A.J. Green’s shoulder injury has proven to be one of the strangest storylines in a depressingly predictable St. Louis Rams-Cincinnati Bengals contest. Green returned quickly after falling painfully on his shoulder on a questionable pass interference call near halftime, but he continued to favor his shoulder while playing—including a third-quarter route in which he held his right arm down entirely and blocked, perfunctorily, with his left hand.
But in the fourth quarter Bengals fans finally got the answer they wanted from Green and Andy Dalton, who targeted him downfield for a perfectly normal-looking pass play and received, in return, a perfectly normal-looking reception for a first down.
Green has six receptions for 115 yards altogether, including a 55-yarder. On the year the rookie, whom the Rams were supposedly targeting heavily in their ultimately unsuccessful NFL Draft pursuit of an offensive playmaker, has 55 catches for 891 yards and seven touchdowns, which would—well, you’d be better off just not comparing those numbers to what the Rams’ receiving corps has done this year.