Simms Likes What He Saw

[gregcook68]

I take more stock in a guy like Simms who has actually not only played NFL football, won 2 Superbowls, and has the best single SB QB rating of ANY QB ever 150.9!!!

/>http://blogs.bengals.com/category/heard-it-from-hoard/

Some excerpts:

Cincinnati won 34-17 despite a career-high four interceptions for Andy Dalton. Did that up-and-down performance cause Simms to reconsider his lofty expectations for the Bengals?

“It brought them up even higher,” Simms told me this week. “Seeing them in person again and watching them all week and really getting a feel for the football team – I get a very good vibe when I’m around the team. The players all get along. They’ve got energy – it’s real. I think Marvin Lewis has a great feel for the football team and I like the coordinators. What I saw on the field on Sunday just convinced me even more that maybe for once I might be pretty smart.”

But what about the four interceptions? Surely that had to concern Simms.

Quite the contrary for the former Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

“I really do believe this: The fact that Andy Dalton threw four interceptions is a good thing,” said Simms. “I played the position and when I had those games and threw those interceptions, I was mad all week and by gosh, I was going to show ‘em. I’ll never forget what Andy said to me before the Chicago Bears game to open the season. I brought up some of these things about the criticism of the quarterback and he said, ‘I can’t wait for the season to start because I’m going to shut everybody up.’ That was music to my ears. I said, ‘You tell ‘em where to go Andy.’ You want your quarterback to have a little bit of that in him, and I see it in him. After throwing those interceptions, I think he is going to ‘bow up’ this week and I think he is going to play well. We’re going to see a quarterback that is tighter and more efficient and I expect him to play very well.”

“Quarterbacks are going to throw bad passes – they’re going to turn the ball over, so I don’t overreact to them,” said Simms. “I hear people say, ‘Just don’t turn the ball over.’ I tell them, ‘Maybe the quarterback should just fall on the ball on every down. That way they would win because there would be no turnovers.’ You want them to be daring and do this and that, but don’t turn it over. It’s going to happen, so the criticism is unjust many times.

“I was watching TV this morning and the things they say about quarterbacks – they think they are going to go out there and play perfect games. It’s ridiculous.”

“His presence on the field has grown,” said Simms. “I think physically he’s grown too, which I think is a really big deal. He is going to be their franchise quarterback and he’s going to be there for a while. I think the experience and the fact that he’s physically better – and that he has a better team around him – his chances of winning and doing what everybody wants have gone up dramatically since last year.”

“With such great experience under his belt, he’s gotten better every season, he is the leader of this football team now, he knows what’s expected of him, he knows what’s ahead of us, and we really feel good about where he is right now,” said Marvin Lewis.

“It’s hard to develop quarterbacks,” said Simms. “The Bengals had a plan, and I give them a lot of credit. They drafted him, they put him in there, and he’s practiced and played for three years. They’re seeing those benefits, and it’s time now to march on for the next five or six years – whatever it is – and see how many games you can win and if you can get it done in the playoffs.”

[redsbengalsbucks]

Never liked Simms as a player, mainly because he played on the Giants, but he is one of the better talking heads out there. Him and Marino seem to stay more grounded than most of the other blabbering idjits out there. So when he starts gushing about our QB it makes me feel rather good about the football future of my favorite team.

[HoosierCat]

I was living in Joisy during Simms' last few years and was always a fan. He has some similarities to Andy in that he wasn't a big guy and didn't have a big arm. And he took tons of crap from fans who hated him. The big difference is that Dalton now resembles Simms as I saw him late. Phil was far, far less polished coming into the league.

Gotta love Andy's attitude. It's exactly right.

[jjakq27]

I read that Simma and Nance are doing the game again on Sunday.

[HoosierCat]

Yup.

[Sea Ray]

In listening to the game last week, I did get the idea that Simms is very high on the Bengals and to his credit, he is very knowledgable about them too. He's really followed 'em this year. I much prefer a ceiling of Phil Simms for Dalton than others I've heard. Simms took awhile to mature into an elite QB but he was near perfect in their Super Bowl win. His accuracy was pinpoint. That's what we should hope for from AD

[Kazkal]

ShankhAm did not shank