Movers Are Shakers

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —  How do you get to the Super Bowl?

Every successful team finds its path. But no team in the history of football’s big show has ever traveled a more circuitous, more illogical route than the Tennessee Titans, whose unlikely and often unappreciated journey finally came to an end Sunday when they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 33-14, to qualify for their first Super Bowl.

“Forty years of trying to get there, that’s what this is all about,” Tennessee Coach Jeff Fisher said.

He was referring to Bud Adams, who founded the Houston Oilers--who began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League.

From there, his rocky course included the years of striving for credibility for the AFL, the years of struggling to get out from under the shadow of the Texas’ other team, the Dallas Cowboys, the final years of rejection in Houston, the year of alienation in Memphis, the year of humility at having to be the second tenant on a college field at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

This season, with a new name, new uniforms, a new stadium in Nashville and a new identity, the Titans had new questions to answer.

Could they win with a quarterback, Steve McNair, whose throwing ability many doubted?

Could they win with a rookie, Jevon Kearse, leading their defense?

And finally, their season extended by the thinnest of threads, by a controversial lateral leading to a game-winning kickoff return in the final seconds of their playoff opener against the Buffalo Bills, could the Titans, having beaten the Indianapolis Colts last week, get by the Jaguars in Sunday’s AFC championship game at Alltel Stadium?

They had already beaten the Jaguars twice this season, the only two losses suffered by Jacksonville, but no team in NFL history had pulled off a three-game sweep by winning the final game on the road.

“Nobody believed in us outside our organization and our city,” Titan running back Eddie George said. “But that was enough.”

There are plenty of believers now after McNair ran and passed his club to victory, connecting with Yancy Thigpen on a nine-yard touchdown pass as well as scoring twice himself, each time from a yard out. McNair completed 14 of 23 passes for 112 yards and also gained 91 yards on the ground.

But to merely say the Titans won wouldn’t be fair to the Jaguars. They did just as much to lose.

The team that roared through the regular season, going 14-2, and then dismantled the Miami Dolphins in last week’s playoff round, 62-7, could do nothing right on Sunday.

Not even the loss of two key Titans in the first half--Thigpen (broken right foot) and safety Marcus Robertson (broken left ankle)--could help the Jaguars.

Not after they:

* threw two interceptions.

* fumbled five times, losing four.

* were penalized nine times for 100 yards.

Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin, not known to be happy in the best of times, said of Sunday’s loss, the Jaguars’ second in four years in the AFC title game, “I didn’t think that was our best game by any means. . . . However it happens, when we play Tennessee, we get a little out of our element and we turn the ball over. For whatever reason.”

The Titans had their problems as well. McNair threw an interception and his team lost three fumbles, but Tennessee was able to manufacture big plays when needed.

The Jaguars began the game, played in front of a Jacksonville record crowd of 75,206, as they had left off the previous week, driving downfield the first time they had the ball for a touchdown with quarterback Mark Brunell finding tight end Kyle Brady for a seven-yard scoring pass.

Visions of the helpless Dolphins could have danced in the Titans’ heads. Instead, they responded. When the Jaguars, conscious of how George had run through the Colts seven days earlier, geared up to stop the run, McNair went to the air.

The strategy of some opponents has been labeled Dare McNair. Shut down the run and see if the former Alcorn State quarterback can beat them.

Attention Jacksonville: He can.

The Titans’ first four offensive plays, not counting a punt, and five of their first six, were pass attempts. McNair’s nine-yard strike to Thigpen on his team’s second offensive series tied the score.

Jacksonville’s primary running back, Fred Taylor, rushed for 110 yards, but it was James Stewart, who became the Jaguars’ leading ballcarrier during the regular season when a hamstring injury shelved Taylor for six games, who put Jacksonville back in front in the second quarter with a 33-yard touchdown run.

But as the Jaguar mistakes began to pile up, so did the Tennessee points.

A fumble by Jacksonville’s Reggie Barlow, attempting to field a punt, led to an Al Del Greco field goal from 34 yards, narrowing the Jacksonville margin at halftime to 14-10.

In the third quarter, Tennessee took command by scoring 16 unanswered points. McNair’s first scoring run started it off. Then, Tennessee’s Frank Wycheck fumbled and Jacksonville recovered at its one-yard line.

Two plays later, Jason Fisk and Josh Evans sacked Jaguar quarterback Mark Brunell in the end zone for a safety, and it was 19-14. It was the sixth safety for Tennessee and second in the playoffs.

And finally, the crucial blow. And, in Tennessee’s emerging style, it again came on a kick return.

This time, it was Derrick Mason, returning the Jacksonville kick after the safety, who made it all the way to the end zone, traveling 80 yards to push his team into a 26-14 lead.

McNair finished the Jaguars off in the fourth quarter, racing 51 yards to the Jaguar one-yard line and then taking the ball over on the next play.

“It wasn’t popular to be a Tennessee Oiler fan,” George said. “And people certainly couldn’t relate to the Houston Oilers. Fans were uncomfortable sitting in the stadium [at Vanderbilt]. But once we got us a new home and a new name, we became Tennessee’s own.”

Amazing how much success a team can have in only 40 years.