McNair comes up short, but shows he's a champion

ATLANTA (AP) -- On a night when Steve McNair didn't lead his team to a Super Bowl championship, he might finally have proved he's the quarterback who can do just that. Sure, he has a bit of trouble

Monday, January 31st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ATLANTA (AP) -- On a night when Steve McNair didn't lead his team to a Super Bowl championship, he might finally have proved he's the quarterback who can do just that. Sure, he has a bit of trouble with deep passes. OK, he doesn't always see his secondary receivers.

Maybe he's a little too anxious to flee the pocket and show off his running skills. But he's tough. He's fearless. And he's a leader. "The people who didn't know Steve McNair before will know him now," said Frank Wycheck, tight end for the Tennessee Titans. "Did you see that desire? Did you see that heart?"

McNair, trying to become the second black quarterback to take his team to an NFL championship, guided a remarkable comeback Sunday that led the Titans to the brink of forcing the first overtime Super Bowl. He came up 1 yard short. The St. Louis Rams kept Kevin Dyson out of the end zone on the final play, holding on for a heart-stopping 23-16 victory. "I'm not trying to prove anything," McNair said. "Regardless of how I perform or what I do out on the field, I'm just trying to go out and help my teammates get the job done." McNair set a Super Bowl record for quarterbacks by rushing for 64 yards, including a 23-yard scramble that set up the Titans' first touchdown.

On the final drive, he completed six passes for 48 yards and ran twice for 14 yards. His last pass was a quick slant over the middle, dubbed "Sliver Right" in the Tennessee playbook. McNair delivered the ball perfectly. But Dyson cut inside a little too quickly, and Rams linebacker Mike Jones made a great one-on-one tackle to keep him to a 9-yard gain. The Titans needed 10. "It's sad to come that close and come up short after playing such a great game," said McNair, who had a 12-3 record this season as the Titans starter, missing five games with a back injury. "That's the bad part of this game. Someone has got to lose, but why couldn't it be a tie?"

The Titans seemed on the verge of a blowout in the first half, allowing the Rams to march up and down the field while Tennessee managed only 89 yards and six first downs. "They didn't do anything to stop us," McNair said. "We stopped ourselves."

When St. Louis led 16-0 in the third quarter, the Titans appeared dead. After all, their quarterback went through a seven-game stretch with only one touchdown pass, and no team had ever overcome more than a 10-point Super Bowl deficit to win. But McNair, who has faced steady criticism since he took over as the Tennessee starter in 1997, teamed with Eddie George for a pair of touchdown drives.

Then the Titans drove into position for Al Del Greco's tying field goal with 2:12 remaining. Overtime seemed likely -- until Kurt Warner threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce on the next play of scrimmage. McNair was undaunted, even when a penalty on the kickoff return pushed the Titans back to the 12. With 22 seconds remaining, Tennessee was on the Rams 22.

Then came perhaps the most remarkable play in this most remarkable game McNair scrambled right and kept going deeper and deeper, chased by Kevin Carter -- the league's sack leader -- and Jay Williams. Just when he seemed ready to go down at the 40, McNair slipped away from both St. Louis players -- Houdini-like -- and threw a pass to Dyson to the Rams 10. The Titans used their final timeout with six second left. "At the end, when he had nothing left, Steve made a phenomenal play to get the ball to Dyson and give us a chance to win," Wycheck said.

Afterward, Carter still couldn't believe that McNair got away. "He's a warrior. He's a battler," Carter said. "He's got such a big heart. He battled back and tried to win the game for his team." McNair's numbers looked rather feeble when placed alongside Warner's.

The St. Louis quarterback was selected as MVP after setting a Super Bowl record with 414 yards passing, while McNair threw for just 214 yards. But the only number that matter to him was that 1yard at the end. "I thought Kevin scored at first," McNair said. "But he came up short."
McNair pondered the remarkable season and the one thing he will take away from Atlanta. "I don't ever want to feel like this again," McNair said. "We were able to get some Super Bowl experience. When we come back the next time, we'll feel more comfortable. We're only going to get better."