Despite his toe injury, Steve McNair should be ready to run on the fast track at the Georgia Dome.

Because when it comes to the elusiveness of Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair, that's the kind of frustration the Rams face in Super Bowl XXXIV.

"When you're rushing a guy like McNair, you can't get too aggressive," Rams defensive tackle D'Marco Farr said. "You have to stay in your lane, closer to the guy who's blocking you -- which really stinks.

"But that's what you've got to do, or he'll find the hole you left behind and run through it for a huge gain."

McNair, injured toe and all, has been running around and through defenses in the playoffs. Running back Eddie George, with 1,304 yards rushing and 1,762 yards from scrimmage in the regular season, is the Titans' main offensive weapon. But McNair's ability to scramble and improvise is why Tennessee is in the Super Bowl.

Last week, McNair threw for 112 yards and a touchdown in a 14-for-23 passing performance. However, he complemented those numbers with a team-leading 91 rushing yards and two TDs on the ground. One of his nine carries was a 51-yard scramble up the middle that set up the final score in the Titans' 33-14 victory over Jacksonville in the AFC Championship Game.

In the regular season, McNair led all NFL quarterbacks in rushing and was second on the Titans with 337 yards on 72 carries. He entered the NFL in 1995 out of Div. I-AA Alcorn State with the nickname "Air McNair." But with a nondescript career quarterback rating of around 78, and because of his recent scrambling success, the 6-foot-2, 225-pounder now is called "Hare McNair" for good reason.

"He's a scarier weapon than Eddie George," Farr said. "Because with Eddie, you know he's going to pick a hole and run hard, but with McNair you're not sure what he's going to do. He might throw. He might tuck it in and run."

Kevin Carter, the Rams' Pro Bowl defensive end who led the NFL with 17 sacks this season, says McNair puts defensive linemen in a difficult position -- one in which they must think at all times.

"You must be mindful at all times that he can run around you," Carter said. "When you rush you have to think 'contain' more than you think 'sack.'

"But you still have to go at him hard, or he'll burn you that way, too. There's no way you should stop your rush or be too apprehensive. If you do, you're just giving him more time to look downfield and decide what he's going to do. You have to force him into making fast decisions."

"He's so much faster than the average quarterback that you have to rush him a little bit slower than normal," added Grant Wistrom, the Rams' other starting defensive end. "But you can't let that take the aggressiveness out of your game, too. It does put you in a tough situation."

Some think the best way to contain a quarterback with the running ability of McNair is to assign a linebacker to track him -- "spy" is the term -- mirroring his lateral moves on the field even if the motion of the play flows opposite or if a nearby running back or tight end breaks into a pass pattern. But Rams defensive coordinator and linebackers coach John Bunting said St. Louis won't use that tactic.

"When you use a spy, you're not playing your regular defense," Bunting said. "And for us to be good, we need to play our regular Rams defense. We're just going to try to maintain good rushing lanes and keep an awareness of what McNair is doing at all times."

That awareness, says Bunting, includes taking advantage of the times McNair does tuck the ball in and run.

"It's really going to be important for us to gang-tackle and get good, solid hits on him," Bunting said. "You don't want to injure a guy, but because he's the type of quarterback who doesn't slide when he's about to get hit, you want to make sure you make him pay for it, and maybe he'll think twice about running the ball the next time."

Strong safety Billy Jenkins says McNair's running talents won't necessarily change how the Rams secondary plays. But he admits he and his teammates in the secondary will need to monitor how the defensive line and linebackers do their jobs.

"His ability to run the football makes him unique," Jenkins said of McNair. "He's just as good as most running backs in the NFL at running the football. That dimension that he brings to the game just makes defenses cringe."