Seemingly no one can stop Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase this season.
Conversely, seemingly no one can get by Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II.
It comes as a great present to football fans, then, that the two should meet each other for a Saturday game with massive playoff implications in the middle of the holiday season.
"He's gifted," Surtain said of Chase on Tuesday. "One thing he does, a lot of his yards come after the catch. He's strong after the catch. He's got very good hands, solid hands. I think the main thing is making sure what happens in the second act and rally to the ball with him."
Yards after catch is just one of the many ways Chase has torpedoed opposing game plans this year. His 730 yards after the catch, already a career high with two games left to play, lead the league. He has 148 more yards in that regard than the next-best receiver, and his post-catch prowess is just one of the countless reasons he's in line for the receiving triple crown with 108 catches, 1,510 yards and 16 touchdowns.
But Surtain, as stated, is no slouch.
Entering Week 16, the corner boasts PFF's top coverage grade (86.5), with just one TD allowed and a third-best 256 receiving yards surrendered.
If anyone can slow Chase, it's him, as he showed when the two 2021 draftmates squared off as rookies. When the Broncos and Bengals faced each other in Week 15 of that season, Chase managed just 3 yards on one catch, easily his worst performance of a stellar first year in the NFL.
"That was early in my career. Rookie year? Yeah, it was a good game," Surtain said. "They came in with a high-striking offense and we knew that we had to eliminate the explosives, eliminate their top threat. Ja'Marr, he's a great player. One of, if not, the best receiver in the league. They got a lot going on with themselves on the offensive side of the ball, so it's gonna be a good challenge. Trying to eliminate them like how we did that time would be great."
Much has changed since then, with Chase picking up three Pro Bowls to Surtain's two, although the defender also has an All-Pro campaign under his belt.
Perhaps most importantly for the Broncos, they have transformed to become a postseason contender sitting one win away from a double-digit win season and playoff berth for the first time since the 2015 campaign.
Much of Denver's ability to secure such a victory Saturday will be predicated on slowing the Bengals, who are clinging to hope at 7-8 but can force the Broncos into a must-win Week 18 game against the 14-1 Chiefs, lest they potentially give up their playoff spot to Cincinnati or one of the other 7-8 teams in pursuit.
"We know what's at stake moving forward," Surtain said. "All we're focusing on is getting this 10th win and securing a playoff spot."
Denver and Cincinnati kick off on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET.
