Bengals QB Andy Dalton, the NFL's leading passer for this season, was named today by the NFL as AFC Offensive Player of the Month for October.
Dalton led the Bengals to a 3-0 record in October, posting a 111.6 passer rating (68.3 percent) for 895 yards (298.3 per game), with six TD passes and no INTs.
In the Bengals' 27-24 overtime win on Oct. 11 vs. Seattle, Dalton rallied the team from a 24-7 fourth-quarter deficit. It stands as the only such rally in an NFL game since Week 15 of the 2010 season. Since Week 15 of 2010, in 453 instances in which a team has trailed by 17 or more points in the fourth quarter, the Bengals against Seattle are the only team to win.
Dalton led two TD drives in the fourth quarter against Seattle, ending the first with a 10-yard TD pass to TE Tyler Eifert and the second with his own five-yard rush. Dalton also led a field goal drive in the fourth quarter and the winning field goal drive in overtime.
Dalton had his best passer rating of the season (127.1) in Cincinnati's Oct. 4 win vs. Kansas City, helping him to the current 116.1 rating that leads the NFL.
The AFC Offensive Player of the Month award is the second for Dalton. He also was the winner for October of 2013. The last Bengal other than Dalton to win a monthly award was K Josh Brown, named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month for December 2012.
The Bengals this season have now claimed three of the AFC's monthly or weekly awards. WR A.J. Green was Offensive Player of the Week for his 227-yard performance on Sept. 27 at Baltimore, and K Mike Nugent was Special Teams Player of the Week for his game-tying and game-winning field goals in the Seattle contest.
(Cincinnati Bengals press release)
