One of the more interesting pieces of commentary coming out of the Cincinnati Bengals‘ loss to the Houston Texans before they play the Baltimore Ravens surrounds the usage of Ja’Marr Chase.
Offensive coordinator Brian Callahan and Co. came under fire for a gameplan that fell flat far too often in the middle of the game, with outsiders especially pointing out the spotty usage of Chase.
Now Callahan has had his say on the matter, explaining the lack of motion and variety for Chase, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
“We sort of game planned thinking we weren’t going to have him. Some of those things take reps and time and even though Joe and Ja’Marr have played a lot of football together, you still don’t like going into a game, throwing things that maybe have some nuance and some timing to them when you haven’t repped them. There’s a challenge when guys don’t practice during the week and trying to make sure you have everything ready to roll for a game day. The full bag of tricks maybe wasn’t fully applicable in the game just because of the injury situation. We still found ways to get him the ball, but it wasn’t like we were planning on having him fully healthy, ready to roll.”
It’s interesting that this is a topic at all given the vast amount of reps Joe Burrow and Chase have had over the years. But it’s also true that only a morning workout dictated whether Chase would play at all due to back discomfort.
Chase still led the Bengals with five catches for 124 yards and one score, but 64 of those yards and the score came on a scramble drill. He had just six targets, third behind Tyler Boyd (12) and Tanner Hudson (7).
If nothing else, the Bengals know full and well that Chase will play against the Ravens considering he’s not even on the injury report.
