Cincinnati Bengals star receiver Ja'Marr Chase wore his emotions on his sleeve during Monday night's 28-3 blowout loss to the Denver Broncos.
The Bengals looked rudderless, falling to 2-2, while being outscored, 76-13, the past two weeks without Joe Burrow.
"It's not good ever losing, so gotta learn from it," Chase said after the loss, via The Cincinnati Enquirer. "Trying to overcome adversity. Get some wins, man. ... Just gotta get better at getting first downs. ... I'm always frustrated if I'm losing, you know what I'm saying. But it's part of the game, man. Sometimes emotions take over. Sometimes it looks like what it's not supposed to. But, yeah, it happens. ... We go out there and we lay eggs sometimes. ... We're not capitalizing on opportunities. ... Urgency is there. We've gotta want it. At the end of the day, we've gotta want it. Today it didn't look like we wanted it."
At one point during the drumming, Chase approached coach Zac Taylor on the sidelines for an extended conversation in the second half. The wideout downplayed the exchange.
"We just talked about the possessions," Chase said, "talking about what plays we can run, how we can attack certain coverages and get out there."
Jake Browning targeted Chase eight times, connecting on five passes, but those generated just 23 yards. Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II helped ensure a rough night for Chase, covering the star receiver on 66.7 % of his routes and allowing just a single catch for eight yards on two targets.
The Bengals opened the game with a 12-play, 57-yard field goal drive, earning four first downs. They did nothing the rest of the contest. On the next nine possessions, they generated just 102 yards, five first downs and zero points.
Browning completed 14 of 25 passes for 125 yards and took three sacks. The ground game was also slowed by a stiff Denver defense, earning 53 total rush yards on 15 attempts.
With a date against the explosive Detroit Lions on tap on a short week, the Bengals offense must find answers before their once-promising start to the season is washed completely away.
