Getty Matt Milano makes a play on Cincinnati Bengals receiver Ja'Marr Chase in a January 22 game.
The Cincinnati Bengals are ready to take on the Buffalo Bills in a game that could have major playoff implications, but receiver Ja’Marr Chase doesn’t seem eager to re-evaluate last year’s playoff game between the two teams.
The Bengals dismantled the Bills 27-10 in last season’s divisional round, hounding Josh Allen and the Buffalo offense while carving up the Bills’ defense on a snowy afternoon in Buffalo. Though at least one Bills player raised the idea that the outcome could have been different if the game were played in better weather conditions, wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase wasn’t having it.
Ja’Marr Chase Shuts Down Buffalo’s Excuse on Playoff Loss
Ahead of the November 5 meeting between the AFC contenders, Chase was asked by reporters about claims from some Bills players that the January playoff game could have gone differently in better weather conditions.
Chase quickly dismissed the claim, throwing some shade at the Bills for the excuse.
“Yeah, I remember that,” Chase said, via a video shared on X by reporter Jeremy Rauch. “That’s something crazy to say.”
Fellow Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd also called out the claim, hinting that the Bengals have the chance to prove the playoff win wasn’t a fluke.
“We here now, so we’re gonna see what the outcome is,” Boyd said.
This isn’t the first time that Chase has rebuked the idea that weather played a factor in last year’s playoff game. After former Bills wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie asserted that the Bills would have won the game if it were played in a dome, Chase set the record straight about his own history of playing in the snow.
“(That was) my first time ever playing in (the) snow bro. Just gotta play at the end of the day …” Chase wrote on X in May.
Chase did well for his first game ever in snowy conditions, making five receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown as part of a dominant effort in the victory. The Bengals won the game and advanced to the AFC Championship game, but lost the Kansas City Chiefs.
Bills Ready to Face Bengals
McKenzie has since left the Bills to join the Indianapolis Colts, and the team’s current players seem well aware of just how good the Bengals have been in recent weeks. Bills safety Micah Hyde shared some big praise for quarterback Joe Burrow, who shook off some early injury concerns and has thrown for eight touchdowns in the last three games.
“Joe is Joe, man,” Hyde said, via The Associated Press. “Last week was a big indication of what they’re able to do on offense with the weapons he has around him. We know that’s their team, that’s their offense, and they go when Joe goes.”
While Bills players are not revisiting the reasons for last year’s playoff loss, Burrow is also not trying to dwell on a dark moment fromt the first time the teams met last season — Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s on-field collapse, which led to the game being canceled.
“I think what happened is in the past,” Burrow said. “I think everybody remembers it, but is not going to dwell on it. I know he’s not dwelling on it, either.”