Andy Dalton Usually Comes to Play in Openers
Bears coach Matt Nagy has his plan and the world knows it's to start Andy Dalton.
The 11-year veteran has started nine season openers in his career, all with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Openers haven't been a total disaster for Dalton. Nor have they all been tremendous successes.
What can be said is Dalton's opening-day starts have usually been anything but boring.
Dalton overall has respectable 91.74 passer rating starting season openers with an excellent 7.9 yards per pass attempt. He has completed 68.4% of his throws in the first game (203 of 297) for 2,351 yards, averaging 261.2 yards a game.
His totals of 11 touchdowns and 9 interceptions were skewed by one very ugly game, a total disaster in 2017 when Baltimore picked him off four times. Otherwise, his passer rating would be coming in at a very healthy level.
Most important was the fact Dalton has a 5-4 record in those nine opening starts. In his only opening-day start with Bill Lazor as his offensive coordinator, Dalton in 2018 authored a road victory in Frank Reich's first game as Indianapolis Colts coach.
Ironically, Dalton will be facing the Los Angeles Rams in an opener for the second straight year. Dallas opened against the Rams last year and Dalton didn't play, but he obviously will this year barring a training camp or preseason injury, or the unlikely event Justin Fields changes Nagy's mind.
Perhaps the Bears get a break starting Dalton in a road opener at Los Angeles because the only home opener he ever started was easily his worst start to any season in a shutout loss to Baltimore in 2017.
Here's Andy Dalton on opening day:
Won at Cleveland 27-17, Sept. 11, 2011
With a strong defense and running game but a rookie starting the opener, the Bengals exercised extreme caution and let Dalton throw just 15 times. He completed 10 for 81 yards and a touchdown but took three sacks.
Lost 44-13 at Baltimore, Sept. 10, 2012
Against one career nemesis, Dalton completed 22 of 37 for 221 yards with an interception but was sacked four times and fumbled once.
Lost 24-21 at Soldier Field, Sept. 8, 2013
The Marc Trestman era began for the Bears with a win over Dalton in a highly entertaining game. Cincinnati's QB completed 26 of 33 for 282 yards with two touchdowns but was picked off twice by Charles "Peanut" Tillman. One of those stopped a fourth-quarter drive and the Bengals never got the ball back until it was too late to do anything about it, after a first-down run by Michael Bush and then a critical unsportsmanlike penalty on Cincinnati's Ray Maualuga. Jay Cutler's 19-yard TD pass to Brandon Marshall midway through the fourth quarter stood as the game winner.
Won at Baltimore 23-16, Sept. 7, 2014
In one of his best games ever against the Ravens, Dalton completed 25 of 38 for 301 yards and a TD. Cincinnati came in as a playoff team while Baltimore had gone 8-8 the previous year.
Won 33-13 at Oakland, Sept. 13, 2015
Dalton got rolling early and completed 25 of 34 for 269 yards and two TDs over Khalil Mack's team. This started the Bengals on a roll, as they began the year 8-0 and Dalton owned a 111 passer rating with 18 TDs, four interceptions, 67.4% completions and a whopping 8.63 yard per pass attempt at the midpoint for the unbeaten team. Then came consecutive losses to the Texans and Cardinals and later a season-ending thumb injury which prevented Dalton from playing in the playoffs.
Won 23-22 at New York Jets, Sept. 11, 2016
In one of Dalton's most complete career efforts, he completed 23 of 30 for 366 yards and a TD and led a late drive to Mike Nugent's game-winning 47-yard field goal.
Lost 20-0 at home to Baltimore, Sept. 10, 2017
Cincinnati's offense started the year DOA under former coordinator Ken Zampese, scoring just nine points in the first two games. Dalton had a horrible game with four interceptions and 16 of 31 passing for 170 yards. He took five sacks. Later, Zampese was fired and replaced by quarterbacks coach Lazor, the current Bears offensive coordinator.
Won at Indianapolis 34-23, Sept. 9, 2018
Dalton took a team that eventually struggled on the year up to Indianapolis and beat Frank Reich's first team convincingly. Dalton went 21 of 28 for 243 yards with a TD and an interception, then followed it up by beating his nemesis, the Ravens. The Bengals were 4-1 at one point, and then 5-3, but they stumbled and collapsed and Dalton finished his season on injured reserve with a thumb injury after a 35-20 loss to Cleveland. Late in the year they fired Lazor.
Lost 21-20 at Seattle, Sept. 8, 2019
Dalton put on a passing show and, in many ways, outplayed Russell Wilson. But he was sacked five times and lost two fumbles, including one with 14 seconds remaining at the Bengals 31 to kill their last hope. Dalton went 35 of 51 for 418 yards with two TDs and no interceptions. He threw for more than twice as many yards as Wilson but a late drive died inside Seattle's 10 and the Bengals settled for a short field goal to get within a point. The Bengals benched Dalton later that season. He returned to finish the schedule as starter, and moved on to Dallas before coming to the Bears this season.
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