Paul Dehner Jr.

pdehnerjr@enquirer.com

Product of a Texas high school powerhouse.

Under-recruited and landed at a university outside standard college football royalty.

Slipped out of the first round of the NFL draft as scouts knocked size and arm strength.

Worked with passing game guru Tom House to tighten mechanics.

Battled perception issues early in his career.

The characteristics of the career path listed above all belong to embattled Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, the man of 2.0 passer rating and national television embarrassment 10 days ago against Cleveland.

Concerned eyes of a disenchanted Bengals following will place squarely on him as the offense takes the field Sunday, waiting to see how the temporary franchise quarterback reacts to the fiercest criticism of his career.

Those above characteristics don't only belong to Dalton, though. They also belong to the quarterback who will take the field at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome opposite Dalton. Indeed, the path to the NFL for Drew Brees and Dalton look fascinatingly similar.

The 6-foot Brees came out of Austin, Texas, landed at Purdue and slipped to the No. 32 overall selection by the San Diego Chargers in 2001.

The 6-foot-2 Dalton came out of Houston, Texas, landed at TCU and slipped to No. 35 overall in 2011.

Most comparisons between the two end there. Rightfully so. Brees owns four 5,000-yard seasons, eight Pro Bowls, NFL Man of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year and, of course, Super Bowl MVP, delivering the first championship to the adoring city of New Orleans.

During one of the most critical junctures in the development of Dalton and decision-making of whether he can be the guy for this franchise once the first two years and $25 million guaranteed in his contract expire, Lewis will continue his push for Dalton to emulate his Texas brethren in another manner.

"The way Drew goes about it as the leader, the leader of the offense, the leader of the team, working through his progressions, how hard he works in practice, even how he enters the huddle and the things he does," Lewis said when asked what traits he'd like Dalton to pilfer from Brees. "It's what you want from the leader of your team."

Sounds easy to talk about leadership in generalities. To pull it off while in the wake of 2.0 while maintaining the respect and confidence of the locker room doesn't happen with words alone. He'll badly need a bounce-back effort from the worst outing of his career.

Finding top quarterbacks who experienced awful days at the office wouldn't take long. Just pick your great quarterback of choice.

Tom Brady threw four interceptions to no touchdowns and a rating of 22.5 in a shutout loss to Buffalo in 2003. He went on to lead the 14-2 Patriots to a Super Bowl victory.

Kenny Anderson posted a 2.8 rating in the 1981 opener before being yanked. He bounced back to win the MVP and lead the Bengals to the Super Bowl.

In 2012, Brees threw zero touchdowns against five picks for a 37.6 rating in a loss to Atlanta. He went on that year to make the Pro Bowl and lead the NFL in passing yards.

If this league isn't about being knocked down, rather popping back up, few know better than Brees, who was discarded by the Chargers in the prime of his career for Philip Rivers.

"As a quarterback in this league you got to have a short-term memory," Brees said. "You have good games and bad games. Throughout the course of a game you have good plays and bad plays. … There is times when you are going to make mistakes, I think my mindset is always, man, if somebody picked me off then they got lucky. Wait till they see what is coming back at them now."

Dalton's history of eschewing ugly days for gorgeous stretches are as much a part of his persona as the red fauxhawk.

His worst day prior to Cleveland in terms of passer rating came the third start of his rookie year (40.8) against San Francisco. The next week he led a game-winning drive to beat previously undefeated Buffalo.

In 2012, his worst day came in an ugly prime-time loss at home against Pittsburgh where he managed only 105 yards on 50 percent completion rate. The next four games he went 3-1 with 10 touchdowns against one interception, three consecutive games with a rating over 100 and the only blemish a one-score loss to Peyton Manning.

Last season, his worst moment came in Week 10 against Baltimore, where a late Hail Mary helped him salvage a 52.2 rating in an overtime defeat. The Bengals won four of their next five games with Dalton throwing 13 touchdowns to three interceptions.

That history can't be debated. Yet, neither can the fact Dalton 2.0 plummeted further to the wrong side of awful than any of those previous lows. In the battle back, he'll still rely on confidence.

"That's not the kind of player I am, not the kind of offense we are, not the kind of team we are to put that showing out there," Dalton said. "So you can't lose any confidence. You can't all of a sudden panic or anything. There's been a lot of good things that have gone on for this team. So hold onto that kind of stuff because you've still got to have a lot of confidence. I mean, that's the best thing you can do out on the field because that's contagious."

Dalton summoning confidence and resiliency this week much as Brees did in rising from doubted, undersized quarterback could be the key to avoiding a snowball effect capable of chipping deeper at the faith of those counting on Dalton most.

"Man, listen, there is always something to prove," Brees said. "But I definitely had a chip on my shoulder because I knew there were a lot of people that chose not to recruit me, not to draft me based upon those tangible things they would look at, not big enough, strong enough, fast enough, strong enough arm, that kind of stuff. Yet, listen, I don't go through life trying to prove people wrong, but there is the satisfaction of doing it … I think you always have to have that mindset there is something to prove. That is your edge. That allows you to stay hungry."

Dalton needs an edge. Desperately. We'll find out at 1 p.m. how closely he can replicate that of Brees.