Andy Dalton to blame for Bengals loss to Chargers
CINCINNATI — The question that has to be asked in the wake of the Chargers’ rather convincing win over the Bengals on Sunday is . . . how were the Bengals ever favored by seven points? That’s how big the gap was.
It was the regular season, of course, when things were carefree and easy, when the Bengals ran off eight straight wins at Paul Brown Stadium. But when you’re a team whose last playoff win came against the Houston Oilers, when you’re coached by a guy who’s now 0-5 in the post- season and when your quarterback’s worst qualities are magnified by the postseason, it kind of gets predictable.
Or at least it should have.
Andy Dalton vs. Philip Rivers? That kind of said it all Sunday.
Rivers, one of the league’s most prolific passers during the regular season, threw it just six times in the first half, matched that total on the Chargers’ go-ahead touchdown drive in the third quarter and finished with all of 16 attempts. Twelve hit their targets, including a long of 33, as he carried out a ball- possession game plan, keeping third downs short.
Rivers can tell Dalton about how quarterbacks are judged in big games. When compared to his draft class of Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, he’s four rings short. But he’s done enough to give him at least a puncher’s chance of beating Peyton Manning for the second time this season when the Chargers and Broncos meet in Denver next week.
Dalton, on the other hand, has yet to clear the smallest hump when it comes to big games and Sunday, when a lot of people expected him to break through, he could not have been more disappointing.
While he threw his first TD pass ever in a playoff game, he turned it over three straight times with a fumble and two bad picks to give away the halftime lead. Hey, Andrew Luck threw three interceptions Saturday. He’s not a rock of consistency. But he also showed the resilience we’ve yet to see in Dalton.
Bengals head coach Marvin Jones has to wonder if he’ll ever win a playoff game with Dalton, who now has six interceptions and a lost fumble in his three playoff starts. But he stood by his guy later.
“No, I don’t. I don’t have any questions about Andy’s role in this thing,” he said. “We have to keep working him. We’ve got to make sure we’re doing everything to help Andy all the time. He’s going to be very disappointed today, obviously, in himself. He is the football team and I’m sure he’s very disappointed.”
Dalton, to his credit, faced every postgame question, well aware of the reputation he has been building, knowing it’s going to be a long time until he gets another chance in one of these games.
“There’s a lot that goes on during a game and the quarterback is in control of it. He’s the leader of the team, the leader of the offense and so when things don’t go right, the quarterback is the guy who’s going to get the blame so I’ll take every shot that’s said to me. It’s part of playing the position. You have to have thick skin.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of criticism, there’s going to be a lot of talk and until we win a playoff game, that’s the way it works. Until you prove people wrong, people can say whatever they want.”
Bengals teammates weren’t saying anything. His teammates — the guys up front in particular — weren’t any better. When A.J. Green, one of the most dynamic receivers in the game, wasn’t being taken out of the game by the Chargers’ rolling two-deep coverage, he was dropping perhaps the best pass Dalton threw all day, a deep shot up the right sideline in the second half.
“He’s just got to keep his head up,” Green said of Dalton. “The locker room won’t give him heat for this. We all had a hand in this, myself included. It’s not his fault. We didn’t play well enough as a whole to help him out.”
Other quarterbacks are the guys who make enough plays to help everyone else out. Luck, again, was a perfect example of that Saturday. Dalton will be doubted until he does. And he deserves to be.
NYTIMES
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