FOXBORO – The dream fulfilled, Corey Dillon huffed and puffed along the Patriots’ sideline.
His 27-yard carry midway through the fourth quarter had pushed his team to the Colts’ 1-yard line, and the Patriot touchdown on the next play would again push Indianapolis from the AFC playoffs. And from the sellout crowd, for the second time on the afternoon, the Pats’ partisans serenaded their most recent hero.
“Cor-ey! Cor-ey!” they yelled, welcoming Dillon into the growing list of New England playoff studs and celebrating his 23 carries for 144 yards in a 20-3 Pats victory. Only Curtis Martin’s 166 yards against the Steelers in 1997 ranks higher in team playoff history. Dillon also caught five Tom Brady passes for 17 yards.
Days like this, with snow coating the field and the Colts expecting pass on most plays, were why the Pats spent a second-round draft pick to deliver Dillon from Cincinnati in April. And this was what Dillon had waited his whole pro career, all eight years and 122 regular-season games, to experience. Before this season, Dillon had languished as a Bengal. He rushed for 1,000 yards in six of those seasons, earned 18 franchise records, but never reached the playoffs.
A half year after Cincinnati shipped him East, Dillon spent the fall racking up 1,635 yards, second in the AFC to Martin but enough to break Martin’s regular-season Patriots rushing record. He also jelled with his Super Bowl champion teammates, his actions and their comments refuting any notion of Dillon as a locker-room liability.
Yesterday, he again showed his value on the field. His 42-yard, second-quarter run, aided by blocks from right guard Stephen Neal and tight end Daniel Graham, set up an Adam Vinatieri field goal that gave the Pats a 6-0 cushion.
In the fourth, with New England looking for a knockout, he bolted up the middle, bounced off a bunch of bodies, then darted left, nearly outrunning free safety Idrees Bashir to the end zone’s pylon. That burst sparked the chants and all but assured the Patriots a flight to Pittsburgh for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game. It also made his running a candidate to slide beside Brady’s throwing, Tedy Bruschi’s turnover-forcing and Troy Brown’s big plays as staples of this Patriots dynasty-in-the-making.
Dillon had dominated a playoff game and achieved his most pressing football goal. And the Patriots advanced deeper in January, thanks to the back they acquired to help ensure that.
