KANSAS CITY - After absorbing the worst defeat of his NFL career, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton was reminded his team is still 4-3 and along with Baltimore has the most wins in the AFC North.
"As much as this one sucks, everything is still in front of us," said Dalton after Sunday's 45-10 thumping by the Chiefs. "We're in a great position. We have to take advantage of it."
The Bengals offense couldn't take advantage of three possessions that started outside their 40-yard line against the NFL's No. 32 defense. They had to punt all three times and all three possessions ended in touchdowns.
"That's a great. Everyone knows how their scoring points," said Dalton of a Chiefs team racking up nearly 36 a game. "If you don't do that on your side, then it can turn into the kind of game like it did."
COMMUNICATION SNAFU: The killer came early, late in the first quarter when the Bengals got the ball at their 43 on a missed field goal and down, 7-0. But a false start by right tackle Bobby Hart and a pressure allowed by left tackle Cordy Glenn, led to a fourth-and-nine punt. But personal punt protector Clayton Fejedelem stuck his hand out at the last instant on the snap and lost the fumble at their 32.
"I didn't get the whole call," said Fejedelem, who wouldn't say if it was a fake. "Loud stadium. The call didn't get all the way across and it ended up being a little bit of a catastrophe."
CARLOS CALL: After giving up the most yards by this generation of Bengals with 551 (the most since they survived a Drew Brees onslaught in a 2006 Superdome win and a 2007 loss in Cleveland, one of the senior men, left end Carlos Dunlap, insisted it's not because the defense is still trying to learn the system of new defensive coordinator Teryl Austin.
"They came out and executed better than we did," Dunlap said. "They have a great offense and we missed a lot of tackles … There's not an issue with the defense. There's not an issue with the offense … Don't make it any more than it is. We got out-executed."
For the first time this season WILL linebacker Vontaze Burfict wore the defensive helmet with the microphone and while Dunlap said that was a little bit different, he also said that wasn't why the Chiefs did what they did, which is come out fast. They have outscored foes by more than 50 points in the first quarter and they were up 7-0 on the Bengals on the way to rolling up 319 first-half yards. That's going to keep the Bengals on pace to allow their most yards of all-time, eclipsing the 1995 club, the only Cincy defense to allow 6,000 yards.
"That's the way they script it," Dunlap said. "They get on you quick, give you a lot of looks, make you move your eyes around and we played into their hands."
Dunlap was hit with a 15-yard roughing after a play he shoved Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes out of bounds on what the refs seemed to determine was too late.
"I don't think so," Dunlap said. "Why would I do something like that after I made a great play? It was a sack.
"I apologize if it was, but I don't think so," said Dunlap, who indicated he thought Mahomes was still looking to throw.
One of two sacks on the night for the Bengals. The other was by nose tackle Andrew Billings.
PICK SIX: Any chance of a Bengals' second-half comeback was nipped in the first four minutes when Kansas City scored two touchdowns in nine seconds, the last on a 33-yard pick six by safety Ron Parker. Dalton was going for A.J. Green on one of his 14 targets. But Parker undercut the route the back-side slant.
"He was covering the tight end one-on-one and came off him," Dalton said.
GREEN DAY: Wide receiver A.J Green had his second straight 100-yard game with 117 on 10 catches, but he admitted the Chiefs surprised and played some stuff they hadn't seen on film.
