Ja’Marr Chase didn’t need a monster box score to leave his mark on the Bengals’ biggest win of the season. Against the Ravens, the star receiver put up 62 receiving yards and a touchdown, but his biggest contribution came away from the stat sheet - inside the locker room at halftime.
Cincinnati fell behind by 13 points and had yet to score, then flipped the game completely with 35 unanswered points. It was one of the most efficient halves the organization has ever put together, and it helped produce a 35-13 win over Baltimore.
That turnaround mattered in more ways than one. The Ravens became just the third team in league history to lose by 20 or more points after leading by at least 13 at halftime. For the Bengals, it also kept them from dropping to 3-3 with two divisional losses, a spot that would have left them on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.
Chase’s value goes well beyond production, especially with the contract he carries. According to Over the Cap, he has the second-largest deal for a wide receiver in the NFL at $161 million. Only Seattle Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who won Offensive Player of the Year en route to a Super Bowl victory in 2025, has a bigger contract.
And with that kind of investment comes more than expectations for catches and touchdowns. The Bengals wanted a player who could produce, yes, but also one who could help steer the room when things went sideways. Chase showed that side of himself after the rough start.
In an ESPN article, Chase said he came into the locker room screaming at the team after the lackadaisical start.
"I came in here screaming, saying, 'Somebody's got to make a play for us, somebody got to make a play,'... And I told our offense [that] we can't look at our defense the whole time.
We've got to step this s--- up and make something work. I didn't like how we played; we had [19] plays, maybe two or three possessions.
And it didn't go our way at all. We had opportunities to get the ball out of our hands, and Joe was getting too much pressure."
That kind of message only matters if the room listens. Demetrius Knight Jr. said it did.
"I believe once you hear a guy like that, who's a leader on this team, speak up on the offense side of the ball, that just encourages you," Knight Jr. said.
After halftime, the Bengals looked like a different offense. Joe Burrow went from six completions on 12 attempts in the first half to a second half with just two incompletions, four touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Tee Higgins also caught fire after being shut out before the break, finishing with six receptions for 148 yards and a touchdown.
That’s the kind of response teams build around. It’s one thing to have talent. It’s another to have the voice in the room that can turn a bad start into a statement win.
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Jessie Bates Just Reopened A Painful Bengals What-If
Jessie Bates departure from Cincinnati in 2023 still lingers as one of those roster decisions that never really goes away. The Bengals chose not to offer him a multi-year contract, instead using their salary cap space elsewhere, and Bates has handled the business side of it with the same calm he showed on the field. Even so, his exit left a hole at safety that Cincinnati has spent the last couple of seasons trying to patch.
Bryan Cook was brought in to help stabilize that spot, but the larger issue remains the same: the Bengals have not found a clean replacement for what Bates brought. And while the move made sense in the moment from a cap-management standpoint, it has only sharpened the sense that this was one of those franchise crossroads that can be revisited for years. [Read more 🡒]