Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase stood at his locker and talked for 15 minutes today and didn’t say anything that will be printed out and posted around the Baltimore Ravens facility.
“I just know we’ve got the Ravens and they got a good team, a good defense, good defensive coordinator, they know our tendencies, so we’ve just got to execute,” Chase said.
Last week his comments saying he almost called the Browns the Elves before the game blew up in Cleveland, then he doubled down after the 24-3 loss saying, “It’s frustrating because I called they a** ‘elves’, and we just lost to some elves.”
Ja'Marr Chase doubles down on "elves" comment despite blowout loss.https://t.co/YRHFt7v695
— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) September 10, 2023
But Chase took a new approach today, admitting the Browns got the best of him and his teammates and vowed a bounce-back performance Sunday.
“Good players always bounce back,” he said. “There’s a saying that ‘you’re gonna get yours more than you get got.’ It’s just about how you respond to it.”
No one was baiting Chase into saying anything about the Ravens, but there were plenty of standard football questions about the division rivals. And each time Chase offered praise.
“Their whole defense flies to the ball,” Chase said. “They play fast and physical. That’s the thing about the Baltimore Ravens. That’s what they’re known as. It’s for us to make the first guy miss and get the first down. That’s our job as receivers. Just make a play.”
The paucity of plays against the Browns is why the Bengals are 0-1 and feel the urgency against the Ravens.
MORE: Best Wide Receivers in the NFL 2023
Chase complimented the Browns on what they were able to do to shut down the Cincinnati offense. He said he wasn’t aware in the moment of how much the Browns were blitzing, but the about of man coverage, something most teams have gone away from when facing the Bengals, caught him off guard.
“I was surprised that we seen that much man,” Chase said. “They took advantage of us in the blitz game, though. Put a lot of pressure on Joe for him to throw passes we weren’t ready for. They just messed up the timing for us.”
Chase said the loss and his five-catch, 39-yard performance hasn’t been tough to put behind him.
“I just didn’t have a good game. Sometimes it’s like that,” he said. “You’re in the NFL now. It’s best against best. Everybody’s not gonna look great every Sunday. You’ve got to realize that. It’s how you respond.”
More from Ja’Marr Chase on bouncing back from terrible games and Joe Burrow’s superstitious socks: pic.twitter.com/tcegnlYcT4
— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) September 14, 2023
Chase said he’s hoping his response Sunday involves doing the Griddy, his touchdown celebration dance that he confirmed will be back in 2023, along with “some new stuff here and there.”
While his success in the NFL hasn’t caught him by surprise, the popularity of the Griddy has.
“It’s crazy to watch it grow up so big and be so global so fast,” Chase said. “We literally started that workin’ out. It was me, Griddy and a couple of my friends just workin’ out one day, and Griddy walked up and was like look at this dance. We legit was doin’ the dance every day after that after workouts.
“We got to college, and I showed a couple of the guys, and it just became this big thing in the locker room,” he added. “Me and (Justin Jefferson) brought it to the game and it became big. It’s crazy to see how something so small could blow up so fast.”
The same could be said for the “elves” comment.
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