Andy Dalton sets new career high with 5 touchdown passes as Bengals pummel Jets

Andy Dalton was on point all day against the Jets. (Al Behrman/AP) In his three-year NFL career, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton has thrown for 58

Doug Farrar | Oct 27, 2013

Andy Dalton sets new career high with 5 touchdown passes as Bengals pummel Jets /

Andy Dalton was on point all day against the Jets. (Al Behrman/AP)

In his three-year NFL career, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton has thrown for 58 touchdowns, but never more than four in a game, and then, only once ... until Sunday's game against the New York Jets. A Jets defense that appeared to be the strength of the team seemed helpless against Dalton, who passed for five touchdowns, four in the first half alone in a 49-9 throttling.

All but one of those five touchdowns went to second-year receiver Marvin Jones, whose statistical explosion was even more atypical -- he had caught four touchdown passes total in 18 NFL games and had just five starts to his name. In fact, the fifth-round pick from Cal caught just 13 touchdown passes in his collegiate career, so it wasn't as if the Jets were expecting him to be a touchdown machine.

Then again, it's difficult to know what the Jets were expecting. Dalton had thrown for three touchdowns and over 300 yards in each of his last two games, but the Jets appeared to belay their usual pass rush, and Dalton was sacked just once. Cincinnati's offensive line also put in a great performance, but this has to be worrisome for head coach Rex Ryan going forward. Jones finished with eight catches for 122 yards, and he was killing the Jets secondary with fades and quick out routes.

The record for touchdown receptions in a single game is five, shared by Jerry Rice (1990), Kellen Winslow (1981) and Bob Shaw (1950).

Marvin Jones was equally unstoppable, grabbing eight passes for 122 yards and four touchdown. (Tom Uhlman/AP)

"Not many people put a performance like this against a Rex Ryan defense," Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden said of Dalton's performance. Not many people will."

The Bengals raised their record to 6-2 with the win, while the Jets fell to 4-4.

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Published Oct 27, 2013

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.