It didn’t take long for second-year Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow to re-connect with rookie receiver Ja’Marr Chase. In 2019, when Burrow threw an ungodly 60 touchdown passes to just six interceptions for LSU, Chase was on the receiving end of 20 of those touchdowns, catching 84 passes for 1,780 yards. Burrow was the first overall pick in the 2020 draft and missed the final six games of his rookie campaign with a knee injury, and Chase opted out of the 2020 NCAA season, so if there was any rust in this connection, it apparently only happened in the preseason, when Chase couldn’t seem to catch anyting.
Once the regular season got going against the Vikings’ vulnerable secondary, it was all good between the two old friends. With 35 seconds left in the first half, Burrow saw Chase beating Minnesota cornerback Bashaud Breeland down the right boundary, put up a killer deep throw, and that was that.
Drops can be noisy. The ability to get open will almost always outweigh it pic.twitter.com/Cvlp8Igqwj
— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) September 12, 2021
As our friends at Pro Football Focus pointed out, this bore a striking resemblance to the 52-yard touchdown pass Burrow threw to Chase against Clemson in the 2019 College Football Championship.
Oh so familiar
— PFF College (@PFF_College) September 12, 2021
Then-Clemson and current Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell played Breeland’s role of the poor guy who couldn’t keep up with Chase downfield.
Maybe it’s time to throw Chase’s “noisy” preseason out the window. As for the Vikings, you’d think after Breeland got cooked down the right side by Tyreek Hill in the preseason, they’d go with different options in that spot.
Mahomes 🚀 Tyreek Hill
A thing of beauty 🖼
pic.twitter.com/WkaKtsmB6i— PFF (@PFF) August 28, 2021
*checks Vikings cornerback depth*
Ah. Never mind.
