Jim Owczarski

jowczarski@enquirer.com

At the moment his back foot planted, Andy Dalton already had to move forward in the pocket. His three receivers had not yet gotten to the top of their routes, and Rex Burkhead wasn’t through the line of scrimmage. Dalton moved up and to his right, throwing a pump fake in the direction of Alex Erickson as he ran forward.

That pump held the safety for a moment, a moment that opened a window for Dalton to find Brandon LaFell in the back of the end zone against the Dallas Cowboys.

It may seem somewhat unremarkable, this individual play from the Cincinnati Bengals’ 28-14 loss two weeks ago. Perhaps the same could be said when, a week later, nearly the exact same scenario presented itself in New England. But because the play was in the middle of the field, rookie Tyler Boyd was able to read Dalton’s movement, cut back and be found for a 23-yard gain.

But they’re remarkable enough that in speaking about it, Ken Zampese pitched forward in his seat behind his desk to highlight the action – specifically the pass against Dallas.

“He’s getting more out of each play,” Zampese said of Dalton. “He’s milking each play for more than he did before. And in that, we’ve seen the creativity.

“Those kinds of things, not that they didn’t happen before – just more things like that happen more often.”

Being Andy Dalton: Bengals quarterback loosens up

Dalton has always had - and used - his athleticism. He averaged over 400 yards rushing and over five touchdowns a year at Texas Christian University. He has run less; naturally, in the NFL – but his 15 rushing touchdowns since 2011 trail only Cam Newton (46) since they both entered the league.

“You’re just noticing it?” Dalton said with a laugh.

But one of the keys to Dalton’s impressive start through six games hasn’t really been about running as it is moving. Some of it has been by necessity. Last year, he was sacked 20 times in the 12-plus games he played. He’s been dropped 19 times already this season.

His teammates and coaches have seen his improvisation in practice throughout his career, and at times in games. Last year, he wasn’t asked to do it as much. The Bengals scored points quickly and often. He rarely was pressured.

And when Dalton was sacked 46 times in his second year in the league, it could be argued he didn’t know enough about how to do it.

“One of the things people don’t understand in this league, playing quarterback and coaching quarterbacks, is how you play the game with your eyes and where your eyes are supposed to be and when they’re supposed to be somewhere,” Bengals quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor said.

“You see some guys whose eyes move around a lot. That’s not good. Or whose eyes move slowly. You want a guy to be very specific about when he’s supposed to look. Sometime a quarterback gets to a point where he can even add a pump along with his eyes. I just think Andy is at that point in his career.”

Joking aside, the 28-year-old quarterback agrees.

“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at it,” Dalton said. “It just comes from feeling rushes and knowing when you can get out and guys reacting to it.”

Despite the pressure this year, and a rash of drops by receivers through the first three weeks, Dalton has not only picked up where he left off from a Most Valuable Player-like campaign a year ago, but has taken yet another step forward in his development.

A year ago, Football Outsiders counted 80 pressures on Dalton – relatively few compared to other starters around the league. But his effectiveness in those situations was ranked as one of the worst of quarterbacks with at least 200 pass plays – 30th out of 37.

In fact, the site had Dalton ranked as one of the worst in the league under pressure in 2013 (36 of 37) and 2014 (27 of 35) as well.

He’s completing passes at a career-high rate (67.4 percent) while being intercepted at a ridiculously career-low (0.9 percent). And while it seems like the big plays haven’t been there as often in 2016, his yards per attempt (8.0) and yards per completion (12.0) are off by less than a yard from a year ago.

Dalton is averaging a career high in yards per game by a large margin at 292.8 per contest, and his rating of 97.2 would be a career high by far if not for his 106.2 mark a year ago.

“Andy continues to raise his ceiling, which is a good part of having a good player,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said.

Numbers aside, coaches and teammates can see Dalton is playing at a high level – perhaps at his highest to date. One coach excitedly pantomimed a line graph on a chart, saying the sixth-year quarterback is just at the start of a dramatic rise in his play.

“I feel like I’m playing better,” Dalton said. “That’s exactly what I want to do. I wanted to build on what I did last year and I feel like I’ve been able to do some more things.”

Zampese has the most intimate knowledge of what Dalton has done to get better year over year, as his position coach for five years and now as a first-year play caller who has charged Dalton to not just run the offense, but help integrate new pass catchers in Tyler Boyd, Brandon LaFell, C.J. Uzomah and Tyler Kroft.

“He’s just worked hard at it, so over time things get better,” Zampese said. “And he’s reaping the benefits.”

Lazor says one of the biggest misunderstandings about the position to those who watch is that the quarterback doesn’t have the luxury of overhead cameras swinging easily over the top of the line of scrimmage or the coverage. It’s a difficult endeavor to begin with, but one that can take work to master. It seems like Dalton has now wrapped his hands around it.

“When you stand in the pocket with all those 6-5 and 6-6 linemen, on both sides, it’s very difficult to see,” Lazor said. “Let alone the fact they’re trying to hurt you. That’s why it takes a special guy, and so far he’s doing it.”

Like his play last year, none of this is a real surprise to the organization. Dalton worked on parts of his game every year, and perhaps a side “benefit” to the protection issues to this point is that it has forced Dalton to get better in handling pressure and then beating it downfield.

“Some of the best quarterback play is when you’re able to move in the pocket and still make throws down the field because it’s not going to be clean every time,” Dalton said. “I think that’s a part that it’s not just the quarterback. It’s everybody understanding, OK, when he’s out of the pocket, break off your route, run to these spots. I feel like we’ve been making more plays this year than we have in previous years and so I know it’s been an emphasis. You can hit big plays once you’re out of the pocket and we hit a couple of them (against New England). I think it just adds to the offense and what we can do.”

Gruden, Newton and a nixed trade: How Andy Dalton became a Bengal