Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton had an abysmal first half last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are sporting one of the league’s worst records (2-10 after loss to Cincinnati). Dalton threw three interceptions in the first half, and a couple of them were blatant reads that he just missed. He threw one ball into double coverage that could’ve made even unknowledgeable football fans ask themselves, “Why would you make that throw?”
In Dalton’s defense, there were reports that he was sick the night before and right before game time. Dalton was administered IV fluids at halftime and said they helped a little bit.
Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson said after the game that he had a few choice words for Dalton at halftime. Jackson didn’t go into details, but he said he wasn’t allowing Dalton’s sickness from the night before to be used as an excuse.
Dalton ended up putting up 14 points and held that lead to eventually beat Tampa Bay 14-13. It was good to see Dalton come back and make plays to lead his team to a win. He didn’t crumble when his team was losing like he did Thursday night against the Cleveland Browns.
The game against Tampa Bay ended in rare form. The NFL rules state a team cannot challenge a play within the last two minutes of a football game, but Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis threw the challenge flag anyway, and for good reason. The Buccaneers completed a pass that put them within field goal range, which, if they made the field goal, would have given them the 16-14 lead with 20 seconds left in the game.
I checked Twitter after the play to see a bunch of Bengals fans going absolutely crazy. The “Fire Marvin Lewis” tweets were flooding in by the second.
Too bad the Buccaneers had too many men on the field: 12. The pass was called back, placing them near the 50-yard line and well out of field goal range. The Bengals’ defense held the team to a couple more stops and eventually won the game.
The rule is that a coach can’t challenge the previous play within two minutes, unless the coach brings something to the referee’s attention that he sees fit to check out. It probably helped the referees’ decision to look into the previous play easier since the Buccaneers ran up to the line expecting to run a second play with 12 men on the field.
They might not be the best team in the NFL, but because no other AFC North team could win on Sunday, the Bengals have placed themselves 1.5 games above the rest of the division. As for Tampa Bay, they have many more problems to deal with. They finally figured out how to beat a team in the NFL and that’s with one extra player. Unfortunately for them, that is illegal, and will be stopped 100 percent of the time, guaranteed.
The Bengals are now 8-3-1 with a huge rivalry game coming up in Cincinnati on Sunday, where they’ll host the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Adam Wondrely is a senior studying English and Journalism. Who do you think will win the AFC North division? Email him at aw91190@ohio.edu
