Game of Chase: Steelers stress need to keep close tabs on Bengals' game-breaking wideout

As Mike Tomlin was praising the Cincinnati Bengals for possessing the NFL’s most potent passing attack, he warned that the Pittsburgh Steelers better be prepared to “carry a full menu” on defense.

That includes a heaping post-Thanksgiving helping of man coverage from the cornerbacks, a helping from the safeties in zone defense and a side of pre-snap looks that involves blitzes from the outside linebackers to put pressure on quarterback Joe Burrow, the league’s passing leader.

If not, Ja’Marr Chase will have them for dessert.

What stands out on tape to the Steelers’ coach is the need to limit the YAC, especially when it comes to the Bengals’ superstar wide receiver. A big reason Chase leads the league with 1,056 receiving yards and 12 touchdown receptions is because of his 481 yards after the catch, which includes an NFL-best six plays of 40 yards or longer this season.

“We better be close to him, and then we better tackle the catch. It’s as simple as that,” Tomlin said of Chase, who ranks in the NFL’s top five in targets (100), catches (73) and first-down receptions (47). “If you’re not close to him and he gets the speed, he’s a problem.”

Chase has been a problem for opponents in almost every game but has done some serious damage in his past two, when he combined for 18 catches for 339 yards and five touchdowns against the Baltimore Ravens (11 for 264, three) and Los Angeles Chargers (seven for 75, two).

His connection with Burrow dates to their days at LSU, where they teamed to lead the Tigers to the 2020 national championship. Chase has nine games with five or more catches and 50 or more yards this season, including three games with 100-plus receiving yards. He has scored in seven games, with multiple touchdowns in four.

“He’s got top-notch talent, and they do an awesome job of moving him around within their system of offense,” Tomlin said. “They got some continuity there, obviously, between he and Joe, who’ve been in that system for a number of years now. And I think it’s reflected in the many things that they asked him to do. There’s more pre-snap movement from him. There’s more positional variation from him, making him a more difficult guy to minimize.”

Chase, who ran an unofficial 4.38-second 40-yard dash at his LSU Pro Day, can use his explosive speed to turn any play into a touchdown in the blink of an eye. The 6-foot, 210-pounder has scored twice on 70-yard pass plays — both against the Ravens — and has TDs of 63, 67 and 41.

“Chase, man, he’s a home run hitter who can turn a quick screen into a 90-yard touchdown, can turn a quick slant into who knows?” said Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson, an LSU alum who has followed Chase since college. “This guy is very dynamic on the perimeter, as well as a lot of their guys.”

Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. is looking forward to the challenge of covering Chase, who was high on his list of matchups as a rookie last season. Porter held Chase to four catches for 81 yards without a touchdown in the 16-10 win in November 2023.

“As a defense, we’ve just got to fly to the ball and don’t let him get any YAC yards,” Porter said. “We’ve got to be close to the point of catch. We’ve seen a lot of tape of him breaking out of tackles and making long runs. We’ve got to play sound football.”

What makes the Bengals so dangerous is Burrow’s accuracy and ability to scramble out of the pocket while keeping his eyes cast downfield to find targets such as Chase and Tee Higgins, who has 38 receptions for 489 yards and four touchdowns in six games this season.

The Chargers game proved why a defense can’t concentrate on Chase alone. The 6-4, 219-pound Higgins had a monster performance with nine receptions for 148 yards and a touchdown in his return after missing the previous three games with a quad injury.

“It’s an awesome tandem, man, one of the best duos — if not the best duo — in this league,” Jackson said. “Chase has been unbelievable, and they’ve got arguably one of the best quarterbacks in this league throwing him the ball. … It’s definitely going to take a full defensive effort because they have a lot of playmakers and a lot of home run hitters. It’s an explosive offense that comes into the stadium to run you out defensively.”

Historically, Higgins has done more damage against the Steelers. Chase has 21 catches for 314 yards and three touchdowns in four games. (He missed a game in each of the past two seasons.) Higgins has 32 receptions for 575 yards and three touchdowns in six games, with an 80-yard touchdown in a 34-11 Bengals loss last Dec. 23 at Acrisure Stadium.

“Obviously, Tee Higgins is a matchup issue,” Tomlin said. “He’s big, he’s strong, he got a really good run after he got to speed on us last year and had a big play and kind of got them back in that football game. But, again, when you talk about Tee, you’re talking about a guy who is combative, man, who doesn’t die easy, particularly after the catch. We got to tackle, and we got to wrap.”

That explains why Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin has preached playing as an 11-man unit, instructing defenders to swarm to the ball to prevent the Bengals opportunities to break big plays.

While Tomlin said the Steelers’ defensive game plan will be important, he emphasized the need for players to execute at a high level “because it’s not just schematics that beats you.” Chase and Higgins are dangerous in open field, so Austin is hammering home the point that the Steelers can’t allow them to run clear and clean.

“The bottom line is, we’ve got to do a good job in terms of keeping them in front of us,” Austin said. “They’re going to make some catches that we tackle the catch, that we don’t allow a 10-yard catch to turn into a 50-yard play. I think that’s very important this week.

“You can’t give (Chase) big spaces to catch and run and turn. When you do that, that could be problematic.”