Dillon Has Wearing Effect on Cardinals

With a white towel wrapped around his waist and a look of exhaustion on his face, Corey Dillon slowly walked to his dressing stall and plopped down.

“Oh,” he half-moaned. “I’m extremely tired.”

Imagine how the Arizona Cardinals’ defense felt after chasing him around all afternoon.

Dillon set two Bengal records and made the difference in a ragged game befitting the NFL’s two worst teams since 1990. He ran for 216 yard--his third-best effort--in Cincinnati’s 24-13 victory Sunday.

He also had a one-yard touchdown run as part of the biggest rushing performance against the Cardinals. The Los Angeles Rams’ Charles White ran for 213 yards on Nov. 17, 1987.

“We had everything that we could throw at them today to stop the run,” said Cardinal Coach Dave McGinnis, his nose and cheeks bright red from the 18-degree wind chill. “We had five linemen in the game. We blitzed them. We knew coming in this was a very, very dangerous back.”

No matter what the Cardinals (3-10) tried, Dillon kept going. He carried on 35 of the Bengals’ 78 plays--the only time he’s had more carries was his 246-yard game as a rookie in 1997.

The Bengals (3-10) have gotten two of their victories because Dillon had big games. He ran for an NFL-record 278 in a 31-21 victory over Denver on Oct. 22.

Both teams had a touchdown nullified by penalty and the kickers had trouble on the chewed-up grass field. There were three missed field goals and a wide extra-point try as the kickers slipped around.

Despite all the muck and mistakes, Dillon was the one constant. His 18th 100-yard game set a club record and pushed his season total to 1,278 yards, breaking James Brooks’ team record of 1,239 yards in 1989.