Andy Dalton and Cam Newton duel it out to the finish, but in the end none of it matters. In a game set up to be won by a kicker, everyone loses in a 37-37 tie. Our takeaways:
- Bengals kicker Mike Nugent gives one of the best games of the season an eerily appropriate ending. The normally sure-footed kicker missed an attempt from 36 yards out as time expires in overtime, pushing it wide right and solidifying the highest-scoring tie game in NFL history.
- Ron Rivera and the Panthers wasted a brilliant performance by Cam Newton, who finished the afternoon with 284 passing yards and 17 carries for 107 yards. He had threetotaltouchdowns. On the sideline, we kept seeing shots of Newton getting a (clearly) injured thumb worked on, yet he continued to take the openings on read option plays and bull through a physical Bengals defense. Carolina needs more than Luke Kuechly on the other side of the ball.
- Andy Dalton was cool when he needed to be, especially on a 24-yard strike to rookie James Wright with a defender closing down on him in overtime. With the penalty, the Bengals went from their own 45 to the Carolina 16. Of course, Dalton needs to do a better job of playing two complete halves. After beginning the game with a snap to throw time of under two seconds, which bolstered a mammoth nine-minute touchdown drive, Dalton came out in the second half and tossed a pairof interceptions.
- Mohamed Sanu is a legitimate playmaker. The Rutgers product came into Sunday with 10 catches for 114 yards and a touchdown in his previous two games and lit up the Carolina defense on Sunday with a career-high 11 catches for 120 yards and a score. After a third down catch midway through the fourth quarter, he turned to Dalton and began making the "feed me" gesture with his hands. The next play, he caught a 34-yard deep ball. A.J. Green will like coming back to a lineup that is establishing some formidable weapons around him, and Dalton will like a wide receiver that saves him from potentially game-ending interceptions, like Sanu did late in the fourth quarter.
- It's difficult to tell what this game does to both teams. The Panthers and Bengals both left the game relatively banged up and now Cincinnati falls back into a very log-jammed AFC North. The Ravens and Browns are both surging at the wrong time for coach Marvin Lewis. Carolina has a little more breathing room in what continues to be a disappointing division, but how long will that last?
We recap all the Week 6 action on a jaunty edition of the "Around the NFL Podcast." Find more Around The NFL content on NFL Now.
