Dalton: Bengals need bye week to get refreshed

For the first time in his NFL career, Dalton has been at the helm for three losses in a row. After Sunday’s 24-17 loss to the Steelers, the Bengals are 3-4 going into the bye week, and it’s the first time they’ve had a losing record in Dalton’s two years as a starter.

“It’s always nice after a loss to come back and get back in the routine and try to put that one behind you,” Dalton said. “But I think it’ll be good for us to have a little time to relax and get away from it a little bit and get refreshed for the next half of the season.”

Dalton has thrown an interception in all seven games and leads the NFL with 10. He had a 95 or better quarterback rating in three of the first four games, but hasn’t topped 90 in the three-game losing streak.

Overall, Dalton ranks sixth in the NFL in yards (1,831) and touchdowns (13), 13th in passer rating (87.7) and 11th in completion percentage (64.2).

“When we were winning the games, it felt like we were hitting big plays,” Dalton said. “We were moving the ball. We had some long drives in there, but I think there were more big plays. We’ve got to come back and get that. We’ve got the players to do it. We’ve just got to execute.”

Dalton had his worst game of the season against the Steelers (14-of-28 for 105 yards with one touchdown and one interception). He said the opportunities were there, and the Bengals didn’t take advantage.

“It falls on me. I start the whole thing,” Dalton said. “But we’ve got to keep drives alive. We’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to convert on third down. I think that’s the big thing. We were in it right until the end. We just didn’t get anything going at the end, and we fell a little short.”

It won’t be easy for the Bengals to turn the season around. They play only two losing teams in the last nine games: Oakland (2-4) and Kansas City (1-5). They return from the bye week with home games against the Broncos (3-3) and Giants (5-2).

In addition to playing the Ravens and Steelers again, they play the Eagles, Cowboys and Chargers. So Dalton will face a who’s who of NFL quarterbacks in coming weeks.

“It’s going to be a good test,” Dalton said. “We’re really going to find out what this team’s made of now. We’ve kind of dug ourselves a little bit of a hole. We’ve got to find a way to get out of it. We know the schedule we have. We have to come out and play our best.”