he's a big part of that progression. Tanner had some separation there so we tried to put it on him real quick and it didn't work out," Taylor said. "But certainly when you've got a star player like Ja'Marr, you've got to find ways to put them in the best position and there was going to be an opportunity if we determined we need to progress.
"But I don't question for one second Joe's decision. There's a window there right on the goal line and it just came up a little short."
BURTON BID: Rookie wide receiver Jermaine Burton went from getting benched last Sunday to being in the middle of it all four days later on a career-high 39 snaps. Twice Burrow went to him on deep incomplete shots on fourth-and-three and fourth-and-two that appeared to be overthrown. He tried to hit him in the end zone on another ball that seemed too long. The one of the five targets Burton did snag a was huge 11-yard slant on third-and-five from the Baltimore 14 in a 7-7 game in the last minute of the first half. Hudson scored on the next play.
Burrow spent a lot of time with Burton this week and Taylor thought it showed.
"Jermaine continues to progress," Taylor said. "We had him in on a lot of stuff. He did a great job handling all of it. He had some opportunities in the game, just didn't quite work out. He had the one, the strike route that he caught down in the low red zone. There was some other stuff he did it just as we had detailed, kind being lazy, coming off the ball on purpose and then burst in on a double move.
"So I thought he did a good job with detail. I thought that he and Joe were on the same page with a lot of his stuff. Joe spent a lot of time with him during the week telling him what he wanted and I liked Jermaine's attitude and enthusiasm. He didn't get a lot of opportunities that came his way, but we'll keep progressing him in the system."
TOUGH DEBUT: Tough debut for the newest Bengal Thursday night. Running back Khalil Herbet had been with the team all of two days after his trade from the Bears and mishandled his first snap for a fumbled handoff with Burrow in the second quarter on the first down of a three-and-out series.
"That was my first full-speed rep," Herbert said Friday as he packed up his dirty clothes to fly back to Chicago and drive his car back in time for practice on Monday.
"We only did walk-through reps. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again," said Herbert, who hadn't taken a handoff since Sept. 22 during a game in Indianapolis. "But you can tell how the leaders here. The way the quarterback is. We went right to the sidelines and worked it out."
TACKLING THE D: Taylor wasn't ready to blow up the defense after holding NFL rushing leader Derrick Henry to 68 yards on 16 carries, holding the Ravens' No. 1 ranked rushing offense to 99 yards to break the Ravens' streak of 42 straight games with 100 yards rushing, and holding Baltimore's overall No. 1 offense to 102 yards for their lowest first-half output in two years.
But they also allowed 28 points in less than 18 minutes with a lot of eyes on the 84-yard touchdown from wide receiver Tylan Wallace. Wallace came into the game with 98 yards in his career and got his first career touchdown when cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, linebacker Logan Wilson, and safety Geno Stone missed tackles on the left sideline.
Taylor didn't think it was an effort issue. They only had four missed tackles in the run game. But he also said it was not a good look.
"It looked like people just thought he was going out of bounds or out of bounds already," Taylor said. "Obviously, it's not a good look on tape to see that. Those are guys we count on that are about the right stuff. It's unfortunate, but we've got to find a way to get them out of bounds and get them on the ground. Finish the play off."
For 42 minutes, though, that was as good as the defense has looked all season. The downfall was no sacks and no turnovers.
"I thought there was a lot of really good stuff and then there's four or five that stand out that it's got to be better," Taylor said.
