Monday, December 13, 1999

Coslet bungles Dillon's shot at history

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BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Corey Dillon scores on a 2-run in the second quarter. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Corey Dillon needed 276 yards Sunday to break Walter Payton's single-game running record. The way Dillon was moving, he could have run for 376. Dillon got to 192 with about 4 minutes left in the third quarter. He could have owned Payton's 22-year-old record by falling forward 10 times.

        What a chance to immortalize 30 seasons at Cinergy Field. What a glorious way to put the dank, gray bowl to permanent bed. On the last game of the last season at Cinergy Field, Corey Dillon set the record for most rushing yards in a single NFL game.

        Naturally, Bruce Coslet took him out.

        This was so... so... Bengals.

        Where was The Dillonator when history awaited? Where was the best running back in team history, when history was calling his name?

        Uh, sitting on a laundry hamper.

        Helmet off, jacket pulled up over his head. On the sideline, his back to the field. Watching the game on the big screen.

Best of the Lost Decade
        With the Bengals of the 1990s, this possesses a certain symmetry. The 44-28 whomp of the absolutely dreadful Cleveland Browns was a terrific finale for football at Cinergy Field. It was no more fitting, though, than Bruce Coslet sitting Corey Dillon for the last 18 minutes, when Dillon had a great chance to do something no one else has done.

        Was there much doubt he'd have passed Payton? The line was blasting holes as big as living rooms. The Browns defense couldn't tackle Granny Clampett. Cleveland might have had a chance, if Dillon had flags Velcroed to his hips. The Browns were rumblin', stumblin' and fumblin', minus the rumblin'. Watching them makes you feel lucky to be a Bengals fan.

        To Dillon's everlasting credit, he said, “I'm not a greedy or a selfish person.” The Dillonator is the best player this franchise has had in this Lost Decade. Also, it turns out, he possesses a good and generous spirit. “I wanted Michael Basnight to have a run at it, anyway.”

        But make no mistake: Dillon knew what he was chasing. He knew Payton's magic number. When running backs coach Jim Anderson asked him, with 3:15 left in the third quarter, if he wanted to go back in the game and get to 200, Dillon said, “Yeah.”

        That's when Coslet told him he was done.

        “There is a thing called sportsmanship,” Coslet explained.

He deserved a chance
        Of course. You don't want to run it up on a team you play twice a year. But Jeff Blake stayed in the game until 6:32 remained. Carl Pickens and Darnay Scott played well into the fourth quarter. The first offensive line was out there the whole way.

        Maybe those guys could have been taken out in the third quarter, too. Just to be sporting. And don't you run the ball to chew up the clock, so as to not score as quickly? Just wondering.

        And, sorry. But who cares about the Browns? Corey Dillon is a Bengal. He's on your team. Dillon was the guy with the chance at history. After what he has been through here, and the work he has put in, Dillon deserved that shot.

        The offensive line deserved it. “Something like that would have been incredible,” center Rich Braham said. The defense deserved it. The fans deserved it, for sitting in the frigid slop to watch a blowout.

        Corey Dillon broke a 22-year-old NFL rushing record yesterday ... Dillon sat on the dirty laundry. Another memorable moment in Bengals history.

        “Records are made to be broken. But today just wasn't that day,” Dillon decided. But it could have been. It should have been.

        Instead, Cinergy closed for football in the cold rain, to the fading cheers of a few hardy thousand when the game finally ended. Fitting, given its former tenant.

        Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454. Fair Game, a collection of his columns, is available at local bookstores.

BENGALS 44, BROWNS 28
Late-season run familiar, meaningless
Cinergy goes out with a roar
Grand finale (maybe) for Blake
Yeast, Mack provide many happy returns
Dillon nears Bengals' season record
Bengals-Browns statistics