By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Like tailback Corey Dillon, wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh and linebacker Riall Johnson were listed Wednesday as questionable.

That means they have a 50-percent chance of playing Sunday against Baltimore.

Dillon is clearly the most important player to get back into the lineup, but Houshmandzadeh (hamstring) could play for the first time this season and have a key role as the third wide receiver.

Quarterback Jon Kitna would like to see Houshmandzadeh in uniform.

"You're talking about a guy who can play all three (receiver) positions, and you're not going to lose a beat one way or another," Kitna said of Houshmandzadeh, who had 41 receptions in 2002. "That's good, because in our regular set we can give Chad (Johnson) a rest or give Peter (Warrick) a rest and not worry about having to direct this guy. He understands the system."

Rookies Kelley Washington and Lawrence Hamilton have been the third and fourth receivers so far.

Riall Johnson (calf) has not played since the Oakland game and had seen playing time on special teams.

BYE-BYE: The Bengals were off last week and are 3-11 in games after bye weeks.

The first season with a bye week was 1990. The league had an 18-week schedule with two byes in 1993 only.

The Bengals' post-bye winning percentage is .214, worse than the franchise's overall .305 winning percentage since the start of 1990 (65-148).

FLIP-FLOPS: Duane Clemons is listed as the starter at left defensive end on the depth chart, supplanting Carl Powell. And Dillon was moved back to the starting position at tailback, where Rudi Johnson was placed at No. 2 ahead of Brandon Bennett.

ALWAYS QUOTABLE: Ravens coach Brian Billick and Bengals coach Marvin Lewis worked together for three seasons in Baltimore. Lewis was the Ravens' defensive coordinator from 1996-2001 and the only assistant retained off Ted Marchibroda's coaching staff. Billick was hired after the 1998 season.

"You have to be very careful you don't turn it into a bad Abbott and Costello routine of, 'I know that he knows that I know that he knows, so I'm going to do such and such," Billick said Wednesday of playing against a Lewis-coached team. "You can get yourself into trouble like that."

The Ravens improved to 3-2 with a 28-18 victory Sunday at Arizona.

Asked if getting his players ready for the 1-4 Bengals would be a challenge, Billick said: "Last week was a much tougher task in that regard. We were going on the road against a team that is struggling, there's nobody in the stands. You don't have to worry about that in a divisional game."

RADIO TIME: Kitna will be on radio station WAKW-FM (93.3) from 7:45-8:30 a.m. Friday to give his Christian testimony as part of the station's fund-raising campaign.

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com