As he did gliding into Bengals lore, Isaac Curtis is going long.
Curtis, the Godfather of the Go Ball 50 years before Ja'Marr Chase christened the Bengals record book, is making what he hopes is a Sunday drive for the Bengals' Sunday night game (8:20-Cincinnati's Channel 5) in Los Angeles against the Chargers.
But Curtis knows better, since where he lives in Temecula, Calif., is a long 90 miles from SoFi Stadium.
"I'm not driving in two or three hours of traffic to see anything but a win," Curtis is saying Tuesday where else? on a drive. "Yeah, I'll take a long one, too."
It just so happens that ten days after Chase broke Curtis' club record of 10 career touchdown catches of at least 60 yards, Curtis is coming to see things for himself as the NFL's leading receiver meets the league's stingiest scoring dense. He's also bringing two of his former teammates who are in from Cincinnati, Louis Breeden and John Simmons.
"I had no idea. I had no idea I had the record," Curtis says. "It's been so long. I pay more attention to wins and losses. Just play to win. That's kind of where I was. If I caught two or three passes, or three touchdowns, it was more important we won. If we didn't win, I didn't do enough, or we didn't do enough as a team."
If that didn't have all the echoes of Chase's lament following last Thursday night's loss to the Ravens despite his already iconic three touchdowns and 264 yards, it's close enough to check another box of their similarities.
Both wasted no time going deep with Curtis' first NFL touchdown in 1973 going 60 yards and Chase's first in 2021 going for 50.
Both set the Bengals' long-range record with the same quarterbacks they had as rookies.
Both began their youth careers as running backs, with Curtis hanging on in that spot until his last year at San Diego State, and they incorporated that running style into their games at receiver
And …
"We're both threats," Curtis says. "The game's a little different. We battled up and down the field a little more and it's a passing league now. We didn't get as many targets. There was more balance. But anywhere on the field, we can hurt you. If you make a mistake, we'll make you pay."
Since Curtis never talks about himself, that's as close as you'll get. When he's talking about Chase. They're game book soulmates.
"I enjoy watching them. All of their receivers and (Joe) Burrow. They have two No. 1 receivers with Tee Higgins. When they get clicking, they're tough to stop. The coaches do a good job getting them open," Curtis says.
Since Chase came into the league, he has cashed in with the most touchdown catches of 60-plus with a dozen and no one is close. According to Elias, he's only three behind active leader Tyreek Hill. In that same stretch, Curtis became the first receiver in the Bengals Ring of Honor, but he has yet to meet Chase.
"I passed him a couple of times on the field, and we said hi," Curtis says. "He seems like a really nice guy."
He's also the kind of guy Curtis likes watching. The home-run receivers have their own club.
"The biggest thing you have to have as a long-ball receiver is speed. They can run. They can take the top off the defense," Chase says. "(Chase) has great speed and a great quarterback who can anticipate and get it to him. He does a lot of things. Not just go deep. He can run crossers, the stuff underneath. You have to play him honest, especially if it's one-on-one, or different zones. He runs good routes. Very talented. He'll break every record for the Bengals if he and Burrow stay healthy."
If Curtis had speed fast enough to nearly make the U.S. Olympic team, Chase has decathlete athleticism that has scored from beyond 60 in a smorgasbord spectacular. Seam routes. Post patterns. His longest play of 82 yards came on a thrill-ride spin after the first ten yards. He has jolted a screen pass at the line of scrimmage for 70 yards.
"What I Iike about him is the explosiveness and the talent," Curtis says. "Anytime he touches it, he can go all the way."
Chase is also leading the league in Yards After Catch. YAC. Fittingly, the two closest players to Chase in YAC are running backs. Alvin Kamara and Bijan Robinson.
How was your YAC, Ike?
"I don't think they kept track of that," says Curtis of the no longer strange and sudden 21st-century stat. "I had good yards after catch. I don't really know. It's never been brought to my attention."
We bring your attention to YouTube and the highlights from Nov. 14, 1976, at Riverfront Stadium and the Bengals trailing the Oilers, 27-24, as the clock ticked inside a minute.
"A slant in," Curtis says.
Quarterback Ken Anderson took the snap from the Houston 47 and whistled one of his strikes to Curtis at the 35 with a defender draped all over No. 85. Curtis shrugged him off, deked the next defender, and outran the remaining four for the winning touchdown.
Like the griddy Chase, Curis had a flair for the moment. He book-ended his career touchdowns with that first 60-yarder and an 80-yarder in Miami ten years later on Monday Night Football. Anderson fired a deep out route and when cornerback William Judson gambled and failed on the sidelines at the Bengals 37, Curtis racked up 62 yards in YAC for that tenth touchdown of at least 60 no Bengal touched until last Thursday night.
"And he's got the great quarterback. What would I have been without Kenny Anderson?" Curtis asks.
Still great, of course, as Curtis recalls one game against Cleveland where he corralled long touchdowns with either hand on plays down both sidelines.
One was a go route.
"One was down the seam," Curtis says. "Kind of an out route that had a rolled-up corner and then it turns into a seam with the safeties coming over the top and Kenny put it right in there. Just understanding and anticipating defenses. You definitely have to be on the same page. That's the thing they have going for them. They had good fortune of playing with each other in college and they're very well connected."
Anderson is the same guy who threw Curtis the 80-yarder in Miami, the 60-yarder in Cleveland, and the 49 touchdowns in between. Burrow and Chase are on the same track, already hooking up for 37 touchdowns, two behind Boomer Esiason and Eddie Brown on the Bengals all-time list.
And they're not all that far behind Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson (44) and Jeff Blake and Carl Pickens (47). The final mountains are the 51 of Curtis and Anderson and the 58 of Andy Dalton and A.J. Green.
"Fun to watch," says Curtis of another long Sunday.
