Here’s the truth about last week’s Bengals loss to the Steelers that no one wants to talk about, much less admit:
Andy Dalton was pretty damn good.
OK, so he didn’t exactly put up numbers like those we’ve seen from the quarterback he’ll have to out-gun Sunday in Kansas City, but Andy met the challenge against Pittsburgh, playing behind a shaky offensive line and operating within a game plan that emphasized passing. It was arguably his finest-ever performance against the Steelers, putting up solid numbers that would’ve been better if not for four drops by Bengals receivers.
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Dalton has often looked panicked, harried and skittish against the Steelers. He was anything but that last Sunday, playing mistake-free. Even if he delivered in the clutch a little too quickly, he still came up huge late in the fourth quarter against an opponent that seems to always bring out his worst.
It was another good performance in what’s, so far, been a very good season for the Bengals quarterback. Dalton has looked the part this season, playing with an obvious confidence that we haven’t always seen, making big throws in critical situations and doing what every franchise quarterback at some point must – stepping up to guide his team to victory despite its faults.
He’ll have to be at his absolute best on Sunday.
The Bengals play the Chiefs this weekend, and you know the storylines. The last Bengals win on a Sunday night came while George W. Bush was pursuing a second term as president. Kansas City has the league’s scariest offense, and its most entertaining quarterback in Patrick Mahomes. The Bengals have a defense that’s been both underwhelming and beaten up, mainly in the secondary. The loss last week at Paul Brown Stadium doubled up with another one at Arrowhead Stadium will trigger the same old takes from the same old doubters who sat silently during season’s first five weeks, waiting to pounce the moment their doubts were confirmed.
It’s on Andy to shut them up.
The Bengals are going to give up points on Sunday, possibly lots of them. Maybe Tyreek Hill doesn’t run freely through the secondary. Perhaps Travis Kelce doesn’t pile up catches and yardage against mismatched safeties and linebackers. There’s a chance that Kareem Hunt won’t go off. Mahomes could finally have an off week. Each of those things, I guess, could happen. All of them won’t.
Certainly not against a defense that came out of the Pittsburgh game with major questions about the health of its defensive backs as well as concerns about a pass rush that’s underwhelmed all season, no-showing last week.
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So yeah, Andy Reid’s offense is going to score. Probably often.
The question is whether the Bengals can find a way to not only keep pace, but ultimately – like they did in Atlanta – find a way to score more. There are, of course, a lot of things that go into this. It’d be great if the blocking was better, and I can’t imagine Joe Mixon’s usage won’t approach the 20-plus touches he received in his first three games this season after getting just 15 last week. It would also be swell if fewer of Dalton’s passes were dropped by open receivers.
But the onus is on the quarterback. Dalton will be tasked with out-dueling the league’s hottest quarterback, possibly having to match Mahomes score for score the way he did Matt Ryan nearly a month ago. It’s the kind of task that franchise quarterbacks not only embrace, but thrive at, and an opportunity for Dalton to prove on a national stage that, yes, things are different.
Different. That’s a word that’s been used often this season, either to describe how things will be under a head coach who’s the same, or to talk about how this team is unlike the two Bengals squads that preceded it. I’ve seen a different Andy Dalton this season, and even if he deserves some heat for mismanaging the clock last week, he offered up a different kind of performance than the ones we’re used to seeing when the Steelers invade Cincinnati.
Dalton has a huge opportunity on Sunday night to deliver a season-defining victory while exorcising both his and his team’s Sunday night demons. The gloom of last week’s loss will be instantly wiped away if the Bengals, playing as underdogs, can pull off the upset. And a season that seemed like it was teetering on the brink all week will be very much on if the Bengals can do what no one expects. If the Bengals win on Sunday, it will be because their quarterback dragged them to victory.
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A Bengals win against the Chiefs will require a signature Dalton performance, a continuation of the season’s he’s had, a repeat of the way he came through against the Falcons and a departure from what most expect when he plays under the lights.
This isn’t something we’re used to, putting so much on Andy. It often feels like he’s merely along for the ride, someone tasked with just not screwing things up, at times a player who gets a pass for what’s broken around him. No more. This is a Bengals team that’s harboring playoff hopes, desperate to prove that the tired, played-out narratives that have dogged this franchise are things of the past. It’s also a team that’s still not good enough to get by with simply average, or slightly better, quarterback play. For the Bengals to be really good, they need Andy Dalton to be really good, possibly even better than that.
They’ll need him to be great to beat Kansas City.
(Top image: Andy Dalton by Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports)