M&T Bank Stadium now stands for Morgue and Tomb after A.J. Green and Andy Dalton got through with the Ravens home opener Sunday.
Green and Dalton. Dalton and Green. Ever since they arrived 1-2, 2-1 in the 2011 draft, they have been the face of the perennial playoff-bound Bengals and on Sunday in one of the NFL’s most hostile environments they authored one of the most thrilling chapters of their own era.
Statistically, the 28-24 come-from-behind victory over the Ravens featured their greatest days in the NFL. Symbolically, they offered a lesson in resiliency and resourcefulness hard to match and with a 3-0 record, a three-game lead over the Ravens and Ben Roethlisberger in the MRI machine, the Bengals are the undisputed favorites in the AFC North.
While Green wrecked the Ravens on 227 yards and stunned them with two go-ahead TD catches in a span of 4:27 late in the game, Dalton sliced Baltimore’s ballyhooed defensive strategy of all-out blitzes with a 122.3 passer rating that leaves him with a glittering 121 for the season.
That means he’s hotter than New England’s blistering Tom Brady and leads the AFC in passing. second in the NFL behind only Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers.
“We saw that from last year,” Whitworth said. “They wanted to see if No. 14 and the receivers could beat them and this was a great game that showed that they can.”
Dalton fittingly finished off his masterpiece staring at a first-and-seven from the Ravens 7 with 2:16 left and trailing, 24-21. He sent tight Tyler Eifert flanked wide right, but when he saw the Ravens loading up for another blitz, he changed the formation and changed the protection by calling Eifert back to the line of scrimmage.
Knowing everyone was getting one-on-one coverage, Dalton had his eye on Green coming out of the left slot against the man that followed him all day, cornerback Jimmy Smith, the guy that boxed him out in the end zone for an interception early in the third quarter.
“Jimmy Smith is one of the best cornerbacks in the league, and I knew we were going to go head to head today,” Green said. “I knew he was going to make some plays. On the interception, he really made a great play. I know I need to do a better job trying to break up a play like that.”
Green likes being in the slot. They can’t jam him, he says, and when Smith gave him a free release, Smith was done down the seam and Dalton lofted it perfectly as Green ran under it to the left back pylon.
And Eifert was there to help running back Giovani Bernard fend off blitzing inside backer C.J. Mosely.
“That’s one of the things he doesn’t get enough credit for. He changes things all the time,” Whitworth said. “One of the things that has made this offense successful is Andy’s ability to get us into the right play.”
Green was Dalton’s main man. Yes, he hit the other wide receiver, Marvin Jones, five times for 94 yards and his wondrous one-handed 31-yard catch set up the winner. And, yes, Bernard (23 yards) and wide receiver Mohamed Sanu (19) had huge catches in the drive. But it was Green who dominated like a four-time-Pro-Bowl-$60-million- extension-man is supposed to dominate against man-to-man coverage.
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