By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

16 game photos

The opening drive of the Bengals' season consisted of three Corey Dillon rushes: 4 yards, 5 yards, then a brick wall on third-and-1. The Broncos stood over him cackling and flexing.

"We knew it wasn't going to happen again," Denver linebacker John Mobley said.

He meant a repeat of Dillon's NFL-record 278 rushing yards in 2000.

Sunday, Dillon gained just 34 yards on 14 carries in a 30-10 Denver victory.

The Broncos focused on Dillon by design, but also took the assignment personally.

"That's one time I went into a game with an attitude," Wilson said. "I heard so much about Corey Dillon that it made me sick to my stomach. We were determined to come out and make a statement."

Denver coach Mike Shanahan said he mentioned Dillon's record game just once to his team last week. But Mobley, Wilson and defensive end Trevor Pryce, the three remaining starters from Denver's defense that day, emphasized the assignment to their teammates.

They insisted the tone would be set early.

"We knew they were going to check us out and see if we got the problems that we had fixed," Mobley said. "I think once they figured out it wasn't going to happen today, they kind of got away from it and tried to do some different things, and that was unsuccessful, too."

Dillon had just 16 yards on six carries in the first quarter. Cincinnati eventually abandoned the run and went to its passing game. Dillon did not speak to reporters Sunday.

Said Wilson: "We didn't talk about (stopping Dillon) in the media, but we talked about it between ourselves. We just made a commitment to each other that he was not going to beat us."

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E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com

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