By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Bills tailback Travis Henry is listed as having a 50-50 chance of playing Sunday.

In Cincinnati, Corey Dillon watched practice while Rudi Johnson was moved to the top of the Bengals' depth chart at tailback.

In Buffalo, Travis Henry participated in about half of practice for the first time since suffering torn rib cartilage in the Bills' Sept. 21 game at Miami.

Both the Bengals and Bills are likely to be without their top tailbacks Sunday, but both plan to run the ball regardless.

"It can't change," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said when asked Wednesday if he would run without Dillon. "It didn't change last week. It didn't change the week before or the week before that."

Dillon (groin strain) remains listed as questionable but is out, according to the Bengals' weekly news release. Henry is questionable with a 50-50 chance to play Sunday.

Lewis also said new tailback Kenny Watson, picked up Tuesday, might play against the Bills.

Bills coach Gregg Williams said Henry almost played Sunday against the Eagles and had "improved significantly" since working out that morning.

The Bills would appear to need Henry more than the Bengals need Dillon.

With third-stringer Joe Burns starting against Philadelphia, the Bills had just 21 yards rushing on 12 attempts. Second-string tailback Sammy Morris is out with an abdominal injury. Buffalo is ranked 31st in the league in rushing at 53 yards a game.

The Bengals are ranked 27th in the run at 79.3 yards a game and had just enough - Johnson had 15 carries for 51 yards in the victory at Cleveland - to balance the offense.

The Bengals' plan would appear to be to run Johnson in Dillon's role as the featured back and spell him with Brandon Bennett.

Bennett ran five times for 7 yards against the Browns and has 63 yards in four games.

But neither Bennett nor Johnson was sure what coaches have in mind, and said they're ready for whatever they're asked to do.

Preparation was the key to Johnson's big game against the Browns, his first action of the season after missing three games with a quadriceps injury.

"I try not to let anything surprise me on Sunday," said the 220-pound Johnson.

Buffalo, for all of its offseason defensive upgrades, has problems stopping the run.

The Bills are ranked No. 26 against the run at 135.8 yards a game, right behind the 25th-ranked Bengals (131.3).

The Bengals held the Browns to 69 yards on the ground and forced quarterback Tim Couch to throw almost exclusively.

Making Bills quarterback Drew Bledsoe similarly one-dimensional would help Sunday.

Williams and Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes say that, though their defense allows 4.5 yards a carry, the 62-yard touchdown run by Philadelphia's Brian Westbrook and the 42 carries Miami's Ricky Williams needed to get 153 yards skewed the statistic.

"I don't think we played all that bad against Miami," Spikes said. "Mentally (against the Eagles), we went out there and I don't think we were focused on the first part of the game, with the little things like hold and contain."

As a former Bengal, Spikes is familiar with Johnson and said his new Buffalo teammates still remember the preseason pounding Johnson gave them in 2002. Johnson had 100 yards on 14 carries.

"Rudi is a straight downhill runner, and he has great contact balance," Spikes said. "They said nobody could tackle Rudi then.

"Guys are still talking about it now."

Johnson's not as fast as Dillon, but he is powerful. Williams was impressed by what he saw on film from Cleveland.

"They won the ballgame, and I thought they pounded it up in there, were real physical," Williams said. "I think Rudi Johnson is extremely powerful, as is Bennett, (and) both those guys do a very good job. There's a very good run attitude."

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com