number, Dalton was as much cheerleader as quarterback.

"As bad as things were going offensively, he was going up and down the sideline saying, 'We're about to go score.'" Whitworth said. "He really believed it, and he told every single guy that. In the past, he was kind of quiet on the sidelines. He would go back and study what he needed to do. It's a different mentality."

After the game, Texans defensive end J.J. Watt said on ESPN that the goal of the Texans was to "make the Red Rifle look like a Red Ryder BB Gun." Informed of the comment by a reporter, Dalton snapped and questioned Watt's integrity. "I'm disappointed in him," Dalton told reporters.

At his midweek press conference, Dalton backed off, saying his postgame comments wereof his superiors as well. When Lewis' charity, the Marvin Lewis Community Fund, scheduled a celebrity waiter event for August, Dalton voiced his displeasure to his coach. The Andy & Jordan Dalton Foundation already had an established celebrity waiter night, and the head coach was infringing on his territory. "He stood up to me and said, 'BS,'" Lewis said. "I was impressed. That was a huge step."

This Dalton began to emerge in August 2014, when the Bengals extended his contract. At the time the deal was struck, Lewis was on the golf course. He and Dalton texted each other, and Dalton expressed his relief over the deal.

We might have started to see a new Dalton a year ago, too, if the players around him had stayed healthy. In