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NFL Wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase of the Cincinnati Bengals catches the ball in the game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in 2021. Quinn Harris / Getty Images Ja’Marr Chase’s 50th career touchdown reception came three weeks ago, a magnificent 19-yard back-shoulder catch in Green Bay with Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon draped all over him. That didn’t matter. Chase fought back through Nixon, snatched the ball at the goal line and held on even after a big hit from charging safety Xavier Mc Kinney. Advertisement Standard operating brilliance from Chase, really. Routine at this point. But that sequence also illuminates the concerns the Chicago Bears have this week as they head for Cincinnati with designs on containing the Bengals’ four-time Pro Bowl playmaker. “You talk about a complete problem, ” Bears coach Ben Johnson said Wednesday. “He is that. I don’t know how much you can slow him down. ” Indeed, Chase is back in his groove, quickly locking in this month with new Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco and again becoming the wick for a Cincinnati offense that has exploded for 1, 136 yards and 89 points in three games since Flacco’s arrival. Chase has caught 38 balls for 345 yards and two touchdowns in that span. Safety Kevin Byard has combed through all the video of the Bengals offense and knows what the Bears are in for. Chase’s TD in Green Bay was of particular note to Byard, not just because of the athleticism and strength the talented receiver showed but because of the fearlessness he injects into his quarterbacks — especially a seasoned veteran like Flacco. Said Byard: “When you have an explosive receiver like that, sometimes you’ll have a safety who’s hovering over there in his area to try to tell the quarterback, ‘Hey, don’t throw it to this guy. ’ He throws it to him still. ” That was the case at Lambeau Field. As Byard ran that play back, he noticed Mc Kinney creeping toward the boundary side, keeping close tabs on Chase. No matter. Flacco fired anyway. And Chase did Chase. “Spectacular catch, ” Byard said. Byard has played two previous games against Chase, including an AFC divisional round playoff contest in January 2022. The Bengals beat Byard’s Titans 19-16 with Chase contributing the game’s biggest play, an early 57-yard reception on a ball he caught right at the line of scrimmage. Advertisement One quick move and off he went, part of a 109-yard receiving day within a 25-catch, 368-yard postseason run. That’s a common theme this week around Halas Hall, where so many of the men strategizing to slow Chase have memories and scars from their first-hand experience with him. Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen tried slowing Chase in October 2022 while with the Saints but came out on the wrong end of a seven-catch, 132-yard, two-touchdown performance. The punctuation: Chase’s 60-yard go-ahead TD with 1: 57 remaining. There was nothing fancy about that play. Basic 10-yard out route. But Saints corner Bradley Roby missed a tackle. Safety Tyrann Mathieu misjudged Chase’s speed and took a bad angle. And Chase was gone, down the left sideline. The Bengals escaped 30-26. Asked Wednesday to identify the most dangerous tool in Chase’s skill set, Allen chose the whole toolbox. Elite speed. Ultra-friendly catch radius. Impressive fluidity getting in and out of breaks. Capable of making contested grabs. “He’s a damn good football player, ” Allen said. By this point, the Bengals’ official game notes have an entire chapter devoted to Chase’s mind-bending statistical production. • Last season, he became the sixth receiver in the Super Bowl era to win a triple crown, leading the NFL in catches (127), yards (1, 708) and TDs (17). At 24 years old, he was the youngest ever to do so. • Earlier this month, Chase became the fifth player in league history to surpass 6, 000 receiving yards before playing his 70th game. He also joined Randy Moss and Jerry Rice as the only receivers to record 6, 000 yards plus 50 touchdown catches in their first five seasons. • Since his 2021 arrival, Chase’s 51 touchdown catches are the most in the NFL. • His 70 receptions this season: also a league high, 16 clear of the next closest receiver, Puka Nacua of the Rams. Advertisement On Sunday, Chase will attempt to join Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson as the only receivers in league history to record at least 10 receptions in four consecutive games. “The targets are coming, ” Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright said. “You remind yourself that the action will be there. ” Even with a revived Bengals running game and fellow receiver Tee Higgins as a complement, the Bengals offense figures to continue running through Chase. As a player, Bears defensive backs coach Al Harris faced Johnson four times. Harris puts him on a short list of elite receivers from his era that also includes Moss, Marvin Harrison and Terrell Owens, with an extra nod of appreciation for Jimmy Smith. “Oh my goodness, ” Harris said. “He ran all his routes at the same tempo. He was a really good receiver. ” Chase is a different type of player in a totally different era. But he has similarly earned Harris’ respect. Last season, as defensive backs coach for the Cowboys, Harris watched Chase erupt for 177 yards and two touchdowns on 14 catches in a 27-20 Cincinnati win at AT&T Stadium. “Very rarely do you see the big guys who can run routes, ” Harris said. “His change of direction is good. And his ability to make ‘combat’ catches is unique. You see him a lot of times making catches with guys draped on him in double coverage. His ability to catch the football in those instances is off the charts. ” At the time, Chase’s eruption against Dallas registered as the second-highest single-game receptions total in Bengals history, behind Chase’s 15-catch outing 14 months earlier against Arizona. That record, though, fell just two weeks ago when Chase turned 16 grabs into 161 yards against Pittsburgh. Wright was at home watching that Thursday night game and couldn’t go more than a few minutes without seeing a football flying Chase’s way. Three targets in the first quarter. Eight more in the second. Twenty-three by night’s end. Advertisement “You could see it happening, ” Wright said. In the second quarter, Chase caught an 8-yard touchdown pass from Flacco but had it overturned by a replay review that ruled he didn’t control the ball through the process of the catch. On the next snap? An 8-yard Chase touchdown catch. “You have a vet quarterback and maybe the best receiver in the league, ” Wright said. “There’s an understanding that if they get him the ball, they have an opportunity to score on every play. ” On 126 pass attempts in October, Flacco has thrown to Chase 54 times for the aforementioned 38 catches and 345 yards. “That’s an absurd number, ” Wright said. But it’s also a clear m. o. Where Byard points out a receiver with elite contested-catch ability, Wright also has his eyes on Chase’s run-after-catch explosion. “You have to be attached in coverage, ” Wright said. “That’s probably the biggest thing. Catches are going to be made. But when he does get the football, get him down. Eliminate the leaky yardage. ” Chase’s first 100-yard receiving game in the NFL came, fittingly, in his rookie debut. Why not? Bears cornerback Nick Mc Cloud was his teammate four weeks later when the young receiver had 159 yards and a TD against Green Bay. “He made some plays, ” Mc Cloud said, “where you were like, ‘OK. He’s that guy. ’” Two weeks later? Chase put up his first 200-yard game against Baltimore. Eight grabs, 201 yards and an 82-yard touchdown. “He caught a slant on Marlon (Humphrey), ” Mc Cloud said, “ran to the inside, shook a guy, then spun back outside and went like 70 or something. Now it was like, ‘OK, he’s really really that guy. ” Chase still is that guy, with a $40. 25 million annual salary to prove his worth, and with the Bears devoting significant attention this week to slowing him down. During an extensive review of the Cincinnati offense, Byard found himself playing a version of “Where’s Waldo? ” trying to find all the spots where Chase would align. Outside. From the slot. In close to the ball. “That kind of tells the story a little bit of what they want to do with him, ” Byard said. “I think we’d be foolish not to point him out on every single snap and know where he is. ” That sounds like a plan. Executing it well will be crucial. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Dan Wiederer is a Senior Writer covering the Chicago Bears and the NFL. He has covered the Bears since 2013, previously for the Chicago Tribune, and also covered the Vikings for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Additionally, Wiederer spent seven seasons covering ACC basketball on Tobacco Road for the Fayetteville (N. C. ) Observer. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Wiederer is a multi-time winner of the Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism. His writing has also been recognized nationally in the Associated Press Sports Editors’ writing contest. Follow Dan on Twitter @danwiederer