Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — Jalen Ramsey didn’t need to exhaust his vocabulary to sum up what went wrong during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ last matchup with Ja’Marr Chase and the Cincinnati Bengals.
“A lot,” Ramsey said after Friday’s practice at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
OK, well, what do the three-time first-team Associated Press All-Pro and the rest of Mike Tomlin’s defense need to do better when its AFC North rival visits on Sunday?
“Everything,” he said about what needs improving this time around.
There wasn’t much insight to be offered. Ramsey has typically chosen his words carefully in black and gold and, during this particular discussion with reporters, he didn’t mention Chase or Tee Higgins.
Their numbers spoke for themselves nearly a month ago at their place.
During a 33-31 Thursday night win, Chase hauled in 16 passes, the sixth-most in a single game since the turn of the century. He finished with 161 receiving yards and a touchdown, while Higgins went for 96 yards and a score on six grabs.
“You can’t let a star player like that get the ball that many times,” Steelers inside linebacker Patrick Queen said. “Now, it’s just a point of us not letting him catch the ball that many times and doing what he does after he catches the ball.”
Chase has 831 receiving yards and five touchdowns on a league-leading 76 grabs this season.
The pieces in the Steelers’ secondary won’t be the same as they try to slow Chase down this time around. Safety DeShon Elliott is on injured reserve after suffering a badly hyperextended knee. Veteran cornerback Darius Slay’s status isn’t certain after being in concussion protocol earlier in the week. James Pierre might be in line to fill in for Slay.
Ramsey, who tried to check Chase for a good portion of their last battle, has recently been stationed at safety alongside Kyle Dugger, who was acquired via trade late last month.
With the move, Chase doesn’t anticipate Ramsey covering him as much as he did the first time around, “but I’m sure he’s gonna want to,” Chase said to Cincinnati reporters on Thursday. The wideout also labeled Steelers third-year cornerback Joey Porter Jr. as “handsy, real handsy.”
Chase wasn’t surprised by how the Steelers tried to deal with him when they initially crossed paths this season, but said Thursday that Teryl Austin’s unit has mixed it up more during this season than in past ones.
“A lot of disguises. Usually, the last couple of years, it’s been usually man, one-high, play a little (Cover) 3,” Chase said. “But this year, they’ve mixed around some cloud, showing a little quarters every here and there, a little 3-buzz, some 6-strong sometimes, so they throw around pretty much a little bit of everything just because they didn’t know what kinda DBs they have on the back end.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: [Jalen Ramsey Has Clear Message About How Steelers Can Improve in...
