Ja’Marr Chase, Pat Surtain II set for Bengals-Broncos battle

Cincinnati Bengals assistant quarterbacks coach Fredi Knighten retains the identical routine each Monday morning.

First, he'll drop off his canine, a German shepherd named Vera, at day care. Then he'll arrive on the workforce's headquarters at Paycor Stadium round 6:30 a.m. and begin accumulating sport tape for the upcoming week. He'll have a look at the opposing workforce's cornerbacks and examine the intricacies of their craft — which hand they use to jam receivers, how they play releases off the road of scrimmage, any small element that may tip a matchup in Cincinnati's favor.

The method is similar every week. However all the data might be particularly invaluable on Monday evening.

When the Bengals face the Denver Broncos at Empower Area at Mile Excessive (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN), it should characteristic the most effective matchups within the sport — Bengals large receiver Ja'Marr Chase towards Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II. Final season, Chase grew to become the fifth participant for the reason that AFL-NFL merger to win the receiving triple crown by main the league in receptions (127), receiving yards (1,708) and receiving TDs (17). Surtain grew to become the third cornerback this century to be named Related Press Defensive Participant of the 12 months after selecting off 4 passes.

Earlier than final season, when Chase and Surtain squared off in a Bengals win, one had to return to 1993 to discover a comparable battle. Jerry Rice and Rod Woodson met firstly of that season en path to being named Offensive and Defensive Gamers of the 12 months, respectively.

“I feel [Chase and Surtain] cherish the second,” Bengals large receivers coach Troy Walters stated. “They know it is best towards greatest. They know that, ‘If I can win that battle, that is going to even increase my stage up, my identify and no matter else.'”

The winner of final yr's battle is within the eye of the beholder. In a 30-24 extra time win in Cincinnati, Chase completed with 9 catches for 102 yards. Nonetheless, when Surtain was lined up as the closest defender, Chase had solely three catches on six targets for 27 yards. However the rivalry actually dates again to varsity. In 2019, Chase caught six passes for 140 yards and a landing to steer LSU previous Surtain's Alabama workforce 46-41. Fourteen months later, the Bengals drafted Chase fifth general in 2021, and Surtain went 4 spots later to Denver.

Bengals reserve quarterback Mike White, who grew up close to Surtain in South Florida, stated it is spectacular to see two gamers like Chase and Surtain reside as much as their popularity as All-Professionals, from faculty to the NFL.

“You see numerous first-round picks which have all of the instruments on the planet; they get to the league and so they simply cannot decide it up,” White stated. “[With] these guys, that's not the case.”

IT'S EASY TO level at measurables to elucidate why Surtain is such a tricky defender to shake. His 78½-inch wingspan hooked up to a nimble 6-foot-2 body makes him onerous to get round. That was an enormous cause why no one wished to throw in his course in his ultimate season at Alabama (48 targets in 13 video games).

He additionally has an NFL household background. His father, Patrick Sr., performed defensive again within the NFL from 1998-2008 and was a three-time Professional Bowler and first-team All-Professional in 2002.

However it's not that straightforward to elucidate why Patrick II is so good.

Heading into their senior yr at American Heritage Excessive College in Plantation, Florida, fellow cornerback Marco Wilson remembered the every day post-practice routine. Every day, they cosplayed the position of large receiver-cornerback, engaged on releases down the sector. Three-receiver releases every, switching each 5 yards for 100 yards.

“That simply at all times confirmed me that he was actual critical about his craft and simply eager to be the perfect,” stated Wilson, now a cornerback for the Bengals.

Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph did not mood his reward of Surtain.

“I've by no means coached, or seen, a participant that is had his bodily traits, mixed together with his soccer IQ and the work ethic,” Joseph stated. “He is a savant enjoying the place with the rarest of bodily traits.”

Surtain stated the position of a cornerback is not to make spotlight reels, however he did smile when requested what can be his good sport.

“Possibly like three picks and three touchdowns or one thing like that,” he stated. “A loopy stat line. It is loopy as a result of I really feel like nice corners you do not usually see them fill a stat sheet up.”

Surtain is searching for his first interception this season, though he has defensed three passes. He is the chief of a protection that was tabbed as the perfect within the league getting into the season. However the Broncos have misplaced their previous two video games and the protection is nearer to the center of the pack within the NFL so far as EPA (ninth, 5.70), effectivity (twelfth, 61.25), scoring (sixteenth, 21.3 factors per sport) and yards allowed (nineteenth, 327.6 per sport) goes.

“That child desires to be nice, and I've at all times stated lots of people say they need to be nice however they do not really do what it takes to be nice,” Broncos Corridor of Fame cornerback Champ Bailey stated. “He does it on each snap.

“Doesn't suggest as a nook you are not going to surrender catches or huge performs — the league is just too good — however that younger man desires to be nice every single day and truly works each single day to try this. And with the items he has, that is the rarest mixture of all. I like to look at each snap he performs.”

WITH CHASE, JUST begin with the fundamentals, the muse. Chase has uncommon traits on the place by any metric.

Chase measured in at a little bit over 6-foot and weighed 201 kilos on the 2021 mix. He ran a 4.34-second 40-yard sprint at LSU's professional day whereas excelling within the shuttle, broad leap and vertical leap drills.

“The problem is an even bigger receiver, like [Chase], they're clearly sturdy, they'll get bodily and the mixture with velocity with that physicality, the larger body, that may turn out to be a nightmare,” Surtain stated. “As a result of they'll create house and so they have the physicality to maintain you away from the ball after which run away from you in the event that they get it.”

The fifth-year Broncos cornerback stated he can see the variations in gamers like Chase and Minnesota Vikings large receiver Justin Jefferson — teammates at LSU — as NFL receivers.

“In faculty after I noticed them they have been in all probability leaning on their athletic capacity more often than not,” Surtain stated. “Me too, in some methods, however I feel as a youthful participant in faculty, you are simply extra more likely to lean in in your athletic talents. Now I see each of them with a lot technical talent in what they do, they know the right way to use their athletic talents. They've grown.

“Crisp routes, occasions once they must get off the road, they know the right way to get the discharge, fluctuate their strategy … so sturdy at catch level, how they present late palms, simply all of the issues to create any house and alternative that transcend simply being athletic.”

For Chase that has additionally meant what he referred to as “extra belief” from the Bengals coaches to do extra issues because the seasons have gone on, to current a far greater portfolio of issues defenses have to check and take into account.

As an NFC personnel government put it: “If [Chase] simply stayed on the X [outside receiver, away from the tight end] his entire profession, he would have been very, very productive. An excessive amount of measurement, an excessive amount of velocity, constructed for the place. However he has broadened his sport, they use him in additional locations, whether or not slot, transfer him round. … That is a tricky assortment of issues to take care of defensively.”

THE BIGGEST X issue on Monday evening might be who's throwing to Chase. Quarterback Joe Burrow, an MVP finalist final season, suffered a turf toe harm within the first half of a Week 2 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars and underwent surgical procedure that's anticipated to sideline him a minimal of three months.

Jake Browning got here on in reduction within the second half and has had combined outcomes since. In six quarters, he has thrown three landing passes and 5 interceptions whereas finishing 67.8% of his throws. He has been sacked 4 occasions.

One other huge X issue might be how the Broncos match Surtain on Chase — particularly with Tee Higgins' 131-yard, three-touchdown evening within the Bengals' win over the Broncos final December. Burrow did nearly the entire harm throwing to whichever receiver Surtain was not protecting.

“I feel if it is a receiver who's dominant and he is major 85% of the time and so they're transferring him round, it's important to discover a strategy to get Pat on him,” Joseph stated. “And that is the place Pat has grown, wherever a receiver can go, Pat can match him.”

Riley Moss, whom Burrow focused a lot in final season's matchup in what was Moss' first sport again from a knee harm, is the cornerback reverse Surtain, whereas Ja'Quan McMillian and rookie Jahdae Barron are in for nickel and dime seems to be.

“It is about finding out a man's talent set and seeing, ‘How can I exploit weaknesses?'” Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher stated of Chase's preparation for a participant like Surtain. “The participant research that, we examine that.

“Are there issues we need to run to at least one facet of the sector we do not need to run to a different facet of the sector? Are there particular forms of routes we like and particular forms of routes we do not like?”

However by the point Monday evening's sport is over, Surtain believes the problem can have been determined by house. Did the Broncos' defensive backs forestall Chase and the opposite Bengals' cross catchers from creating it, from benefitting from it?

“It is all about closing the space,” Surtain stated. “In case you ask any receiver, they do not prefer it when there's palms on them, when there may be one other bodily presence round them, in entrance of them. It's important to attempt to shut that house, do all you possibly can to eradicate the straightforward throws. However know they will make powerful catches, however simply do not make it simple …

“Do not ever make it simple.”