ATLANTA -- The St. Louis Rams rediscovered their offensive
firepower just in time in Super Bowl XXXIV, and the Tennessee Titans came up just 1 yard short.
Kurt Warner's 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce with 1
minute, 54 seconds left, gave the Rams their first Super Bowl
win Sunday after the Rams had blown a 16-0 lead in the preceding 19 minutes.
The TD capped an improbable season for the Rams, who were 3-13 a year ago and 13-3 this season as they scored 526 points, third best in NFL history.
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| Titans receiver Kevin Dyson came up short as he tried to stretch the ball to the end zone on the game's final play. |
But they struggled all the way, and Steve McNair and Eddie
George almost led Tennessee to another miracle finish.
On the game's final play with six seconds left, McNair's pass
was caught by Kevin Dyson at the Rams 5. He scrambled for the end
zone only to be stopped just short by Mike Jones, Dyson's
outstretched arm holding the ball toward the goal line in vain.
Dyson was the hero in the miracle finish that beat Buffalo in
the wild-card game, taking a lateral and going 75 yards for a
touchdown on a kickoff return with three seconds left.
The Rams dominated for much of the game but had to settle for
three field goals to take a 9-0 lead before finally scoring a
touchdown.
St. Louis seemed to have put the game away when Warner threw a
9-yard pass to Torry Holt with 3:59 left in the third quarter to
take a 16-0 lead.
But suddenly the Titans' offense came to life and the St. Louis
defense began to wear down behind the battering of George and short
passes from McNair.
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Bishop has strained neck
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ATLANTA -- Tennessee safety Blaine Bishop strained his neck
in a scary collision during the third quarter of the Super Bowl and
lay motionless on the field for several minutes.
Bishop, who jammed his helmet into the back of St. Louis tight end Ernie Conwell on a tackle, did have movement in his arms and legs before he was taken off the field on a stretcher.
Players on both teams prayed on the sidelines while Bishop was being tended to by trainers. Rams quarterback Kurt Warner, a
devout Christian, even knelt beside the motionless Bishop.
Bishop was taken to Piedmont Hospital for precautionary X-rays.
The injury left the Titans without both their starting safeties.
Second-year safety Perry Phenix replaced Bishop. Free safety Marcus Robertson broke his left leg in the AFC Championship Game and was replaced by Anthony Dorsett.
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Tennessee scored on its next two possessions, both on 1-yard
runs by George to make it 16-13 with 7:21 left. It would have been
16-14, but the Titans chose to go for two points on their first TD
and failed.
Then Al Del Greco's 43-yard field goal tied it with 2:12 left.
The win was vindication for St. Louis coach Dick Vermeil, who
returned to coaching in 1997 after being gone for 14 years. He had
lost his only other Super Bowl appearance, in 1981 with
Philadelphia.
The Rams outgained the Titans 294 yards to 89 in the first half,
but led just 9-0.
The first three possessions ended with field-goal attempts and
the Rams holding a 3-0 lead.
St. Louis took the opening kickoff and drove from its own 31 to
the Titans 17, twice converting third and long plays. But holder
Mike Horan fumbled the snap on what would have been a 35-yard
field-goal attempt and Tennessee got the ball at its own 29.
The Titans then moved to the St. Louis 26 on a 32-yard screen
pass from McNair to George.
But a delay of game penalty stalled the drive and Del Greco
missed a 47-yard field goal.
Warner, the Super Bowl MVP, then hit two quick passes, 32 yards
to Torry Holt and 17 to Marshall Faulk. But that drive stalled at
the 9-yard line and Jeff Wilkins hit a 27-yard field goal to give
St. Louis the lead.
The Rams got another chance when Warner found Faulk all alone
for a 52-yard completion to the 17. But Wilkins missed a 34-yard
attempt 12 seconds into the second quarter.
The Titans kept the Rams out of the end zone again after St.
Louis drove 73 yards from its own 16 to the Tennessee 11. This time
Isaac Bruce dropped a pass in the end zone and Wilkins ended up
kicking a 29-yard field goal to make it 6-0.
The Rams then went 67 yards in 13 plays but ended up again with
just a field goal, a 29-yarder by Wilkins.
The Titans reached the St. Louis 27 on the opening possession of
the second half. But Del Greco's 47-yard field-goal attempt was
blocked by Todd Lyght.
The Rams followed the block with a 68-yard, eight-play drive for
the game's first touchdown. It came two plays after the game was
delayed for about 10 minutes while Titans safety Blaine Bishop was
treated for a strained neck.
On third-and-goal from the 9, Holt slid inside of Dainon Sidney
and Warner sidearmed the ball to him through the Tennessee pass
rush and it was 16-0.
But the Titans came back, driving 66 yards for their first
score, a 1-yard TD run by George with 14 seconds left in the third
quarter. The key on that drive was McNair's 23-yard scramble to the
2, the first time he broke loose all day.
But McNair threw wide of an open Frank Wycheck on the 2-point
conversion attempt, so it stayed 16-6.