“Truly Spectacular” - Rich What Ja’Marr Chase’s “Catch of the Year” Means for Bengals’ Mojo

Rich is ready to call it, with 15 regular season games still to play. The catch of the year already has a clubhouse leader, and he does not think anybody is knocking Ja'Marr Chase out of it by NFL Honors.

"Which might be an overreaction here," he admitted. He made the case anyway.

The setting mattered. Cincinnati and Houston were locked in a scoreless game, and after Chase had only 12 yards in Week 1, it had been almost a game and a half of wondering when he would break out. Then Joe Burrow threw one in his direction, 32 yards down the field.

What happened next is why Rich called it "truly spectacular." With the ball in the air, Chase lost his balance. "It just seems like he stumbled," Rich said. He stayed on his feet, located the football, twisted his body, and "somehow gets his two feet down in a patch of grass that one would think has to be 5 inches by 5 inches."

He snatched it with one hand on the ball going to the ground and never lost possession. In 25 years of doing this, Rich said, the only player he could compare it to is someone who made his bones in that same building: DeAndre Hopkins. With both of them, "you know he's going to get his feet down, and you know if he's going to the ground, the ball's not coming loose."

That is the highlight. The bigger point is what it might mean for the Bengals. Rich framed it as a potential turning point: Cincinnati went into Houston after the Texans had put up all those points on the Bills, and held them to six. "We scored enough."

The numbers make the case. The Bengals are 2-0 in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2014 and 2015, and they made the playoffs in both of those years. The six points they allowed matched what Chase put up on that one catch, and it was the fewest they have given up in a road game in 11 years. Chase also scored again later, the 50th touchdown between Burrow and Chase since Chase entered the league in 2021. "That's the best by any quarterback pass catcher combo," Rich said. That one came when Burrow rolled right to extend a play and Chase broke into a different route, a "sixth sense that goes back to Baton Rouge."

"Look out, man, if the Bengals are playing defense like that," Rich said. They are 2-0 and in first place in the AFC North.

The flip side is Houston. C.J. Stroud and the Texans are 0-2 again. "They've done it before," Rich said. "They're going to have to do it again."