Ja’Marr Chase didn’t seem to have much of a chance on Monday night. The Cincinnati Bengals’ All-Pro wide receiver had a backup quarterback throwing the football and Denver Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II trying to keep him from catching it.
Chase finished Cincinnati’s 28-3 loss with five receptions for 23 yards. But it proved his summertime point.
At Chad Johnson’s Wideout Workshop in July, the former Bengals Pro Bowler sought to show Chase how he could beat Surtain. Chase told Johnson it wouldn’t work. He was backed up by Courtland Sutton, a current Denver teammate of Surtain’s, and Jerry Jeudy, a former Alabama and Broncos teammate.
During their weekly podcast, “Closed on Sundays with Pat and Terrion,” Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold told Surtain the wide receviers were “talking about you like you was Freddy Krueger, the boogeyman.”
“You say I’m the boogeyman?” Surtain told the former Crimson Tide defensive back. “The boogeyman’s around the corner. It’s a respect thing, though. You got to build that reputation. The work I put in, the technique, all that, I feel like they know what it is at the end of the day. You only know if you go up against somebody.”
A first-round draft pick in 2021 after earning the SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award for Alabama’s undefeated CFP national-championship team in 2020, Surtain has been a Pro Bowler for the past three seasons, a first-team All-Pro in 2022 and 2024 and the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year for the 2024 season.
Chase has 421 receptions for 5,689 yards and 47 touchdowns in his 66 NFL games. No other player in NFL history can meet those numbers in that same span to start his career.
But on Sunday, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, Surtain allowed one reception for 8 yards in 13 coverage matchups with Chase, including no receptions in 10 matchups in man-to-man coverage. And it wasn’t a fluke: Surtain has covered Chase on 54 career routes and allowed four receptions for 35 yards.
“It does mean a little more as a matter of fact, most definitely,” Surtain said after Sunday’s game about clamping down on a receiver of Chase’s caliber. “But I always think about me versus me at the end of the day, no matter who I go up against. I got to line up and make sure that my technique is good regardless, and I’m on my P’s and Q’s.”
Surtain told Arnold the NFL light bulb went on for him in 2022.
“My second year, that’s when I seen a tremendous amount of growth in my game,” Surtain said. “Your rookie year, you’re going through the motions a little bit, trying to figure out your technique, knowing how to watch film, this and that. I feel like my second year, I seen a whole different player, like within my technique, my intangibles. Once I was locked in on that, I felt like, ‘Hey, it’s only up from here.’ Like, I’m going to create my own standard my own way. …
“The game plan moving forward in that second year was different. They had me following the best receiver. They had me going up against the top receivers in the game man-on-man, isolated. That was how my coaches viewed me, and that’s how I started viewing myself as one of them ones. Once you think like that mentally, you sort of feed off that. First game, I went up against DK (Metcalf). Boom, held my own, held my ground. Then I went up against Davante Adams, all these great receivers and stuff like that, and I realized, ‘I’m doing my thing.’ Just going back to the basics, doing what I know to do, and I just seen my game elevated.
“Ever since then, I always go back into that training-camp stage that second year. I was like, ‘I’m locked in. I’m telling you, I’m locked in.’ I just sensed a whole different animal, and I was like, ‘Yeah, now I know what to do.’”
Next Gen Stats says Surtain has been matched against the opposition’s No. 1 receiver 47 more times than any other NFL cornerback since the start of the 2024 season.
In Week 5, the Broncos play the Philadelphia Eagles, who have two highly regarded wide receivers – AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith, a former Alabama teammate of Surtain’s.
The Alabama Game of the Week is the Broncos-Eagles contest on Sunday. The teams’ active rosters include 17 players from Alabama high schools and colleges.
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The Week 5 schedule (with all times Central and point spreads from BetMGM):
Thursday
San Francisco 49ers at Los Angeles Rams (-7), 7:15 p.m. (Prime Video)
Sunday
Minnesota Vikings (-3.5) vs. Cleveland Browns in London, 8:30 a.m. (NFL Network)
Houston Texans (-1) at Baltimore Ravens, noon
Miami Dolphins (-1.5) at Carolina Panthers, noon
Las Vegas Raiders at Indianapolis Colts (-7), noon
New York Giants at New Orleans Saints (-2), noon
Dallas Cowboys (-2.5) at New York Jets, noon (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)
Denver Broncos at Philadelphia Eagles (-3.5), noon (WIAT, WTVY, WKRG, WAKA)
Tennessee Titans at Arizona Cardinals (-7.5), 3:05 p.m. (WHNT)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Seattle Seahawks (-3.5), 3:05 p.m.
Detroit Lions (-10.5) at Cincinnati Bengals, 3:25 p.m.
Washington Commanders at Los Angeles Chargers (-2.5), 3:25 p.m. (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)
New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills (-8), 7:20 p.m. (NBC)
Monday
Kansas City Chiefs (-3.5) at Jacksonville Jaguars, 7:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN)
The Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers do not play in Week 5.
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