When Dennis Allen named Andy Dalton the starting quarterback prior to Week 8, he did so with a caveat: As long as the offense keeps rolling out there, so will Andy.
Well, the offense certainly hit a bit of a speedbump in Week 9, but not a significant enough one that the head coach would revisit the decision as it pertains to potentially shifting back to Jameis Winston.
"This was not a good game tonight," Allen said. "You know, so we'll evaluate as we move forward, but I'm looking at this as a 'we had a bad day at the office offensively tonight.' And we've got to improve from it."
The offensive woes can't be placed solely on Dalton's shoulders, of course, so the stay the course mentality is understandable. The veteran QB was sacked four teams and was playing a majority of the second half without starting center Erik McCoy. There were three passes batted down at the line, the final of which fell into the arms of Baltimore DE Justin Houston for an interception that effectively sealed the result in a 27-13 Baltimore victory. He also had a shot for a touchdown to a wide-open Marquez Callaway at the end of the first half, but it tipped off the WR's hands and that drive ended with a field goal and a 14-3 halftime deficit.
But even with the caveats, Dalton's night was far from impressive. His final line of 19-of-29 for 210 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception was buoyed by a 41-yard tightrope TD to Juwan Johnson in garbage time. He was harassed in the pocket all night and didn't handle it well. It was a stark contrast to what was seen on the opposing offense with the ultra-mobile Lamar Jackson constantly evading pressure with ease and creating to extend drives.
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Dalton and his head coach agreed that "a lot of hands were dirty" in this one, with struggles in multiple phases.
"You've got to look at it and you've got to see what areas we need to improve, what things that we can correct for everybody. ... Everybody kind of had a hand in it tonight," Dalton said. "And so we've got to look at it. We've got to see things that we need to get better at and get better quick. We've got a short week this week."
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MORE FROM DENNIS ALLEN
WERE THE RAVENS THE MORE PHYSICAL TEAM?
"I think they, obviously, they did a good job of being able to stop the run. We struggled to be able to run the ball. They got their hands up, batted down a lot of passes. They had some nice pressure packages that were able to get some pressure on the quarterback. So again, they did a lot of good things, defensively, that caused us a lot of challenges. And we've got to go back to the drawing board and make some corrections and be better next week."
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WAS THE RUN THREAT WHAT OPENED UP THAT FIRST RAVENS TD?
"Yeah. And look at all those things are what make what makes the things that they're able to do, you know, challenging, because you gotta get a bunch of hats to the ball, and they did a nice job executing there."
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INJURIES?
Three star players left the field with injuries against the Ravens in C Erik McCoy (calf), DE Marcus Davenport (calf) and LB Pete Werner (ankle). All three were listed as questionable but did not return. Dennis Allen did not have and updates immediately after the game.
Rookie cornerback Alontae Taylor went down with an injury in the second half and was treated on the field by trainers. He came off the field and went into the injury tent but returned to the game and did not appear to have any lingering issues. Taylor spent a four-game stint on injured reserve earlier this season with a knee issue.
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