The Bengals lost for the third time in four games on Sunday and their offense produced just three points, so it probably didn’t come as a great surprise to many people to see a number of social media posts showing a brief clip of wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase in the locker room with captions about him expressing his frustration with the offense.
The three-second clip does not show the question posed to Chase or any of his other thoughts about the 27-3 loss to the Titans, but captures his response.
“No. I’m open, I’m always fucking open. Excuse my profanity,” Chase said.
A longer video posted by Joe Danneman of FOX19 provides more context for Chase’s comments, however. He was asked about the amount of pressure that the Titans sent after the Bengals in Sunday’s loss.
“We couldn’t capitalize on those blitzes when they did ‘em. On our end, I guess the receivers didn’t create enough plays,” Chase said.
He was then asked if he’s felt like he’s had less time to get open, which led to the response about always being open. At the very start of that clip, Chase is asked about quarterback Joe Burrow playing through a calf injury. He said he’s never seen Burrow try to deal with something like this and expressed his confidence that things will get better soon.
“He’s just going through a little adversity, he’s gonna get back to it in no time,” Chase said.
Chase and the rest of the Bengals have every reason to feel frustrated by how this year has started, but it doesn’t seem like Chase was dropping the bomb that some believed he was dropping in his postgame comments.