With that jaunt up the middle, Dillon surpassed 1,600 yards for the season, thus reaching an incentive clause in his contract that pays him $375,000. In the process, he had deftly set up Tom Brady's 8-yard strike to Deion Branch that gave New England a 14-7 lead in a game that had no playoff ramifications.
Dillon returned to the game at the start of the fourth quarter, when Rohan Davey checked in to replace Brady. Aside from a few tosses against Cleveland and mopup duty against Buffalo Nov. 14 and Baltimore Nov. 28, Davey's job has been to look splendid along the sidelines cheering Brady to victory. No wonder coach Bill Belichick allowed Davey to eliminate the jitters by handing off the first couple of times to one of the most successful running backs in the NFL this season.
Dillon banged it in for another score from 6 yards out, then went to the sideline for good, having gained 116 yards.
His regular-season totals include 1,635 rushing yards and nine games of 100 yards or more, which tied the franchise record set by Curtis Martin in 1995.
When Dillon left Cincinnati, he agreed to rip up a contract that would have paid him $3.3 million outright and he signed an incentive-laden deal with the Patriots that started with a base salary of $1.75 million. He would get a $100,000 bonus if he rushed for 700 yards, $150,000 more if he rushed for 850, another $375,000 for 1,000, another $375,000 for 1,200, and the extra $375,000 for 1,600.
He repeatedly has refused to acknowledge the perks in his contract, and that continued yesterday.
"The whole week all the talk was about the incentives," Dillon said. "I didn't want to focus on that. I didn't care if I did get it, and I didn't care if I didn't get it. I didn't want to blow it out of proportion.
"It's not like I was out there counting yards. Turns out I got it -- oh, well. It was not on my list of things to do this Sunday, to get 81 yards."
