Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton says "my reaction wasn’t warranted" to J.J. Watt's comments

Emotions are raw after a game in the NFL; that's a fact whether you win or lose a game. That was on display after J.J. Watt said his goal was making Andy Dalton look like a "Red Ryder BB Gun" in Monday night's game. The game resulted in the Bengals' first loss of the season, coming at the hands of the Texans.

"Our goal was to come out here and make the Red Rifle look like a Red Ryder BB Gun and I think we did that today," Watt said after the game.

After the game, the media told Dalton what had been said about him, just minutes after he left the field and took the podium for a post-game press conference. Dalton reacted saying, "There's a lot of kids and a lot of people that look up to him. For him to make comments like that, he's just showing that's acceptable to do and say that kind of stuff. It's disappointing for one of the best players in this league to come out and say something like that. I think J.J. is a good player. For him to be one of the best in this league and to show that integrity, it shows what he's about and that's disappointing."

Now, Dalton is owning up to the fact that his reaction wasn't warranted and was a result of being told the quote second-hand, right after the game ended.

"What I did wrong is I responded to what somebody said he said," Dalton told the media Wednesday. "I never even heard his interview. So I don't know the context in which it was said. "I shouldn't have reacted the way I did without hearing what he said, actually hearing what he said," Dalton said. "I'm responding to what an interviewer tells me he said. So from that standpoint, my reaction wasn't warranted because I still haven't seen it, I'm not going to watch it. I don't care."

It was the media who told Dalton what Watt had said, he didn't hear the interview himself and now, he's ready to move forward, putting Monday night behind him.

"I've got no ill will toward J.J.," Dalton continued. "There's no feud between me and J.J. We lost the game, he said what he said and we're moving on. That's in the past now."

This story is over (despite the national media heavily critiquing Dalton's reaction to Watt) and it's time for the Bengals to move onto preparing for the Cardinals on Sunday Night Football.