Bengals get back on track vs. Dolphins on 'Thursday Night Football'

Andy Dalton is one of the NFL's most efficient passers. This fact often gets lost when you distinguish Daytime Dalton from Prime Time Dalton, who, in his first five NFL seasons, was relentlessly criticized for his inability to play well in nationally televised games -- both in the regular season and the playoffs.

On Thursday night, the Bengals host the Miami Dolphins in a matchup between two teams that share a losing record (1-2) but not much else. Dalton, coming off his best NFL season, was primed to earn that first playoff win but he suffered a late-season thumb that jump-started a series of events that inexplicably culminated in the Bengals finding new and inventive ways to lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers in January.

Dalton almost certainly would have been the difference. Unfortunately, Bengals fans don't live in that alternate universe.

Meanwhile Adam Gase, fresh off fixing Jay Cutler in Chicago, took the Dolphins job in the offseason, presumably because he thought he could work similar magic on Ryan Tannehill . Through three games there's little to celebrate, though the Cleveland Browns selflessly gifted the Dolphins their first win of the season last Sunday.

And that's where the similarities end between these two teams; the Bengals have lost close games to the Steelers and Denver Broncos -- two teams expected to make the playoffs -- while the Dolphins were sluggish against the Seattle Seahawks in the opener and were down 21-3 to the Jimmy Garoppolo-led New England Patriotsbefore he was replaced by Jacoby Brissett .

The bottom line: Both teams need wins, though the Bengals are under the most pressure. Realistically, expectations weren't high for the Dolphins in 2016, even with Gase, Quarterback Whisperer. But if Cincinnati loses on Thursday night, they're at Dallas and at New England the next two weeks and a 1-5 start would virtually end any discussion of a sixth straight trip to the postseason.

10 minutes you won't get back

Will Brinson and I fire up the podcast machine for your listening pleasure. Can Dalton play well on national television? Can Gase fix Tannehill? We talk about that and more in the latest edition of 10 Minutes You Won't Get Back: