When the Pittsburgh Steelers hit the field Thursday night in primetime, they’ll do so looking to slow down a dynamic duo at wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, a duo they are quite familiar with, yet still very worried about.
That would be Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins in Cincinnati.
Arguably the best 1-2 punch at receiver in football, Chase and Higgins are a handful for anyone. That’s why the Steelers were so aggressive this offseason, going out and landing the likes of Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay, Brandin Echols and Juan Thornhill in the secondary to provide Joey Porter Jr. with some help.
Now, they’ll get a chance to see what that looks like against the Bengals’ duo.
For head coach Mike Tomlin, the two receivers are great in their own right, but together they are even more dangerous. Speaking with Steelers.com’s Bob Labriola, Tomlin had a lot of praise for the Bengals’ star duo.
“They work independently, but they really complement each other well,” Tomlin said of Chase and Higgins,according to Steelers.com. “Chase is certainly capable of taking the top off the coverage and doing run-after things. Higgins plays a goon-game. He’s a combat catcher. He’s a one-on-one winner. He’s a red zone problem.
“They’re a formidable tandem, and one of the things that makes them such a formidable tandem is their differences.”
The two are different receivers stylistically. Chase is the elite route runner that creates a ton of separation and can do anything asked of him. He can take the top off of defenses, create after the catch, and thrive in the quick game, too. Higgins is more of the big-bodied possession guy, one that can win above the rim and is a physical force.
They’ve had plenty of success against the Steelers. Against the Steelers in six games, Chase has 37 receptions for 496 yards and five touchdowns. As for Higgins, he has 41 receptions for 697 yards and four touchdowns in eight career games against the Black and Gold.
On Thursday night, the Steelers will have to plan to deal with both. They have the secondary to do so, though.
While having two star receivers to deal with can seem challenging on the outside, Tomlin downplayed it some, stating that having three is more challenging than two receivers to deal with, something he’s had experience with in the past.
“You know, two doesn’t really slow you down, but three definitively slows you down,” Tomlin said. “I’ve been in this league a long time, and when I was a secondary coach 25 years ago, the Rams had the ‘greatest show on turf’ with guys like Torry Holt and Az-Zahir Hakim and Isaac Bruce and guys like that, Ricky Proehl at times. When it gets to be more than two, that’s when you really get handcuffed defensively in terms of some of the schematic things. Most defenses, most strategists can handle two.
“…It’s problematic when there’s three, but generally, you can manage two if you’re sharp.”
Harkening back to his days as a secondary coach in Tampa Bay and then his defensive coordinator days in Minnesota is a nice blast from the past for Tomlin. That “Greatest Show on Turf” wide receiver room was legendary, and it helped that they had a Hall of Fame triggerman in Kurt Warner, and a superstar running back in Marshall Faulk.
That made things very challenging. The Bengals don’t have that right now, though, with Joe Burrow sidelined and Chase Brown struggling as the lead back.
Will that make things easier for the Steelers Thursday night? That remains to be seen. But they believe they have the horses in place to handle Chase and Higgins. Talk is cheap, though. Time to back it up on the field.
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