Bengals receiver Ja'Marr Chase proves he belongs on game's biggest stage

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Maybe the Bengals should get Les Miles to call Ja’Marr Chase and tell him that Cincinnati can’t beat Kansas City in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.

The Bengals’ dynamic rookie receiver doesn’t like hearing he can’t do something. It motivates him to prove people wrong. Miles should know.

In a story relayed by Chase this past week, when the former LSU coach was recruiting the future Bengal, Miles said he was looking at him as a defensive player.

"Les Miles told me I couldn’t play receiver when I was coming out of high school," Chase said. "That was something I had on my shoulders growing up. Les Miles told me he thought I could play cornerback. I wasn’t really in full position at receiver yet.

"I just kept working at my craft [in the] offseason — waking up early in the morning to work out. I just kept focused."

Chase went to LSU anyway, but Miles had been fired by then. Chase was the leading receiver on the Tigers’ 2019 national championship team. He also was the Bengals’ leading receiver this season, setting a franchise record with 1,455 receiving yards, the most by a rookie in the Super Bowl era.

In both cases, Joe Burrow was his quarterback.

That duo will try to do the unthinkable on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium: beat Kansas City for the second time this season and get the Bengals to the third Super Bowl in franchise history.

When the two teams met in Cincinnati in Week 17, Chase caught 11 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns in the Bengals’ 34-31 comeback win. He set a single-game record for receiving yards by a rookie.

Bengals cornerback Chidobe Awuzie figured out pretty early in training camp that Chase could be a star, but he said the rookie took it to another level once the real games began. Chase caught five passes for 101 yards and a touchdown in his NFL debut against Minnesota.

"During the game, I was like, ‘Oh, this guy’s a gamer,’ " Awuzie said. "He’s doing releases that I didn’t see in practice. The way he was cutting off routes and doing certain things, I was like, he wasn’t doing all that in practice. He went to a different level. All of the tools and everything was there. He just exploded."

Chase has two 100-yard receiving games in the playoffs. He needs only 18 yards on Sunday to set a record for the most ever by a rookie.

The Bengals expect Kansas City to play Chase differently on Sunday after what happened earlier this month, when Cincinnati erased a 14-point deficit to win the game.

If Kansas City gives more attention to Chase, as expected, it should open more opportunities for receivers Tee Higgins (1,091 receiving yards) and Tyler Boyd (828 yards). Running back Joe Mixon is effective in the passing game and there’s also tight end C.J. Uzomah, who had six receiving touchdowns between the regular season and playoffs.

"You can’t stop everybody," Awuzie said. "You can’t."

That’s what makes the Bengals a legitimate threat to Kansas City and in the AFC for years to come. Chase is 21 years old. Higgins is 22. All of their skill players are 28 and under — and Burrow ties it all together.

Burrow, 25, who threw for 446 yards and four touchdowns against Kansas City, is only in his second season. His connection with Chase has been tremendous.

"They got something good cooking over there," Awuzie said. "They obviously developed that since college. It’s been working for us."