Bengals' Andy Dalton: Throws, rushes for scores against Patriots

Dalton completed 21 of 31 passes for 254 yards and a touchdown in Sunday's loss to New England. He rushed for 17 yards and a score on two carries.

Analysis:

Dalton gave Cincinnati the lead late in the first half after keeping it on an option sweep and cutting up for a two-yard score. He struck again early in the second half with a touchdown toss to Brandon LaFell, but overall had a fairly ho-hum game despite several nice drops in the bucket to AJ Green and Tyler Boyd. At this point last season, Dalton was on his way to becoming a fantasy star with 14 touchdown passes and another two scores on the ground in six games. Dalton, this season, has just six touchdown passes and one rushing score over the same span and has more games with one or fewer passing touchdowns, five, than he had in 12 full games last season, three. The continued absence of red-zone favorite Tyler Eifert is certainly a factor, but fantasy owners who thought themselves shrewd to snag Dalton this season can't wait much longer to find out how much of a difference the tight end will make.