Justin Williams

It’s not tragic, but it’s not good either.

“And when the wind blows hard and the sky is black…”

For good and bad, 2013 was the year of Andy Dalton when it came to the Cincinnati Bengals. In spite of some big injuries, a top-tier defense, the magnificence of AJ Green, the emergence of Marvin Jones, and the excitement every time Gio Bernard got his hands on the ball, Andy Dalton is the perpetual straw that stirs (or spills) the drink. Let’s take a quick look at some of his numbers from the 2013 regular season.

The Bengals will not be enjoying a first-round bye in the 2013 NFL playoffs. Other than that, things broke about as well as they possibly could for Cincinnati on Sunday. The Patriots falling to Buffalo at home—and in turn, opening the door to the Bengals for a #2 seed—was a pretty unlikely scenario. The Bengals had a shot at that a couple weeks ago and faltered. But beyond that, a win against the Ravens both guaranteed Cincy the #3 seed and (essentially) squelched Baltimore’s postseason hopes, and the Chargers late-game heroics have them traveling to the Jungle next Sunday while the Pittsburgh Steelers are at home on their couches. Even more interesting was how much the Chargers struggled—at home, in a must-win game—against the Chiefs B-team, while the Bengals similarly struggled—recording an infuriating number of boneheaded plays—and yet still beat the defending Super Bowl champs by three scores. It was an ugly win by the Bengals, in my opinion, and yet the final outcome wasn’t even close.

Less than 10 hours after the Bengals were completely embarrassed, harassed, and demoralized by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football two weeks ago, I was sitting poolside at a swanky hotel in Los Angeles, California, basking in the clear, 70-something-degree morning sun and quiet breeze, shoveling in mouthfuls of pancakes and bacon while sipping hot coffee and trying to figure out if the skinny dude wearing sunglasses and a stylish white-and-gray striped sweater was a big-time Hollywood producer or just some 50-year-old that shops at the GAP.

(Sorry for the slow blog week, folks. Busy time for the print issue here at the mag, and that’s how I make my millions.)

With all the pondering and analysis done on Andy Dalton and the passing game (myself included), the running game has been largely absent from the ubiquitous Bengals discussion this season. That changed a bit this week after the 38-carry, 164-yard performance turned in by the ‘Nard Dawg/Law Firm combo against the Chargers on Sunday, as well as the shifting of the offensive line due to Clint Boling’s injury and Kevin Zeitler’s possible return from injury.

Should taxpayers buy the Bengals a $10 million present?