CINCINNATI -- Sunday can't get here quick enough for Andy Dalton. He might have to go play in one of the toughest venues in the NFL but at least he'll get to go back out on the football field.
After last Thursday's disaster against Cleveland in which he completed just 10 of 33 passes for 86 yards and three interceptions, resulting in a historically low passer rating of 2.0, getting back to work anywhere will be welcomed. The time in between football games leaves a cavernous room for reflection, speculation and anticipation. Dalton got extra time this past week as the Bengals prepare to travel to New Orleans and play the Saints.
Dalton wasn't the only Bengal to have a poor performance against the Browns but his stuck out more than anyone else. That happens to quarterbacks, especially quarterbacks who have the kind of bad nights few others have suffered through in the past 54 years.
According to STATS LLC, Dalton is just the fifth quarterback to attempt at least 30 passes in a game since 1960 and finish with a passer rating of 2.0 or lower.
"The big thing is we've watched the (Cleveland) tape, we've learned from it and we've moved on," said Dalton. "Our focus isn't about last week and about what we've done earlier in the season. It's all about these next seven games and what we can do and what's in front of us."
Every quarterback has bad games. Dalton has a proclivity for having his bad games in the biggest spotlight, like on national TV or in the postseason. He still has the trust of his teammates.
"I don't think he's at a critical point. He's played a lot of good football," said left tackle Andrew Whitworth. "He's a guy that at the end of the day, his character and who he is will always prevail in the end. He'll find a way to fix what he needs to fix and do better because it means the world to him. I'll always say until somebody shows me that that kind of character doesn't work, I'll always believe in it. He believes in working himself to be good and working himself to be the kind of player he is, and he'll find a way to fix it."
Dalton came back from a horrific game at Indianapolis earlier in the season, a game in which he finished with a passer rating of 55.4 after completing 18 of 38 passes for 126 yards. Most of those completions and yards came in garbage time of the Colts' 27-0 win.
The following week, Dalton bounced back with a 21-of-28, 266-yard performance as the Bengals rallied to beat Baltimore 27-24. He led an 80-yard game-winning drive in the final minutes, the second time he's led a fourth quarter drive to beat the Ravens this season.
"So much of being a quarterback is really that mental toughness and that ability to compartmentalize, the ability to learn from the play that just happened, to gather information throughout the course of a game and have it equal success for you later on," said New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees. "There are times when you are going to make mistakes, I think my mindset is always, man, if somebody picked me off then they got lucky. Wait till they see what is coming back at them now."
Brees has risen to an elite level of quarterbacks by eliminating the inconsistencies that have plagued Dalton's career. Now in his 14th season, he has a career passer rating of 95.3 to go along with a Super Bowl championship from the 2009 season. He owns the NFL record of 54 consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass. The night that streak end at Atlanta on Nov. 29, 2012, he threw five interceptions in a 23-13 loss.
He's thrown 71 touchdown passes in his current streak of 29 straight games compared to just 25 interceptions. In just five of those games has he thrown more interceptions than touchdown passes.
Dalton has watched video of Brees in the past as part of his offseason study habits. Both trained under throwing coach Tom House, a former Major League Baseball pitcher, this past offseason. Dalton is a little bigger than Brees (6-2, 220 vs. 6-0, 209) but both hail from Texas and ended up as second-round draft picks after not being highly recruited out of high school.
Brees played at Purdue and was drafted by San Diego in 2001. He signed with the Saints as a free agent in 2006 after the Chargers chose to go with Phillip Rivers, a first-round pick in 2004, as their starter. Brees needs only 184 yards to reach 3,000 yards in a season for the 12th time in his career.
"There is always something to prove," said Brees. "I definitely had a chip on my shoulder because I knew there were a lot of people that chose not to recruit me, not to draft me based upon those tangible things they would look at, not big enough, strong enough, fast enough, strong enough arm, that kind of stuff, yet, listen, I don't go through life trying to prove people wrong but there is the satisfaction of doing it. I appreciate the opportunities I've been given. I have been in some great systems with some great coaches and some great players but I think you always have to have that mindset there is something to prove. That is your edge. That allows you to stay hungry."
