Friday buffet: Notes on Ja'Marr Chase, the Bengals' OL and the Crosstown Shootout

In August, when Ja’Marr Chase’s training camp holdout was one of the biggest stories in the NFL, I asked a league source to describe just how good Chase is.

He said that on every play, you worry about Chase catching a screen behind the line of scrimmage and taking it for a touchdown. And on every play, you’re also worried about him running past your entire secondary and beating over the top for a deep touchdown.

Chase is equally dangerous in both areas. That makes defenses scared.

I don’t know that Chase has ever made a defense look as fearful as he made the Cowboys’ defense look on Monday night.

It looked like the Cowboys’ entire game plan was “don’t let Chase beat us deep.” Instead of clouding Chase with more aggressive safety play, the Cowboys had a safety sit over the top whose only job was taking away the vertical route.

The Cowboys were willing to live with one 10-yard catch after another from Chase, who set a record for most yards on out routes. And then on the biggest play of the game, Chase made a guy miss on another one of those out routes and scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

The Cowboys’ game plan felt like an NBA defense letting Steph Curry get to the rim whenever he wanted because they were that afraid of Curry beating them from the three-point line. Joe Burrow and Chase have run so many of those out routes that they feel like layups in the Bengals’ offense.

Zac Taylor had some good wrinkles to throw at the Cowboys. Chase faked an out route on three plays and showed off a counter move that resulted in three catches over the middle. Chase continued to motion a lot, and those motions create a lot of headaches. The Cowboys in particular looked panicked as they tried to make sure that all 11 defenders knew where Chase was on every snap.

The Bengals ran a lot of play action passes for Chase, which was different. He also continued to line up all over the field, including a play at wingback that resulted in a swing pass in the first quarter.

None of Chase’s 14 catches, even the touchdown at the end, looked particularly difficult for him. The intimidation factor opened up wide open spaces for Chase to run.

***

Micah Parsons had a plan heading into Monday Night Football. He was going to line up over the Bengals’ right tackle or right guard, and he was going to wreak havoc.

Parsons identified what he viewed as the weak segment of the Bengals’ offensive line, and he went to work. He took over the game, and then he realized that he could take over the game even more than he already was.

Down the stretch, the Cowboys decided to move Parsons to the other side of the line of scrimmage. He went up against the left tackle and left guard down the stretch. Those guys didn’t provide much resistance, either.

Since Orlando Brown Jr. went down with his knee/fibula injury, the Bengals’ offensive line hasn’t had a strong link.

Amarius Mims is having a promising rookie season, but he’s also making rookie mistakes and struggling versus inside moves and on twists. Alex Cappa is having a bad season that’s getting worse by the week. Ted Karras has been fine. Cordell Volson got benched for Cody Ford at left guard. But then when Brown aggravated his injury, Volson went back in at left guard with Ford sliding out of position to left tackle.

Parsons saw an advantage lining up against Ford, Volson, Cappa and Mims at different points of Monday’s game. Any one of them can be a weak link. The game was a reminder that this line is far from what it was last season, when the pass protection was very consistent.

Brown will be the left tackle next year, and Mims will be the right tackle. Karras should be the center after the Bengals gave him a contract extension before the season.

The guard spots feel wide open heading into 2025. The problem for the Bengals is that there aren’t 64 starting caliber guards in the NFL. The guard market soared last offseason in free agency, and most of the league is looking to upgrade at that position. The Panthers gave Robert Hunt a five-year contract for $100 million.

The 2025 Bengals will have to find an advantage in the way that they scout and develop offensive guards. They have to be able to do more with less at that position, or else Burrow will keep taking crushing hits like he did on Monday.

A realistic plan would be a mid-tier free agent ($4-7 million range) taking over one guard spot and Volson, Ford and a draft pick competing for the other spot.

The Bengals likely won’t be able to give a contract at Hunt’s level due to their cap situation. They won’t be able to throw a bunch of resources into fixing the line like they did in 2022. But the line needs almost just as much work as it did a few years ago.

***
The Cowboys game felt like a throwback game for Lou Anarumo.

On a pivotal third-and-10 in the fourth quarter, he dialed up a play that I’ve never seen before. Joseph Ossai and Trey Hendrickson both lined up at middle linebacker, and two linebackers were on the edge at the line of scrimmage.

Ossai’s pass rush sealed off the left tackle, and Hendrickson screamed around the edge to force Cooper Rush to throw the ball away.

The Bengals have run some plays over the years with Sam Hubbard at middle linebacker. But it’s never been Hendrickson, and there definitely have never been two edge rushers back there.

Anarumo’s coaching point with Cam Taylor-Britt is paying off. Since the Chargers game, Anarumo has wanted to see Taylor-Britt be more physical at the line of scrimmage. That hard nosed play style was the first thing that Taylor-Britt showed as a rookie and should be the foundation of his game.

Taylor-Britt’s press coverage set up Geno Stone’s interception early in the Cowboys’ game.

Anarumo and Charles Burks also did an impressive job coaching up Marco Wilson, who the Bengals claimed off waivers during the bye week.

On one play, Wilson executed a pass off assignment to counter a Cowboys’ motion. The Bengals have messed up too many of those this year, but Wilson did it perfectly and took away a potential deep throw to CeeDee Lamb.

Wilson showed that his strength is in man coverage against fast receivers. His biggest play was a pass breakup on a stop-and-go to Cowboys speedster Kavontae Turpin.

Anarumo also shined on the Cover-0 blitz on third down that resulted in a massive hit by Geno Stone. It’s one thing to risk calling an all-out blitz in a massive spot of the game. It’s another to call it when you’ve already been shredded once on that blitz in this game (the early touchdown throw against Mike Hilton), and when poorly executed Cover-0 blitzes cost you the game one week earlier.

This blitz was perfect as Stone made the play of his Bengals career.

***

What doesn’t get discussed enough about Chase Brown is that he led college football in carries during his final year at Illinois. The knock on him during the draft process was his size, but Brown is still the type of running back that wears defenses down and can take as many tackles as you need him to.

The Bengals are testing the limits of how much an NFL team can rely on one running back. Khalil Herbert is barely playing, which puts the entire workload on Brown’s plate.

The more snaps, carries and catches that Brown gets, the stronger he looks. Instead of showing signs of fatigue, he’s getting better every week.

As a result, Taylor is finding more ways to use Brown. He’s moving around more as a receiver, and swing passes and screens have become an extension of the run game. Brown has really grown on slant routes, and that play has become a trusted piece of the third down game plan.

As a runner, you don’t worry about Brown bouncing runs too far outside like he did a bit too much last season. It doesn’t get much better than his 40-yard run vs. Pittsburgh. He also looks comfortable in pass protection.

***

The story of Joseph Ossai’s NFL career has been injuries. There has always been something — knee, wrist, etc. — that has prevented him from having a fully healthy offseason or a long stretch to just play and refine his game.

He’s getting that now, and he’s becoming the rotational piece the Bengals hoped he would develop into. Over the last three games, he has three sacks and seven pressures.

Ossai is showing versatility and getting to the quarterback in a variety of ways.

Against the Chargers, he created three pressures with a bull rush through the left tackle, by chasing the quarterback from behind toward the sideline and by ripping low around the edge under the right tackle.

Versus the Steelers, Ossai set a strong edge as a pass rusher and forced Russell Wilson to step up in the pocket straight into sacks on two different plays.

Ossai’s sack from the defensive tackle position against the Cowboys was his best play of the year.

Ossai is earning his uptick in snaps, and he’s solidifying his future in the NFL.

***
The 2024 Crosstown Shootout is going to be decided at the center position. The matchup of the game is Zach Freemantle vs. Aziz Bandago, or Zach Freemantle vs. Dillon Mitchell if Freemantle forces the Bearcats to go small.

The Bearcats have the better roster, but Freemantle has been the best player between the two teams over the course of the first month of the season. There are a lot of differences between Freemantle and Villanova star Eric Dixon, who scored 31 points two weeks ago against the Bearcats. But Villanova runs a very similar offense for Dixon to what Xavier does for Freemantle.

Freemantle has great touch, a wide variety of options in the post and is a very challenging threat on pick and pops. Dixon did all of that against the Bearcats.

Bandago is a terrific helpside defender, and his biggest strength is the way he deters drivers from even putting up shots. But Xavier doesn’t really have the guards and wings who will break down defenses and get to the rim. The Musketeers are more of a five-out offense that wants to spread the floor, put up a lot of threes and set up mismatches for Freemantle.

Xavier has a clear path to an upset — shooters get hot like Quincy Olivari did last season, and Freemantle does the heavy lifting on some late-game clutch possessions.

The first datapoint that the Bearcats will need to learn is whether or not Bandago can stick with Freemantle. Just as important, can Freemantle stick with Bandago?

The Bearcats’ edge is in transition and with their pick and roll offense. Bandago hasn’t shown much yet as a post-up threat, but Freemantle hasn’t shown the burst or anchor in the paint to stop a big like Bandago. If Bandago plays well, the Bearcats will have an undeniable edge on the glass and in the paint.

I don’t know how Xavier responds to the Jizzle James-Bandago pick and roll. James made his first big impression as a Bearcat in the Xavier game last year, and he’ll face the same matchup this season in steady Xavier point guard Davion McKnight.

Sean Miller also has to decide who he’s going to have Dailyn Swain, his only standout wing defender, match up against. Mitchell and Daniel Skillings give the Bearcats some extra pop on the wing, and the Bearcats can take control by having one or both of them get downhill as drivers against a 6-foot-4 wing defender like Ryan Conwell or Marcus Foster.