Bengals left tackle Andrew Whitworth has spent much of his career protecting quarterback Andy Dalton on the field.
In the wake of Dalton’s disastrous outing against the Browns last Thursday, Whitworth now finds himself protecting Dalton off the field as well. Whitworth expressed confidence Monday that Dalton would bounce back from his poor night and that the bad night isn’t a sign that Dalton has reached some kind of career crossroads.
“I don’t think he’s at a critical point,” Whitworth said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “He’s played a lot of good football. He himself said he didn’t play his best. We all have games like that. He’s a guy that at the end of the day, his character and who he is will always prevail in the end. He’ll find a way to fix what he needs to fix and do better because it means the world to him. I’ll always say until somebody shows me that that kind of character doesn’t work, I’ll always believe in it.”
Chances are good that Dalton will be better in New Orleans than he was last Thursday, if only because it would be hard for him to be worse. Any claims that he’s fixed what needs to be fixed are going to have to wait until at least the end of the season, however, and any more prime time or playoff meltdowns are going to make it hard to keep arguing that Dalton is going to prevail in the end.