AFC Notes: Mark Andrews, Ja’Marr Chase, Bengals, Ravens, Steelers

Bengals

Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase says that the team is recapturing their confidence following their win over the Cardinals on Sunday.

“We’ve taken a step closer to who we really are,” Chase said, via Pro Football Talk. “We keep facing adversity this year. It’s not going to be an easy season and right now we just keep taking it step by step into next week.”

Ravens

The Ravens fell short to the Steelers on Sunday and TE Mark Andrews believes the team needs to limit their mistakes in order to secure victories.

“It’s almost like a sleeping giant, man. We need to wake up. There was a lot there,” Andrews said, via Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com. “We just kind of hurt ourselves. It’s a part of it. This is a tough game to lose because you feel like you controlled the whole game. We felt like we could do what we wanted and impose our will, and we still lost the game.”

• Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey on allowing a touchdown catch by Steelers WR George Pickens at the end of the game: “You kind of get beat sometimes when you blitz the house. Obviously, you don’t want to be on the end of a game-winner. It happens sometimes at the corner position.” (Jamison Hensley)
• Ravens C Tyler Linderbaum on his fourth-down mistake late in the game: “Really just on me, understanding the situation. Just making sure if the guy does jump offsides, then I can snap the ball. Just understanding the situation and making sure that he gets across the ball before I snap it.” (Jeff Zrebiec)

Steelers

Steelers CB Joey Porter gave the ball from his first career interception to HC Mike Tomlin, with Tomlin and veteran CB Patrick Peterson noting that he has played well to start his career.

“I’m the rookie out there against Odell Beckham on the third down, so I already kind of had that in the back of my mind, ‘They’re going to try me on this play,'” Porter said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “It was a party on the sidelines. It was definitely great to turn up with my guys. The coaches were excited for me. Earlier this week, Coach T was like, ‘Get a pick and hand it to me on the sideline.’ So that’s exactly what I did. I handed it right to him. I feel like I did good today. It’s always on the coaches, what they want out there, and what they see. Hopefully, I put enough good tape out there to keep me out there.”

“Porter has been playing increasingly more with each passing week,” Tomlin said of Porter. “I’ve been really transparent about the inclusion of all the rookies. Oftentimes we start with a good foundational plan in terms of how they participate, and we grow from there. He’s done a solid job with the work given. And today he got more. He did a nice job with the work he was given today.”

“We tell Joey all the time, he’s so tall and long on the outside as a corner, it’s going to be hard for teams to complete those types of passes on him, especially down in the red zone like that,” Peterson added. “That’s why we got him. That’s why we drafted him and everything is finally starting to come together for him. I can just tell the game is starting to slow down for him. [Porter] got a little bit more playing time today going into the bye week. So I’m sure there’s going to be finding ways to get him more snaps. We’ll have to find out next week and see what Coach’s decision is, but just extremely proud of the way that he came in and stepped in and stepped up big for us and made that huge play to eventually help us win that ball game. He’s going to have to play at some point. [He] wasn’t a second-round draft pick for no reason. Coach [Tomlin] does a great job of giving guys an opportunity. Not too much, not too little, but when their time is ready to shine, they’ll be more than ready to shine.”