By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

On the surface, Sunday was a bad day for Corey Dillon.

The Bengals star tailback suffered a hyper-extended right knee in the second quarter of the game at Oakland, not long after the Ravens' Jamal Lewis had broken Dillon's NFL single-game rushing record with 295 yards at Baltimore.

Yet Dillon was not upset Monday. He said the knee is fine and that "the only thing that can keep me out (of Sunday's game with the Steelers) is if the Lord himself came down."

Dillon is treating the knee with ice and rest. Medical exams and an MRI showed no serious damage.

Dillon is happy for Lewis, relieved to no longer have the burden of the record, and looking at his career in bigger terms than a single game.

"I'm satisfied with what I got," said Dillon, who holds the second and ninth most rushing yards in a single game. "I'm pretty darn proud of that. But we're not going to take any shine away from him and his ball club. He's doing well. There will never be any animosity from me. Records are meant to be broken. I never hung my hat on that. That won't define my career."

Dillon's career, he said, would be defined in two ways.

"Winning a Super Bowl, but winning one after another," he said, "and get me up there with the upper echelon of rushing yards with some of the top backs, the upper five, that would do it for me."

The top five career NFL rushers are Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson and Tony Dorsett, who has 12,739 yards.

After his 84-yard game against the Raiders, Dillon has 7,638 rushing yards - 5,101 yards behind Dorsett. But the fifth spot is likely to increase because active players Jerome Bettis, Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin and Eddie George started the season in the top 20.

"So, I mean, no one game will define me," Dillon said. "I've had some of the greatest games (two of the top nine) on that list. Two is better than one. I'm not disappointed. I would be disappointed if I was resting my career on that record. I'd be heartbroken. I forgot about that in 2000."

Dillon was on his way to a big game at Oakland. He had 71 yards on 16 carries when he hurt his knee.

Despite the loss, which drops the Bengals' record to 26-72 in Dillon's six-plus seasons, he said he is encouraged by the team's performance under rookie head coach Marvin Lewis.

"I think we're close," Dillon said of the Bengals. "We went out there and played an AFC team that just came out of the Super Bowl. To be honest with you, we whipped the snot out of those kids. It . . . wasn't even close. It was just little minor things that we have to fix and tweak. I'm proud of the way we played. As long as we keep playing like that, we're going to be tough."

Dillon, who will turn 29 on Oct. 24, has been remarkably durable. The Oakland game was his 50th consecutive start. He has missed just two games in his pro career. Marvin Lewis said the goal is to keep Dillon strong all year.

"Corey will be fine," Marvin Lewis said. "We'll be day-to-day with him. Corey came back into the game and was able to spell Brandon (Bennett) when he could. We'll be smart with him. We've got a long season left."

Bennett, Dillon's backup, ran 19 times for 43 yards.

---

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

Return to Bengals front page...