The Cincinnati Bengals managed to avoid another slow start to the season, winning their first two games of the season. Then, star quarterback Joe Burrow went down with a turf toe injury that will keep him out for a minimum of three months.
Jake Browning has filled in, but things are not going well. Monday’s loss to the Denver Broncos dropped the Bengals to 2-2 on the season, and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase talked about things after the game.
“It’s not good ever losing, so, gotta learn from it,” Chase told reporters after the game. “Trying to overcome adversity. Get some wins, man. … Just gotta get better at getting first downs. … I’m always frustrated if I’m losing, you know what I’m saying. But it’s part of the game, man. Sometimes emotions take over. Sometimes it looks like what it’s not supposed to. But, yeah, it happens,” Chase said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“We go out there and we lay eggs sometimes. … We’re not capitalizing on opportunities. … Urgency is there. We’ve gotta want it. At the end of the day, we’ve gotta want it. Today it didn’t look like we wanted it.”
Chase even got into a heated exchange with head coach Zac Taylor on the sideline during the game, which Taylor downplayed.
“Ja’Marr Chase, coming off a game like this, is one of my favorite players to deal with, quite frankly,” Taylor said, according to Pro Football Talk, “because he’s just competitive. He just wants to win, and it comes across as emotional, but that’s just a captain that works his tail off.
“All he wants to do is win the game. All he wants to do is affect the game, and oftentimes he feels like if, ‘I have the ball in my hand, I can do that,’ and I don’t disagree with him. And we’re always looking for ways to get him the ball. Obviously, sometimes for him, he can’t see what’s going on in the backfield and some of the challenges that face back there, but I love Ja’Marr.
“When I’m done coaching, he will be one of my all time favorites for the way that he has . . . become the total pro that you want leading your football team in competing in practice and competing in games, I can’t say enough about him. . . . It just comes from a place where ‘I want to help the team win, I can help the team win, help me, help the team win.’ And I love that about him.”
It’ll be interesting to see if the Bengals can salvage the season.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.