Bengals Name AJ McCarron Starter For Saturday’s Wild Card Playoff Game
The Cincinnati Bengals have ruled out starting quarterback Andy Dalton for Saturday’s playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dalton suffered a broken right thumb in Cincinnati’s December 13 home loss to the Steelers. Ironically, the injury occurred when he was trying to make a tackle on an interception return. Dalton did not practice this week though he did participate in conditioning exercises.
With Dalton out the starting quarterback mantle will remain on AJ McCarron. McCarron has little playoff experience–or NHL experience at all for that matter. McCarron started the last three games of the season and played well, passing for 832 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions. Cincinnati won two of his three starts. This will be his first playoff start, though he’s got plenty of ‘big game’ experience–he won two National Championships while in college at Alabama. In fact, his entire college career has prepared him well for the pressure of playing in the NFL. Meeting the expectations of Cincinnati Bengals fans is simple after playing for Alabama’s ravenous supporters.
Head coach Marvin Lewis has said that Dalton’s rehab is ‘going well’, but that’s the stock answer that any coach gives to this type of question. There is some validation for this claim–the cast surrounding his thumb on his right hand was removed earlier this week though he’s yet to put it to any serious test in practice. Given the quarterback’s generally positive mood during practices this week it would appear that all is as well as can be expected at this point. McCarron’s play has not produced a ‘quarterback controversy’ just yet and Dalton will be back under center as soon as he’s physically ready.
The Bengals are one of the NFL’s longest suffering franchises when it comes to playoff futility. They’ve had a number of very good teams over the past decade or so but just can’t get it done in the postseason. They haven’t won a playoff game since January 6, 1991. McCarron has his own chance to end a long streak–should the Bengals prevail against the Steelers he’ll become the first NFL quarterback since 1979 to win a playoff game with three or fewer career starts.