Andy Dalton starts night off going six for six; neck is feeling better

Andy Dalton's Saturday evening with the Bengals didn't exactly go as planned after he left the game with a neck injury. But before he did, he ran for a combined 15-yards on two plays, threw a 4-yard pass to Ryan Hewitt, a 4-yard pass to Marvin Jones, two passes to Rex Burkhead which netted a combined 35-yards, a pass to Tyler Eifert for 5-yards, and after going six for six he ran up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown to end the drive on 4th and 1. It was a strong opening series for the Bengals' starting quarterback and his plentiful array of weapons. But unfortunately, it led to him being held out as a precaution with a neck injury for the rest of the game.

During the post-game press conference, Dalton commented on the injury. "I was sitting at the bottom of the plow and I couldn't really move and my head was kind of in an awkward position. But, you know. It is what it is, but if it would have been a regular season game, I would've stayed in and played, but, just being cautious with it," Dalton said.

At the time of the press conference, Dalton said his neck felt better, but it just "locked up" on him at the time of the play.

Regardless, Dalton and the first team offense did what they set out to do in starting the game. They got off to an effective and quick start.

"The way we started off tonight, a big long drive and we were able to punch it in," Dalton said. "We wanted to respond, we felt like we didn't play well last week, it was good to come out and have that kind of start this week."

Of McCarron, Dalton said, "He played well. He came in and he made plays and guys made plays for him too. It was a great ball, the touchdown to Marvin. Marvin did a good job splitting the defense... I was happy for AJ, he did a really great job stepping in there."

With one preseason game remaining, Dalton likely won't be getting many more snaps in before the regular season opener in Oakland, two weeks from today. When asked if he felt good about heading into Oakland with the way things are right now, Dalton responded, "I think this was a good game to build on and to have out there. We just gotta keep playing our game."

The Bengals face the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday at 7 p.m. EST at Lucas Oil Stadium.