{"id":25627,"date":"2015-12-15T09:03:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T17:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/bengals-dalton-wont-need-surgery\/"},"modified":"2015-12-15T09:03:51","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T17:03:51","slug":"bengals-dalton-wont-need-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/bengals-dalton-wont-need-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals’ Dalton won’t need surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI \u2014<\/strong> Andy Dalton won\u2019t need surgery on his broken thumb and could play again this season.<\/p>\n

Dalton broke the thumb on his passing hand during a 33-20 loss to the Steelers on Sunday that left the AFC North up for grabs. He had an appointment with a specialist on Monday who recommended that the fracture could heal without surgery.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still unclear how many games he\u2019ll miss. Dalton\u2019s hand will remain in a cast for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically we\u2019ll go week to week with things,\u201d coach Marvin Lewis said. \u201cI think that\u2019s about as good an outcome right now as we could expect. He won\u2019t play this week. As we move forward, we\u2019ll see how he is each week and it\u2019ll be up to Andy and the doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

AJ McCarron will make his first NFL start Sunday in San Francisco, trying to make an Alabama breakthrough. A quarterback from Alabama hasn\u2019t won an NFL game as a starter since Jeff Rutledge in 1987, according to STATS.<\/p>\n

McCarron won back-to-back national titles at Alabama. The fifth-round pick in 2014 missed his rookie season with a sore passing shoulder, but played well enough during the preseason to win the job as Dalton\u2019s backup.<\/p>\n

Since Rutledge\u2019s win in 1987, Alabama quarterbacks have gone 0-13 in NFL starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s history,\u201d McCarron said on Monday. \u201cI\u2019m not really worried about history. I\u2019m worried about what we have right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bengals (10-3) haven\u2019t clinched their fifth straight playoff spot yet, but they lead the AFC North by two games over Pittsburgh (8-5). New England (11-2) is in line for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, with the Bengals and Broncos tied for the second spot.<\/p>\n

After the game at San Francisco (4-9), the Bengals play at Denver in a game that will go a long way in determining the playoff seeding. They close the season at home against the Ravens (4-9).<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be the first time in his five-year career that Dalton misses a start. He missed the second half of a game as a rookie. He\u2019s being replaced by a quarterback who hasn\u2019t run many plays with the starting offense and had thrown only four passes in a mop-up role before Sunday.<\/p>\n

McCarron went 22 of 32 for 280 yards with two touchdowns, three sacks and two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown that put the Steelers in control. He\u2019ll practice with the starters this week, and the game plan will be tailored to what he likes to do.<\/p>\n

Coordinator Hue Jackson said the offense won\u2019t change all that much with McCarron running it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows where we\u2019re going,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cNothing\u2019s changed. We\u2019re chasing the same goals, the same dreams. We\u2019ve just got a little different leader right now and that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we\u2019ll be able to get Andy back at some point and we\u2019ll move forward. But right now it\u2019s AJ McCarron\u2019s show and he\u2019ll go lead the parade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notes: Rutledge lost two games for the Giants after that win. Since then, the only other quarterbacks from Alabama to start in the NFL were Greg McElroy (0-1) and Brodie Croyle (0-10), according to STATS. … The Bengals were looking to add a quarterback with Dalton sidelined. Jackson said Jason Campbell has decided his career is finished and won\u2019t be a candidate. … Receiver Mohamed Sanu is the emergency quarterback. Sanu has thrown five passes, completing all of them, with a pair of touchdowns during his four-year career. He hasn\u2019t thrown the ball yet this season. … Lewis spoke with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin on Monday about the pregame confrontation on the field involving players from both sides. \u201cI think neither side wants that,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cThat\u2019s not the way it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http:\/\/twitter.com\/AP_NFL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI \u2014 Andy Dalton won\u2019t need surgery on his broken thumb and could play again this season. Dalton broke the thumb on his passing hand during a 33-20 loss to the Steelers on Sunday that left the AFC North up for grabs. He had an appointment with a specialist on Monday who recommended that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25627"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}