Playoffs Woes Continue

Another season cut short yesterday for the Cincinnati Bengals and Andy Dalton. The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Indianapolis Colts 26-10 in the AFC wild card game. Andy Dalton played a sub par game but in the playoffs you have to play a superb game if you want a chance to win the game. Dalton completed 18 out of his 35 passes for just 155 yards along with a costly fumble. Andy Dalton hadn't looked comfortable the whole game he was sacked 3 times and never seemed to get any type of rhythm going. It was clear he missed his main targets AJ Green, Jermaine Gresham. But they still had some weapons that should of stepped up such as Giovani Bernard, Jeremy Hill, Mohamed Sanu, and Jeremy Hill. Giovani Bernard basically was nonexistent in the game just carrying the ball 3 times for 6 yards which is highly unacceptable. Giovani did however catch 8 passes for 46 yards but that still help the Bengals too much. Jeremy Hill did score a touchdown but that really didn't give the Bengals too much momentum because that would be the only the touchdown the Bengals would score that game. Mohamed Sanu was the really the key factor to step up with the loss of AJ Green he needed to play above his talent level if the Bengals had any shot of beating the Colts in Indianapolis. Sanu only had 3 catches for 31 yards on 7 targets. What really hurt the Bengals is when Ray Maualuga hurt his hamstring going to the sideline for a defensive substitution in the second quarter.

Once Maualuga went off Daniel Herron had a field day running on the Bengals defense. Herron rushed for 56 yards and a touchdown with an average of 4.7 yards per carry. Daniel Herron also caught 10 passes out the backfield for 85 yards.The pass rush wasn't really there when Maualuga left Andrew Luck picked that Bengals secondary and did whatever he felt like throwing for 376 yards and 1 touchdown. Luck got his favorite target back in TY Hilton who caught 6 passes for 103 yards. Also Hakeem Nicks started to play like the old Nicks from his New York Giants days before he started getting injured a lot. Nicks caught 3 passes for 59 yards. With the Bengals being 0-4 in the playoffs under the Andy Dalton & Marvin Lewis era jobs can be up in there for Lewis and the Bengals could look for a quarterback in the draft or free agency to replace Andy Dalton or make him compete to keep his starting position. Because being one and done  4 years in a row is highly unacceptable especially when you sign a contract extension for 6 years $96 million dollars you have to produce as star quarterback. So don't be surprised if the Bengals try to restructure Andy Dalton contract in the off season.