12-17-2015, 03:57 PM
(12-17-2015, 02:36 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I swear it seems like some folks are more excited about AJ finally getting a chance than they were about the MVP season Dalton was having. There's a dozen McCarron threads talking about him "going off" or winning the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, the Andy Dalton thread has been dead since Dalton started tearing it up. I've never seen a fan base less excited about MVP play from their QB.
To the OP, I'd hand the ball right back to Dalton unless McCarron is absolutely shredding teams, which doesn't seem likely. Dalton is the franchise, and he's earned it with his play this season. Also, what if McCarron lost the 2nd playoff game? We'd still be stuck with the questions about Andy in the playoffs. We have to give him the opportunity to get the monkey off his back.
Until he wins a playoff game the media and fans will place a caveat on anything Andy does. Dalton himself knows this. He's had a fantastic year, but he also had his worst games on the big stage, as he has done since he got into the league.
In AJ the Bengals have a QB that played well on the highest possible stage in college. While I do feel McCarron fever has reached a bit of an odd level on the boards since Andy went down, I do understand it. AJ represents a bit of an unknown. He may well be a career backup and play like a 5th rounder. But in the back of the mind, until he proves otherwise, there will always be that what if. What if the 'experts' got it wrong. What if he was more crucial to the 'Bama success than people had given him credit for.
If it was someone like we have had in the past at backup, a Jason Campbell or Gradkowski, then I don't think there would be this level of intrigue. Also the TD McCarron threw to Green last week was about as good as any deep ball Dalton has thrown in terms of spiral, timing and placement. He's an interesting prospect.
