Detroit, Mi, United States

Matthew Stafford knows what Andy Dalton is going through.

While Stafford, a 2009 first-round draft choice by the Detroit Lions, has been asserting himself in his third season as a capable NFL quarterback, Dalton was thrown into the fire right away Friday night at Ford Field in his team's 34-3 loss to the Lions.

Dalton's first pass attempt was an interception. He threw 15 attempts and completed 11 for 69 yards.

Still, it wasn't too bad of a performance for the Texas Christian University product, who set a Mountain West Conference record with 42 career victories in his career and was selected as the league's Offensive Player of the Year as a junior and senior.

"I thought he bounced back pretty well," Stafford said. "He had a rough go of it early. I've been there and he did a good job of sticking in there and moving the ball."

"It definitely didn't start the way we wanted it to," Dalton said. "There's a lot of anticipation for me coming in with the first snap of the game. They scored, we fumbled the kickoff and then the first play is how I didn't want it to happen. After that, we moved the ball and got some completions. But it definitely wasn't the way we wanted to play."

"After that first play, we were fine," said Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis. "He's anxious and so forth. He just let (the pass that was intercepted) go. But if we're going to let it go, it's us or nobody and we don't want to leave the ball inside like that where they have the opportunity to get after it."

Dalton set Mountain West Conference records (11,569; 2007-09) by producing 11,925 yards in total offense. He's No. 1 in Texas Christian gridiron history in pass attempts (1,317), completions (812), passing yards (10,314) and passing touchdowns (71).

"We were physical up front but definitely there's a lot we can improve on for the rest of the preseason," Dalton said after Friday's game. "I don't think there was confusion. For the most part, the guys were in the right spot. If one guy messes up, that can make the play look bad. There are things we can correct."

Dalton, who started 49-of-50 games at Texas Christian, completing 812-of-1,317 passes (61.66%) for 10,314 yards, 71 touchdowns and 30 interceptions, was welcomed to the NFL with some hits from Detroit's 6-foot-4, 307-pound sophomore defensive tackle Ndamuukong Suh.

"Playing quarterback, you're going to get hit," Dalton said. "He had a couple of good plays where he got on me quick and hit me good. But you can't let that bother you. You have to go out and play the next play."

When Carson Palmer announced last spring that he wanted out from Cincinnati, Dalton was taken in the second round of the NFL draft and immediately became the No. 1 QB.

"I think he did pretty well," said Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green. "As a young quarterback coming in and stepping into the next level, I think after that interception, we had one good drive coming down and we got that field goal. He's going to be fine, a great one."

Cincy running back Cedric Benson agreed.

"He did (play with poise)," Benson said. "For throwing an interception and having somebody in his face every time he dropped back, he kept it together quite well."

Dalton said he felt more comfortable in the second half.

"I think we all knew going in that we needed a drive moving the ball and all that kind of stuff," he said. "I felt like we did that on the last one, getting the ball out of my hands quick, getting the ball to our guys, moving the ball down the field. We had a penalty at the end of that drive that hurt us. We got to the red zone quite a bit, we just needed to go in and capitalize."

But there's three preseason games and a whole regular season left to play, Dalton noted.

"I mean it definitely isn't the kind of day I wanted to have," he said. "We didn't score on offense. That kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I'm not used to that. I want to come in and score points every time I have the ball. There's definitely room for improvement, but I guess that's what preseason's for, come in and see where you are and we'll fix those mistakes when we watch the film and move on from there."

 

 

Twitter: @ihavenet

 

Copyright © 2011 AHN - All Rights Reserved