Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase, Coach Zac Taylor Discuss Sideline Incident in Blowout Loss to Broncos

CINCINNATI – Late in the third quarter Monday night, after the Cincinnati Bengals failed to convert another third down and were forced to punt for a sixth consecutive time, wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase made the familiar trek to the bench, just as he had after the previous five fizzles.

But then he made a U-turn and approached head coach Zac Taylor.

It wasn’t demonstrative, just a simple tap on the back to get Taylor to remove his headset so the receiver could air his frustration.

After the Broncos finished off the Bengals with a 28-3 domination that had Chase questioning some of his teammates’ desire, Taylor tried to downplay the interaction with Chase.

“Ja’Marr, coming off a game like this, is one of my favorite players to deal with, quite frankly, because he’s just competitive,” Taylor said. “He just wants to win, and he comes across as emotional.”

Typically questions about an interaction like that would elicit a brief response, if even one at all.

But Taylor went on with his answer for nearly another 200 words.

“That’s just a captain that works his tail off,” Taylor continued. “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 hands, I can do that.’ And I don’t disagree with him. We’re always looking for ways to get him the ball.

“Obviously, sometimes for him, you can’t see what’s going on the backfield and some of the challenges that you face back there,” Taylor added. “I love Ja’Marr. When I’m done coaching, he will be one of my all-time favorites for the way that he matured. I wouldn’t say ‘matured,’ because he was never immature, but just the way he’s become the total pro that you want in your football team, in competing, in practice, and completing the games. I can’t say enough about him. I’m sure if those interactions are on the sideline, it just comes from a place of ‘I want to help the team win, help me help the team win.’ And that’s what I love about him.”

The ESPN broadcast made light of the exchange, with color analyst Troy Aikman saying it was just a receiver asking for the ball, which he experienced a lot in his playing days.

Play-by-play announcer Joe Buck asked him if he wanted to say which receiver, and Aikman said, “All of them.”

The interaction didn’t seem like a big deal, but Taylor’s lengthy response was curious.

Not that it was disingenuous. Chase is revered by everyone in the building. But maybe that was the exact point.

If this is the beginning of a spiral that is going to get a lot worse, Chase is the most important player to keep placated.

Lose him, and the locker room could follow.

Chase said he approached Taylor on the sideline simply to have a conversation on how to approach the remaining drives.

“We just talked about the possessions, talking about what plays we can run, how we can attack certain coverages and get out there,” he said. “I’m always frustrated if I’m losing. but it’s part of the game. Sometimes the emotions take over. Sometimes it looked like what it’s not supposed to, but it happens.”

Just as Taylor’s long answer seemed unusual, so, too, did Chase’s response.

Not the quote above.

But rather his decision to go on social media.

The last time Chase did anything on X was July 28, when he retweeted the Bengals’ video of his Madden meeting with Chad Johnson.

Chase fired off a pair of tweets shortly after midnight.

The first began with three crying laughing emojis and followed with, “man yall better leave me alone man”.

It’s unclear if people were coming at Chase because his lack of production – five catches for 23 yards – doomed their fantasy team. Or if people were making a bigger deal out of his interaction with Taylor.

The answer likely came one minute later, when he posted, “I play with passion. #WHODEY” and followed it with a tiger emoji.

Chase has been much more vocal in the past, starting with the second game of his career when he called out Taylor for not throwing anything deep to him in a loss at Chicago.

What happened as the last wheel was falling off Monday night wasn’t that big of a deal in the bigger picture of everything.

But it’s not necessarily nothing.

It’s going to be worth watching to see if there is more of that, especially if frustrations, accusations and the loss total continue to grow.

"We know we’re capable, we know the ins-and-outs of the offense.” Chase said. “We know we’re a downfield-threat team, and everybody else knows it. But right now, we’re facing a little adversity, and we’ve got to figure it out.

"It's just we gotta want it," Chase added. "At the end of the day, we gotta want it. Today, it didn't look like we wanted it."