Every NFL season, it seems as if one squad earns the distinction as the league's “best bad team”; this team is the one that is not really a serious contender, but that does enough to beat up on lesser squads. In the end, this status doesn't amount to much, as this kind of team can take advantage of a soft schedule and make the playoffs, but ultimately doesn't hold a chance when facing quality rosters.
If this kind of dubious distinction would be applied to a specific player, it seems as if Andy Dalton would be a perfect fit. In many ways, his career has been a success. Through four and a half seasons, he has started 72 straight games and gone 48-23-1, which translates to an amazing .676 winning percentage. Only 10 of his losses have been by double digits, so he tends to lead his team to having a chance to win, and with a perfect 8-0 start to the 2015 season, he is all but guaranteed to lead the Cincinnati Bengals to a fifth straight playoff berth.
However, the knock on Dalton has been his inability to lead the Bengals in big spots. Alongside Coach Marvin Lewis, the Bengals have gone 0-4 in the playoffs in the past four seasons, which has been terrible for a franchise that still awaits its first playoff win since 1990. Dalton's futility has also been evident in the regular season when the Bengals have been scheduled to play in prime-time.
With the schedule makers pegging them for three straight prime-time games between Weeks 9 and 11 of the present season, doubts starting floating around Dalton and the Bengals again. As many have questioned Cincinnati's status as a big-time contender for Super Bowl 50, the Bengals cleared their first prime-time hurdle by crushing the Browns on Thursday Night Football, easily covering the spread even as they went in as 11-point favorites.
As they now prepare for a home date against the Texans on ESPN's Monday Night Football, followed by a visit to Arizona on NBC's Sunday Night Football, it seems as good a time as any to revisit Andy Dalton's past history on prime-time contests. Is his reputation really warranted? Today we take a look at each of Dalton's games that didn't take place on a normal Sunday time slot, and how his numbers compare for each situation.
Andy Dalton Prime-Time Games
|
Date |
Opponent |
Prime Time |
Score |
TD |
INT |
QB Rating |
Line |
|
Sep. 10, 2012 |
at Ravens |
MNF |
L 44-10 |
0 |
1 |
65.3 |
BAL -7 |
|
Oct. 21, 2012 |
Steelers |
SNF |
L 24-17 |
1 |
1 |
56.4 |
CIN -1 |
|
Dec. 13, 2012 |
at Eagles |
TNF |
W 34-13 |
1 |
0 |
74.2 |
CIN -5 |
|
Sep. 16, 2013 |
Steelers |
MNF |
W 20-10 |
1 |
0 |
81.7 |
CIN -6.5 |
|
Oct. 31, 2013 |
at Dolphins |
TNF |
L 22-20 |
0 |
3 |
55.4 |
CIN -3 |
|
Dec. 15, 2013 |
at Steelers |
SNF |
L 30-20 |
2 |
0 |
86.4 |
CIN -1.5 |
|
Oct. 5, 2014 |
at Patriots |
SNF |
L 43-17 |
2 |
0 |
117.4 |
PK |
|
Nov. 6, 2014 |
Browns |
TNF |
L 24-3 |
0 |
3 |
2.61 |
CIN -6.5 |
|
Dec. 22, 2014 |
Broncos |
MNF |
W 38-27 |
2 |
1 |
93.1 |
DEN -3.5 |
|
Dec. 28, 2014 |
at Steelers |
SNF |
L 27-17 |
2 |
2 |
83.7 |
PIT -3.5 |
|
Nov. 5, 2015 |
Browns |
TNF |
W 31-10 |
3 |
0 |
139.8 |
CIN -11 |
If we split it up into smaller groups, the numbers look quite bad almost every way:
TNF: 2-2
SNF: 0-4
MNF: 2-1
Home: 3-2
Road: 1-5
As Favorite: 3-5
As Underdog: 0-2
Straight-up: 4-7
ATS: 4-7
As a whole, and even while 11 games are a small sample, Dalton's performances have mostly been lackluster in prime-time. His numbers are a shell of what he has done in any other Sunday games. For example, his prime-time yards per attempt stand at 5.9, while that number is at 7.4 otherwise. Also, his TD-to-interception ratio of 1.27 is quite smaller than his regular Sunday figure of 1.74.
In fact, Dalton's prime-time numbers have looked eerily similar to his 0-4 flops in the playoffs, where the QB has thrown only 1 touchdown versus 6 interceptions, with 5.5 yards per attempt, and 3 of his 4 losses coming by 16+ points.
The Bengals certainly hope that this troubling trend is starting to turn the corner. Dalton's first prime-time game in 2015 was a rousing success, as the Bengals avenged last season's Thursday Night Football embarrassment to the same Browns by delivering their best prime-time performance in Dalton's era. In fact, last year's game doubled as one of the worst QB performances in modern NFL history, but now it seems like a distant memory considering how Dalton and the Bengals have upped their game in 2015.
By traditional and advanced stats, the Bengals are certainly one of the best teams in the NFL right now, riding the best start in franchise history to what could be a bye week in the playoffs and potential home-field advantage. This final nugget should be extra important considering that three of the four playoff losses in Dalton's era have come on the road. The Bengals have also shown the ability to win all types of games this season, winning 4 games by 6 points or fewer, while also taking 4 wins by double digits.
In the end, we might finally be seeing Andy Dalton's maturation as one of the league's best quarterbacks, while the Bengals hold one of the top overall rosters in the NFL. It may be meaningless, but Dalton is now considered an “undroppable” player in ESPN fantasy leagues, which is a testament to his newfound level and status. If the Bengals are to go a step further, Dalton's woes in big games need to stop, and it looks as if we might be starting to see just that.