Ja'Marr Chase — Week 2: Two Touchdowns on Nine Targets
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Chase caught 7 of 9 targets for 75 yards and both Cincinnati touchdowns: 32 yards deep right on first and ten to break a scoreless tie with 3:37 left in the second quarter, and 18 yards deep right on third and six in the third. An 18-yard catch on the opening drive was reversed on a Houston challenge. Four targets in Week 1 became nine, in a 20–6 win over the Texans.
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Nothing to nothing, three 37 left in the second quarter, first and 10 at the Houston 32. Joe Burrow threw deep right to Ja'Marr Chase for 32 yards and the touchdown. +3.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 9.8 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. They were the first points of the afternoon, at the end of a seven-play, 81-yard drive that began at the Cincinnati 19 after Houston was stopped on fourth and one. The second one came with three 12 left in the third, 10 to three, third and six at the Houston 18: deep right again, 18 yards, touchdown, +3.2 expected points and 6.3 points of win probability. 17 to three, and Cincinnati did not reach the end zone again.
The line: nine targets, seven catches, 75 yards, two touchdowns, three first downs, +3.9 expected points on his targets. 81 air yards, 15 after the catch. The catches went six, eight, two, 32, four, 18 five. One of the two that do not count as catches was a catch for a while: third and four at the Cincinnati 47 on the opening drive, short middle, 18 yards to the Houston 35. Houston challenged, the ruling was reversed, and at −1.9 expected points it was the second-worst play of Cincinnati's day by that measure, behind a third-down sack. The Bengals punted. The other incompletion was second and four with four 24 left in the second quarter, two snaps before the first touchdown. Six targets before halftime, three after. He was also flagged for a false start at the Houston 44 in the first quarter.
Nine targets were second on the Bengals to Tee Higgins's 10, and nobody else had more than Chase Brown's five. The two wide receivers took 19 of Burrow's 31 throws and a hundred 70 of his 207 yards. Both touchdown passes went to Chase, and both are labeled deep right in the play-by-play.
Back in June the preview's read on Chase was that his value rests on volume and availability, the two inputs that carry from year to year, and that targets are the last thing to leave a receiver like him. Week 1 put a question next to that: four targets, fourth on his own team, two catches for 12 yards. Sunday he saw nine of 31 throws, and the only two touchdowns of the game were his. One low week and one normal one is not a trend in either direction, but the second game looked like the preview and the first one did not. Cincinnati is at the Steelers on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When Ja'Marr Chase's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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