On Sunday, January 5, the Cincinnati Bengals had faced off against the San Diego Chargers in what seemed to be a game in favor of the Bengals in every aspect. The Bengals had home field advantage (where they were undefeated at), a better defense as far as PPG (Point's per game) allowed, better offensive weapons on paper and coaching experience was even in their favor. However, the Chargers went in to Paul Brown Stadium and out played the Bengals on their home turf. The numbers didn't really seem to favor San Diego in the one area that you thought that it might, and that's passing yards. Philip Rivers had only 16 pass attempts on the entire day and completed 12 of them for 128 yards and had one touchdown pass. Andy Dalton had 51 passing attempts and completed 29 of them for 334 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions to go along with a fumble that he had while diving trying to make a play. The Bengals by statistics weren't dominated, the game came down to the team with the least amount of mistakes won. The Bengals couldn't get out of their own way it seemed, the defense was actually pretty sound for the day other than a couple of big plays that were given up. However, the offense led by Dalton looked horrid at times. The Bengals had four turnovers on the day- three from Dalton, and one from rookie running back Gio Bernard (fumble)- and this was the one category that the Bengals looked to have the advantage at. The Chargers came out and played simple football, they ran the ball effectively and didn't make a lot of mistakes, they didn't have a turnover on the day and that was what seemed to be the key in this game, to defeat a team in the playoffs that didn't lose all season at home. The Bengals would exit the playoffs with another first round loss for the third season in a row, after losing 27-10.
After such an embarrassing loss at home, Bengals fans and media seemed to be outraged. My question is, where do you place the blame? who gets majority of the credit for this loss? there are a lot of people that place blame on quarterback Andy Dalton, and others that believe that Marvin Lewis is the correlation between the Bengals and exiting the playoffs early. I often wonder if the play calling is partially responsible for Dalton's bad play...
Over the 2013 season you can see that the Bengals were 2-4 when Dalton had 40+ passing attempts and 0-3 (including the playoff game) when he had 50 or more attempts. Now, you have to question that at some point. Is that all on Dalton? I know there are times where he doesn't look great and others where he shines and looks like he can be one of the best in the league, the main problem for Cincinnati fans, he usually looks abysmal at the back end of the season.
One thing people need to understand before placing full blame on Dalton, he doesn't call the plays, he goes out and runs the plays that the coaches tell him too, and we can't always point the finger at him after every loss. I know the quarterback is suppose to take all of the blame because they get all of the credit for the win but in situations like this, the full story must be read. I will agree that Dalton hasn't really shown much progress over the three season, as far as his decision making and there are still certain throws that he's failing to make but we must remember, he's only in his third season. The biggest issue I have with the NFL, it's a "get it done now" business and I understand that every team wants to win and compete week in and week out. Dalton is coming in to the last year of his rookie contract and it looks like the Bengals have a lot of questions that they need to start answering, and I believe the first question will be, 'is Andy Dalton the long term answer?'
The Cincinnati Bengals have a lot of good to look forward to, A.J Green has shown that he's an All-Pro wide receiver, they have a lot of young talent to compliment him, with guys like Marvin Jones, Andrew Hawkins, Gio Bernard- who looks very promising- and Mohamed Sanu. Over this coming off-season the Bengals must try to decide if Dalton is the answer or if they want to bring in another option to compete with Dalton, either by the draft or free agency. However, very soon, the Cincinnati Bengals will be on the clock.
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