Andy Dalton and the Cincinnati Bengals took on Robert Griffin III and the Washington Redskins in this interesting Week 3 encounter. The last time these two quarterbacks met, Dalton completed 21 of 23 passes for over 200 yards and a pair of touchdowns as his TCU side smashed Baylor by 30 points.
This time, RG3 had a different idea of the way things would unfold, even if the game was close to getting out of reach on a couple of occasions. Ultimately his comeback attempt came up short, and once again Dalton was on the winning side of the exchange.
As it happens, Dalton was also on the better side of the PFF grades, besting RGIII by a +4.6 to +3.1 mark by the end.
Cincinnati – Three Performances of Note
Combine Stud Michael Johnson Turned Up
Few players have the athletic gifts of Michael Johnson, who blew up the combine when he worked out there before being drafted. Unfortunately for him and the Bengals his play has never really reflected the ability he has, and he has usually been relegated merely to situational duty in the NFL. In this game we got a look at the kind of player he can be, and his +7.2 grade came as a result of knocking the quarterback to the ground eight times over the course of the game.
What makes the grade even more impressive is that two of his sacks were not given massive grades, because they came unblocked and required little effort. Johnson was a force in this game all day long. He batted a pass and played the run well, despite at one point failing to drag down both parts of a read-option play with one arm in an ambitious effort. The Redskins lost starting LT Trent Williams early in the game, so it’s worth noting who Johnson was playing against for much of the game (Jordan Black – recently out of retirement and no great shakes before he quit the game), but that shouldn’t cause people to overlook how excellent he was in this game, and the potential he still has if he wants to play like this every week.
Dalton to Green, Airmail
You won’t find a much better looking pair of draft picks than the two Cincinnati got last season, A.J. Green (+4.8) and Dalton (+4.6). The duo not only looked great individually, but have a pretty good connection going together as well. Dalton threw for three touchdowns, 328 yards and had a passer rating of 132.9 on just 19 completions in this game. He did throw a pretty ugly pick-six in his own end zone, but it was under pressure and his delivery was hampered by defenders.
Green was thrown at 10 times, and caught nine of them for 183 yards and a touchdown. When passes were thrown at him, the QB rating was 152.1 and he beat four different defenders to those catches. In his second season, Green is already one of the game’s best receivers and has shown that he can snatch passes from anywhere around him, beat people over the top, and make plays in close coverage.
LB Woes
This was not a good day for the Cincinnati linebackers. Washington worked the middle of the field a lot (19 of RGIII’s 29 aimed passes went between the numbers), and the Bengals couldn’t keep track of crossing receivers, shut down routes up the seam, or prevent themselves missing tackles after catches had been made. Rookie Vontaze Burfict (0.2) and Vincent Rey (-1.2) didn’t exactly distinguish themselves, but it was Rey Maualuga (-6.2) that had the true nightmare in the middle. He allowed a catch on all seven passes into his coverage for 89 yards, and missed three tackles.
The Bengals had high hopes for the USC product, but he can’t continue to have games like this if he expects to hold on to the middle linebacker job. He struggled to recognize crossing routes quickly enough, and wasn’t able to live with players like Fred Davis on deeper routes down the field.
Washington – Three Performances of Note
Kerrigan Picking Up The Slack
The more I see of Ryan Kerrigan, the more impressed with his play I become. He is a complete player at outside linebacker just a season after having to make the switch in positions. In this game he graded +4.3 and scored positively in every category we measure. He got himself a sack, but also took Dalton down on another two occasions and hurried him twice more. He also batted a pass when he was all that stood between Dalton and a completion for healthy yardage.
As if that wasn’t enough he also played well in the run game. He got dirty when the time called for it and cut inside blockers to make plays. Every tackle he made (including the sack), was for a defensive stop. The Redskins will certainly miss Brian Orakpo this season, but the sting will be taken out of the loss if Kerrigan continues to have performances like this.
OTs Mar the OL Performance
Three members of the offensive line graded well in this game (four if you count Trent Williams at +1.1 who left injured and played just 14 snaps). Kory Lichtensteiger (+1.2), Will Montgomery (+1.4) and Chris Chester (+2.7) all had impressive games, paved the way for the run game, and didn't allow RGIII to hit the deck. The quartet combined to allow just four pressures in total.
Unfortunately the offensive tackles, Tyler Polumbus (-5.2) and Jordan Black (-4.8) more than made up for that. Black, in fairness, is only recently off the couch and back in the weight room, so asking him to hold up at left tackle was always optimistic, and so it proved. He surrendered a pair of sacks and three more knockdowns in his 39 pass blocking snaps. And on the other end, Polumbus couldn’t deal with Carlos Dunlap at all. He surrendered a pair of knockdowns and four more pressures, and was put on skates by Dunlap on more than one occasion. Washington isn’t far from having a good offensive line in front of their franchise quarterback, but OT could be an issue if Williams goes down for long.
The Safety Blanket
Every top quarterback needs a fine safety blanket in the shape of a good tight end, and RGIII has Fred Davis (+1.7)¸who looks like he can fill that role nicely. Davis caught all sevenpasses thrown at him in this game (for 90 yards), worked the loose coverage in the Cincinnati secondary, and made plays behind linebackers.
Davis has the receiving talent to be one of the league’s better tight ends, and if he can keep his nose clean. and can stay on the field, he could form quite a potent tandem with Griffin.
Game Notes
— Andrew Hawkins (+1.9) continued his fine start to the year by catching two passes for 66 yards and a TD, and rushing for another 16 yards.
— For a 10-year veteran, Terence Newman (-0.1) made two of the dumber mistakes you will ever see. First, he tried to pick up a ball after the Redskins attempted to save a touchback on a punt. Then he blasted RG3 out of bounds on the final drive to gift the Redskins 15 yards of field position.
— Working against Green for most of the night, DeAngelo Hall (-1.4) surrendered eight catches for 117 yards from his 11 targets.
Game Ball
The Bengals actually have several players who deserve this award, so I’m going to hedge my bets and give it to the passing combination of Andy Dalton to A.J. Green, even if the longest of Green’s receptions came from a receiver in a wildcat package on the first play of the game.
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