Adam Jones
Off back-to-back road wins, the Bengals are now .650 in the 20 away games Andy Dalton has started and that puts him in some rarified air among active starting quarterbacks according to Elias.
In the category of at least 10 starts, only New England's Tom Brady .692 has a higher winning percentage on the road. The three behind Dalton—Denver's Peyton Manning (.635), Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger (.600) and Dallas' Tony Romo (.571 )—have all beat him in Paul Brown Stadium games.
All of them have at least 27 more road starts than Dalton, but Dalton is one better than Brady (12-8) in his first 20 road starts and four better than Manning (9-11). Romo (16-4) and Roethlisberger (15-5) were better in their first 20.
It's an even more significant stat when you take into consideration that the franchise's all-time percentage in road games after Sunday's 350th game on the road is .346, under Lewis is .440 and in the previous 20 games before Dalton is .300.
NO OUTSOURCING: The Bengals may make a move getting in a young cornerback now that there's an anticipated roster spot with Leon Hall going on season-ending reserve. But anybody who came in here would be strictly developmental. The guys who are replacing Hall on Sundays are already here in Dre Kirkpatrick, Brandon Ghee and Chris Lewis-Harris. Head coach Marvin Lewis made that clear in Monday's news conference.
"We're not going to get anybody off the street that's going to play better than anybody in this building," Lewis said. "I think we have a couple of guys sitting in the bullpen who should be ready to step in. The guys we have here have to step up and play. They've been here on scholarship. It's time for them … pay for play, let's go."
2,000 TO GO:There are 2,000 tickets available for Sunday's 4:05 p.m. game against the 4-3 Jets at PBS.
"Sales were good over the weekend," said director of ticket sales Andrew Brown, "but this is still a significant number of tickets to move in less than a week. We're hopeful that our three-game win streak will give sales some more momentum as we move through this week."
SLANTS AND SCREENS
» People have been raving about how quickly Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford got rid of the ball Sunday in the Bengals 27-24 victory, but apparently so did Andy Dalton. According to Pro Football Focus, while Stafford got rid of the ball in 2.5 seconds or less on 70.6 percent of his throws, Dalton did it on 66.7 percent.
» At one point Sunday, with more than half the games posted, PFF rated two Bengals wide receivers in its top five for yards per route run, which evaluates the opportunity (by looking at how often a pass route is run) the receiver has. Green was second behind Atlanta's Harry Douglass at 4.43 and Marvin Jones was fifth at 3.35.
» It's all in the eye of the beholder. PFF had Pro Bowl defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh for three pass disruptions on Sunday, but the Bengals believe right guard Kevin Zeitler allowed only one pressure to Suh and has allowed a combined two pressures in his matchups with Pro Bowlers Suh and Henry Melton of the Bears in the opener.
» No surprise that cornerback Adam Jones got talked to after his decision to return a punt from his own 2 in Sunday's first few moments. He only got it to the 10 when the play is to let it bounce into the end zone and get it at the 20.
But it doesn't sound like Jones is going to stop being unconventional even though Brandon Tate is getting more chances. After all, it is Jones's fierce confidence and competitiveness no matter where he gets the ball that makes him one of the more feared returners in the league.
"I really didn't know how deep I was. I looked and I saw I had like 10 or 15 yards, and I figured if I can get 10 or 15 yards, I'll let them cuss me out," Jones said. "Because I feel that I can break it if I got 10 or 15 yards. I was one block away from getting out of there. But I've got to be a little smarter. I've got to let that ball go into the end zone.
I'm not trying to hurt the team, so you've got to be smarter in those situations."
