Dillon-less Bengals top Seahawks, 27-24
Associated Press
Corey Dillon was all but forgotten, along with the last 12 years of Bengals follies.
Associated Press
Dillon wasn't even in the stadium yesterday as his downtrodden team pulled off a reputation-changing win. Jon Kitna's 53-yard touchdown pass to Chad Johnson gave host Cincinnati a 27-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks (5-2).
Seattle tight end Itula Mili, a former Kahuku High School star, pulls in a 46-yard touchdown pass from Matt Hasselbeck against Cincinnati. Mili had five catches for 80 yards and two TDs in the Seahawks' 27-24 loss.
With their first win over a top-notch team, the Bengals (3-4) proved they're no longer dreadful, and no longer dependent upon one moody running back.
"We believed we were going to win this game," offensive tackle Willie Anderson said. "This is a new team."
Cincinnati has won back-to-back games for the first time since 2001 without much from Dillon, who was the team's entire focus under previous coaching staffs.
Dillon put the focus on himself last week by announcing that he feels unappreciated and wants out. He got into a traffic accident on his way to the stadium yesterday, and was inactive even though he wasn't injured.
First-year coach Marvin Lewis decided to make Dillon inactive once he heard about the accident.
"We couldn't tell how he was going to be physically," Lewis said. "We told him the key was to get himself right and fixed."
Dillon wasn't on the sideline to see his understudy win over the fans' hearts. They chanted "Rudi! Rudi!" as third-year back Rudi Johnson ran for 101 yards and a touchdown, the first Bengal running back other than Dillon to reach the 100-yard mark since Ki-Jana Carter in 1997.
Chad Johnson's catch-and-run for a touchdown — he beat cornerback Willie Williams on a slant and Kitna nearly lost his grip on the ball as he threw — put the Bengals ahead 27-24 with 8:03 left.
