BALTIMORE — Ja’Marr Chase was fuming about what he saw from his team in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens.
So when the team entered the locker room at halftime, the Cincinnati Bengals star wide receiver made sure he let his teammates know how he felt. The All-Pro unloaded in a halftime speech that let the offense know that things needed to be better.
Message received.
The Bengals scored five unanswered touchdowns in a 35-13 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. All of those points came in the second half following Chase’s bold words.
“I came in here screaming, saying ‘Somebody’s gotta make a play for us, somebody gotta make a play,'” Chase said. “And I told our offense [that] we can’t look at our defense the whole time. We gotta step this s— up and make something work.”
Heading into Sunday’s game, Cincinnati (4-2) had lost three straight games in AFC North play and dropped six of the last eight regular-season contests against the Ravens (3-3). And even though Baltimore was without star quarterback Lamar Jackson, it dominated the first half.
The Ravens outgained Cincinnati 258 to 59 in the first half and had 20 more offensive plays than the Bengals. According to ESPN Research, that was the lowest in any first half in any game featuring quarterback Joe Burrow, who Cincinnati drafted with the first overall pick in 2020. That was when Chase went off.
“I didn’t like how we played,” Chase said. “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.”
But the second-half adjustments worked. Cincinnati, which gave up eight third-down possessions in the first half, buckled down after the break. Not only did the offense find a rhythm that was nowhere to be found at the start of the game, but the defense opened the half with a three-and-out and a turnover on downs deep in Bengals territory.
Even though Chase’s message was aimed at the offense, the players on the other side of the ball took heed of what was said.
“That’s a guy who loves to compete at the highest level — he wants to win,” said linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr., who had an interception in the win. “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 said it was a reset for the entire team. And the result was one of the more historic scoreboard flips in NFL history.
Baltimore became the third team ever to lead by 13 or more points at halftime and lose by 20 or more points, according to ESPN Research. Initially, the Ravens looked poised for another blowout win after a 24-0 drubbing at Cincinnati in last year’s final meeting between the two teams. Instead, Cincinnati produced a showing that indicated what their quality could be by the end of the season, coach Zac Taylor said.
“It just reaffirms we can be as good as we want to be,” the eighth-year coach said.
Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins had six catches for a game-high 148 yards and one touchdown. Chase finished with five receptions for 62 yards and a touchdown with 7:25 left in the game that really started the blowout and started the empty the seats at M&T Bank Stadium.
But his words were arguably more meaningful than anything he did on the field Sunday.
It wasn’t the first time Chase delivered a passionate halftime speech during a game. He couldn’t recall the other instance because in that case, he was so emotional that he couldn’t really remember when it happened.
“I’ve done it before and I cried last time,” Chase said. “But I didn’t cry this time.”
