Cincinnati in rush to blitz

Coach Bill Belichick expects the Bengals to blitz often tomorrow at Gillette Stadium. Cincinnati has 29 sacks this season, led by Justin Smith with six and Duane Clemons with 5 1/2. The Bengals have intercepted 16 passes and opposing quarterbacks have a 61.7 completion percentage.

"They run a lot of blitzes," Belichick said. "They do a lot of stunting. Safety blitz-wise, they are probably right there with Philadelphia, which is what you expect with [defensive coordinator] Leslie Frazier coming from Philadelphia, there is a lot of carryover from the Philadelphia package.

"They also do a fair amount, a good amount, of linebacker blitzing and stunting with their front, which is also something that Philadelphia does some, but it's [head coach] Marvin [Lewis] going back to his background at Pittsburgh and then at Baltimore and what he took to Washington and now in Cincinnati, a lot of those blitz-zone schemes are in his background and part of his package, so it's kind of a combination of the Pittsburgh blitz-zone package and the Philadelphia blitz package."

Running back Corey Dillon and tight end Daniel Graham have been effective picking up blitzes this season.

"We haven't had a lot of what we call `runaway rushers,' where the guys are just coming in there clean on the quarterback and nobody blocks them," said Belichick. "It has to do with the communication on the offensive line. It has to do with the communication between the tight end and the back and the offensive line."

Changing sides
In the last Bengals-Patriots regular-season game, Dillon rushed for 104 yards and scored a touchdown in a 23-17 Cincinnati victory Sept. 9, 2001. But Dillon had an acrimonious departure from Cincinnati, despite rushing for 8,061 yards and scoring 50 touchdowns in seven seasons with the Bengals.

"No one here played with him in Cincinnati, so no one can say how he was," Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel said. "He has been a huge asset to the team, both on the field and in the locker room."

Said linebacker Ted Johnson: "[Dillon] doesn't isolate himself, he is part of the team. He enjoys himself, he enjoys the guys, he is very sociable. I don't have a reference point about how he was before he got here, but I can say he is a gentleman, a team player, a hard worker. I just know he is a great teammate."

Clarification
In Thursday's Patriots notebook the relationship between Belichick, director of player personnel Scott Pioli, and agent Neil Cornrich was misrepresented. Cornrich is not the agent for Belichick or Pioli and did not handle their contract negotiations with the Patriots. Cornrich did represent Belichick concerning his departure from the New York Jets.