The Dallas QB shared the emotions of his return to Paul Brown Stadium after beating his old team 30-7 on Sunday.
In his nine seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, Andy Dalton didn’t have reasons to often set foot in the visitors’ locker room at Paul Brown Stadium. He recalled, for example, hosting several local families there for his foundation’s last Christmas party.
On Sunday, Dalton was back in the visitors’ locker room as a member of the Dallas Cowboys, but this time, he was the one getting the gift. Coach Mike McCarthy gave the 33-year-old quarterback the game ball for leading the team to a 30-7 win over his former club.
“This one was special,” Dalton admitted in his postgame press conference. “Obviously, the team I played for for a long time; you want to do everything you can to win. I thought our team played really well. A lot of range of emotions, from just being back in the city, being in the stadium, the other side of it, all that kind of stuff.”
A player returning to his former team’s home venue is nothing new in the NFL, but it’s different when the player in question is tied so closely to that city. Dalton returned to Cincinnati as the Bengals’ franchise passing leader and is still a beloved member of the organization’s extended family. There were fans’ signs around the stadium welcoming him back, and the Bengals even gave Dalton the rare honor of announcing him by name as he led the visiting Cowboys onto the field.
“Make no bones about it,” McCarthy said afterward of Dalton, “he definitely wanted to win this game. More importantly, everybody in this locker room wanted to win it for him. We presented him the game ball afterward. And if you could just see in the locker room, just the reaction when he came into the locker room after the game. I think it speaks volumes about the men in the locker room and what this win means for us as a team and because of where we are in our season. But how important it was for us to get win today for Andy.”
“I got water thrown on me and everything,” Dalton said of the victory celebration. “Everybody was excited. Mike and a lot of the guys made it a big deal.”
Dalton’s return was a big enough deal that McCarthy singled out his quarterback prior to the game.
“He was a captain today,” McCarthy told the media. “We have three weekly captains, and one captain has the opportunity to give the final words before we enter the field for the kickoff. He’s obviously the one I selected, and I thought he did a great job with the call-up. I think everybody obviously wanted to win today, but everybody really wanted to win this game for Andy.”
But according to Dalton’s teammates, his pregame speech was focused on the team coming together to earn just its fourth win of the season.
“All Andy said to us,” running back Ezekiel Elliott said, “was this isn’t about him. This isn’t about him getting a win here. It’s about this team getting a win. It’s going to take all of us to go win that football game, and I think we played great complementary football, did what we had to do to get the job done.”
“It obviously meant a lot for him to come out here and be able to compete against the team he was at for a number of years and to get the W,” added wideout Amari Cooper. “I want to say it was revenge for him, but I don’t want to put words into his mouth. But, it was a great feeling.”
“Blessings,” summed up linebacker Jaylon Smith after the game. “Blessings, man. For us, it’s coming together as a unit, getting a win. Especially wanted to get a win for Andy. Sean Lee, ‘The General,’ was joking about how this is The House that Andy Built. Just a blessing to get a win, especially special for him.”
Dalton’s numbers on the day weren’t especially eye-popping, going 16-of-23 for just 185 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But he threw zero interceptions, the first time in 2020 he’s been able to say that in a game in which he played the whole contest.
His seven-yard touchdown toss to running back Tony Pollard just after the two-minute warning served as the final dagger. After the score, Dalton looked up into the stands where his wife JJ was sitting, and the couple shared a quick message via sign language.
“That meant a lot in this stadium: after the touchdown, acknowledging her, giving her the ‘I love you,’ getting it back,” Dalton said of the moment.
“For both of us, just pure joy,” he said. “After the touchdown, knowing that we were going to win this game. I’m not the only one that was dealing with some emotions; I think she was probably dealing with some more emotions of everything. So I think that’s a moment that both us will never forget.”
Dalton threw 101 touchdown passes in Paul Brown Stadium as a Cincinnati Bengal. But the two he threw there on Sunday as a Dallas Cowboy undoubtedly mean something just a little bit different.
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