It may not have been his best season - more like his worst one - but that doesn't mean AD still didn't have some good moments.

Someone put together a video of some of them (he also has videos of other, non-Bengals players, FYI). Check it out:

Andy's best 2014 highlights...

I just want to see run 'n' gun all year long. Play action to Hill and boom, good luck covering Eifert, Green, Jones, More, Sanu deep.

That option at 3:56 will be a play that I always remember. Pretty good stuff.

While watching the highlights, I said to myself a few times that it seemed more like a Bernard, Green, and Sanu highlight reel than Andy's, it seemed like our receivers had a lot of YAC this past year compared to the past. Obviously that made me look into some numbers.

2011 - 60.2% of Andy's yards were in the air, good for 2nd in the entire NFL.
2012 - 53.4%, 20th
2013 - 53.4% (odd that it's identical to the prior year), 17th
2014 - 49%, 22nd

Now, it's not always a BAD thing to have that number low, there are a lot of things that can factor in, but I did find it interesting that 2014 was his lowest thus far in his career. Offensive scheme and ability of your receivers obviously plays a big role here as well as the QB.

Top 5 in 2014 - Josh McCown, Peyton Manning, Colin Kaepernick, Tony Romo, Brian Hoyer
Bottom 5 in 2014 - Matthew Stafford, Jay Cutler, Russell Wilson, Blake Bortles, Alex Smith

I just wanted to throw those names out there so people understood that being high on the list =/= that you're automatically a good QB and being on the bottom =/= being terrible.

Just something interesting (I think at least) that I thought of while watching the vid.

(05-28-2015, 09:26 AM)djs7685 Wrote: That option at 3:56 will be a play that I always remember. Pretty good stuff.

While watching the highlights, I said to myself a few times that it seemed more like a Bernard, Green, and Sanu highlight reel than Andy's, it seemed like our receivers had a lot of YAC this past year compared to the past. Obviously that made me look into some numbers.

2011 - 60.2% of Andy's yards were in the air, good for 2nd in the entire NFL.
2012 - 53.4%, 20th
2013 - 53.4% (odd that it's identical to the prior year), 17th
2014 - 49%, 22nd

Now, it's not always a BAD thing to have that number low, there are a lot of things that can factor in, but I did find it interesting that 2014 was his lowest thus far in his career. Offensive scheme and ability of your receivers obviously plays a big role here as well as the QB.

Top 5 in 2014 - Josh McCown, Peyton Manning, Colin Kaepernick, Tony Romo, Brian Hoyer
Bottom 5 in 2014 - Matthew Stafford, Jay Cutler, Russell Wilson, Blake Bortles, Alex Smith

I just wanted to throw those names out there so people understood that being high on the list =/= that you're automatically a good QB and being on the bottom =/= being terrible.

Just something interesting (I think at least) that I thought of while watching the vid.

That is interesting. Kind of backs up the feeling a lot have that he was bottled a lot more last season. Asked to not make mistakes rather than make plays. I hope this will change this year. I'd much rather games were lost attacking than being overly cautious. This will be the first year Dalton has a great running game. Hopefully more deep shots will be taken.

(05-28-2015, 09:23 AM)BritishBengal Wrote: I just want to see run 'n' gun all year long. Play action to Hill and boom, good luck covering Eifert, Green, Jones, More, Sanu deep.

I would just like to see them attempt a play action pass.

(05-28-2015, 09:32 AM)BritishBengal Wrote: That is interesting. Kind of backs up the feeling a lot have that he was bottled a lot more last season. Asked to not make mistakes rather than make plays. I hope this will change this year. I'd much rather games were lost attacking than being overly cautious. This will be the first year Dalton has a great running game. Hopefully more deep shots will be taken.

I don't know if I'd call it bottled, but the receivers definitely did a bit more of the work than they usually do. I do agree that it seemed like he was a bit more cautious out there, but I can't say for sure whether that was Andy himself or the coaching staff's fault. He still threw 17 INTs and plenty of terribly off-course passes, so I do believe it would be better for him to just sling the ball around more. At least there would be a high reward with the risk in that case.

(05-28-2015, 09:41 AM)Interceptor Wrote: I would just like to see them attempt a play action pass.

Believe it or not, 21.1% of Andy's passes were off play action last year. The league average is somewhere in the low 20's, so he's right there with the Mannings, Roethlisberger, Stafford, Fitz, Luck, Kaepernick, Carr, and the list goes on.

Other than the 3 guys throwing 30% of their passes off of PA and the 3 guys using PA less than 15% of the time (Philip Rivers 7.8% WTF?!), most NFL QBs are in between those ranges and that's definitely a healthy spot to be in.

(05-28-2015, 09:48 AM)djs7685 Wrote: I don't know if I'd call it bottled, but the receivers definitely did a bit more of the work than they usually do. I do agree that it seemed like he was a bit more cautious out there, but I can't say for sure whether that was Andy himself or the coaching staff's fault. He still threw 17 INTs and plenty of terribly off-course passes, so I do believe it would be better for him to just sling the ball around more. At least there would be a high reward with the risk in that case.


Believe it or not, 21.1% of Andy's passes were off play action last year. The league average is somewhere in the low 20's, so he's right there with the Mannings, Roethlisberger, Stafford, Fitz, Luck, Kaepernick, Carr, and the list goes on.

Other than the 3 guys throwing 30% of their passes off of PA and the 3 guys using PA less than 15% of the time (Philip Rivers 7.8% WTF?!), most NFL QBs are in between those ranges and that's definitely a healthy spot to be in.

I'm bad at finding stats, are there any stats on how successful his PA attempts were? I feel like there usually is someone wide open, but Andy often doesn't see it and takes a sack. Would be interesting to see the success rate on PA.

(05-28-2015, 12:25 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: I'm bad at finding stats, are there any stats on how successful his PA attempts were? I feel like there usually is someone wide open, but Andy often doesn't see it and takes a sack. Would be interesting to see the success rate on PA.

The only stats that would be available are the typical QB stats (completion %, TDs, INT, etc.) except they would be for when it was a PA pass instead of including every dropback.

There isn't really a "he ****** up percentage" (as great as that would be) or anything that would show what you're talking about with an open receiver and the QB not seeing him.

(05-28-2015, 09:41 AM)Interceptor Wrote: I would just like to see them attempt a play action pass.

No shit....

(05-28-2015, 12:46 PM)djs7685 Wrote: The only stats that would be available are the typical QB stats (completion %, TDs, INT, etc.) except they would be for when it was a PA pass instead of including every dropback.

There isn't really a "he ***** up percentage" (as great as that would be) or anything that would show what you're talking about with an open receiver and the QB not seeing him.

I wish there was a stat kept for how many passes Dalton threw that were catchable, online, on time, etc. and the receiver blew it. And how many passes where the receiver was where he was supposed to be and Andy blew it, threw it a mile high or wide or whatever.

I know that's nearly impossible and just guess work for anyone not privy to the playbook.

(05-28-2015, 09:26 AM)djs7685 Wrote: That option at 3:56 will be a play that I always remember. Pretty good stuff.

While watching the highlights, I said to myself a few times that it seemed more like a Bernard, Green, and Sanu highlight reel than Andy's, it seemed like our receivers had a lot of YAC this past year compared to the past. Obviously that made me look into some numbers.

2011 - 60.2% of Andy's yards were in the air, good for 2nd in the entire NFL.
2012 - 53.4%, 20th
2013 - 53.4% (odd that it's identical to the prior year), 17th
2014 - 49%, 22nd

Now, it's not always a BAD thing to have that number low, there are a lot of things that can factor in, but I did find it interesting that 2014 was his lowest thus far in his career. Offensive scheme and ability of your receivers obviously plays a big role here as well as the QB.

Top 5 in 2014 - Josh McCown, Peyton Manning, Colin Kaepernick, Tony Romo, Brian Hoyer
Bottom 5 in 2014 - Matthew Stafford, Jay Cutler, Russell Wilson, Blake Bortles, Alex Smith

I just wanted to throw those names out there so people understood that being high on the list =/= that you're automatically a good QB and being on the bottom =/= being terrible.

Just something interesting (I think at least) that I thought of while watching the vid.

I'm disappointed you feel that way, because I've always thought you were pretty fair about Andy. There were some plays mixed into that video that were good YAC plays by Gio etc, but there were a ton of dimes in there as well. If Dalton played like he did in these highlights at all times, he'd be an all-pro. He's underrated as an athlete and a lot of these throws were tough, yet he spotted them perfectly.

That said, the reason why he's such a lightning rod is that sometimes he looks like he did in the video you posted.  :vomit:

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how Dalton can be so bi-polar on the field, but there is no clear answer. I do think he has poor pocket awareness and pressure (real or perceived) causes him to make throws without setting his feet, which destroys his accuracy. I also think he panics when his first 1-2 reads are covered, and high winds aren't kind to him either.

(05-28-2015, 02:11 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I'm disappointed you feel that way, because I've always thought you were pretty fair about Andy. There were some plays mixed into that video that were good YAC plays by Gio etc, but there were a ton of dimes in there as well. If Dalton played like he did in these highlights at all times, he'd be an all-pro. He's underrated as an athlete and a lot of these throws were tough, yet he spotted them perfectly.

That said, the reason why he's such a lightning rod is that sometimes he looks like he did in the video you posted.  :vomit:

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how Dalton can be so bi-polar on the field, but there is no clear answer. I do think he has poor pocket awareness and pressure (real or perceived) causes him to make throws without setting his feet, which destroys his accuracy. I also think he panics when his first 1-2 reads are covered, and high winds aren't kind to him either.

I said that it looked like a Bernard/Green/Sanu highlight reel as an exaggeration to get to my point. I just meant that compared to prior years, it really seemed like his highlight reel had a lot more dump offs (some were excellent, heads up dump offs though), short passes, and great catches and YAC by the receivers in it. I know that you'll find the same in other highlight reels from other QBs around the league, they're all not going to be filled with bombs to the outside.

Andy had some great throws through the video, I'm not trying to take away from that, I just wanted to make a comment to get to my main idea and exaggerated it a bit. I'd have to go back and watch the 2011, 2012, and 2013 highlight reels, but something hit me when watching this one and for some reason it felt like he wasn't slinging the ball around as much as the receivers made good plays in 2014. I could be completely wrong and could be overthinking it since it's fresh in my memory where the other years aren't, but that's what popped into my head about halfway through.

(05-28-2015, 02:34 PM)djs7685 Wrote: I said that it looked like a Bernard/Green/Sanu highlight reel as an exaggeration to get to my point. I just meant that compared to prior years, it really seemed like his highlight reel had a lot more dump offs (some were excellent, heads up dump offs though), short passes, and great catches and YAC by the receivers in it. I know that you'll find the same in other highlight reels from other QBs around the league, they're all not going to be filled with bombs to the outside.

Andy had some great throws through the video, I'm not trying to take away from that, I just wanted to make a comment to get to my main idea and exaggerated it a bit. I'd have to go back and watch the 2011, 2012, and 2013 highlight reels, but something hit me when watching this one and for some reason it felt like he wasn't slinging the ball around as much as the receivers made good plays in 2014. I could be completely wrong and could be overthinking it since it's fresh in my memory where the other years aren't, but that's what popped into my head about halfway through.

Gotcha. I liked the "% of yards through the air" stat, but I think there may be a pretty simple explanation for why his % was down last year. Multiple receivers were injured last year, and Dalton threw to RB's more than ever because of it. Here's Dalton's completions to RB's by year. The 2nd number is his overall completions. The % of completions to RB's is in parenthesis:

2011: 53 - 300 (17.7%)
2012: 43 - 329 (13.1%) - He did get a lot of YAC from Hawkins here
2013: 60 - 363 (16.5%)
2014: 80 - 309 (25.9%)

I think the "yards through the air %" will increase some this year as the % of throws to RB's will surely decrease with MLJ and Eifert back, and AJ fully healthy.

Watching that video reminded me of how much better Dalton's deep ball was in the beginning of the season. He pout the ball into some tight windows and gave his players a way to make plays. There was good placement and good pocket awareness. The beginning of the season Dalton was on fire. Then his mechanics were broken down like they were in his rookie season. Not sure when that switch happened, but ti's sad the coaches weren't able to fix it.

Maybe they should fly in Tom House after games like that

(05-28-2015, 02:08 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I wish there was a stat kept for how many passes Dalton threw that were catchable, online, on time, etc. and the receiver blew it. And how many passes where the receiver was where he was supposed to be and Andy blew it, threw it a mile high or wide or whatever.

I know that's nearly impossible and just guess work for anyone not privy to the playbook.

It's funny how that works. The times he throws a perfect pass, they drop it. The time guys are wide open, he can't hit em... such is the game of football I suppose.

(05-28-2015, 12:25 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: I'm bad at finding stats, are there any stats on how successful his PA attempts were? I feel like there usually is someone wide open, but Andy often doesn't see it and takes a sack. Would be interesting to see the success rate on PA.

What might be interesting to you is how many times he was sacked last season.......

(05-28-2015, 09:10 AM)djs7685 Wrote: Andy's best 2014 highlights...

Haha that still brings me nightmares. That was the one game where I made the trip out from Wisconsin to Cincy to see a home game.

Perhaps I shouldn't go back?

(05-28-2015, 07:25 PM)WiscoFan Wrote: Haha that still brings me nightmares. That was the one game where I made the trip out from Wisconsin to Cincy to see a home game.

Perhaps I shouldn't go back?

Please just don't come to the Thursday night game against Cleveland. Painfull to sit through, but the video makes me smile...now.