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Ja’Marr Chase can’t be accused of not having confidence in the Bengals.
Ahead of this weekend’s AFC showdown with the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs, Chase told reporters Thursday that he believes the Bengals are the top team in the conference.
The matchup between the two teams has been a big one in the AFC, deciding who would reach the Super Bowl in both 2022 and 2023.
Though Cincy is coming into the game off a season-opening loss to the Patriots, Chase believes in his squad.
“Everybody knows that, bro,” Chase said, according to ESPN. “It’s not ‘if.’ We are the team to beat in the AFC. And we know it. And we gotta play like it, too.”
The Bengals are two years removed from an appearance in the Super Bowl, but questions have remained over whether they’ve taken more steps to be a championship-caliber team.
“All that noise y’all are making and stuff, we see it, we hear it,” Chase said. “But we’re not worried about it, you know what I’m saying? At the end of the day, it’s about the team and what we’re doing on the field.
“The outside people are not on the field, telling us what to do on the field. I’ll let them stay outside and make their own comments.”
The Bengals have been dealing with an injury issue to wide receiver Tee Higgins, who pushed back on speculation that he was faking the hamstring issue that kept him out of Week 1.
In a conversation with ESPN, he questioned why the fans thought he was faking and told the outlet “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Fans also had been speculating over the status of QB Joe Burrow’s wrist after a viral clip of him drinking from a water bottle weirdly circulated on social media.
Still, that hasn’t diminished the growing rivalry between the two teams ahead of the Week 2 match.
“The energy’s there [on] both sides,” Chase said. “I’m sure they know we don’t like them. They know they don’t like us. So the energy’s already there. There’s not really much we got to say now to this point. It’s been four years now, so everyone gets it.”
The two teams kick-off at 4:25 p.m. on Sunday,
