The cycle of shocking deaths we're experiencing lately doesn't seem to want to slow down. Former NFL MVP and three-time Pro Bowl QB Steve McNair was found shot to death in a Nashville apartment today. The former Oilers, Titans and Ravens QB was a far too young 36.
Rams Nation and most of the rest of the world remember McNair best for the final drive of Super Bowl XXXIV. McNair and the Titans had rallied from a 16-0 deficit to tie the game with 2:12 left. Kurt Warner and Isaac Bruce then struck back just inside the 2:00 warning to put the Rams back up a TD. Challenged to tie the game another time, after the kickoff the Titans took over from their own 12.
And Steve McNair went to work. He hit Derrick Mason wide open over the middle for 9. In the hurry-up, obviously, a quick pass to Frank Wycheck in the flat went for 7. An incompletion stopped the clock with 1:16 left. On 2nd-and-10, getting forever to throw, good coverage forced McNair to run, not always a good thing for opposing defenses. The left tackle had pushed Ram DE Jay Williams about ten yards downfield and left McNair a huge running lane on that side, so he took off, eluding a diving Williams downfield, outrunning a diving D'Marco Farr and crossing the 40, where Dre Bly managed to haul him down, but was flagged for a 15-yard face mask (should have been 5) in the process. That play gave McNair the Super Bowl record for rushing yards by a QB and put the Titans at the Ram 45.
1:05 left. The Titans next took a Rams offsides penalty instead of McNair's fine 7-yard pass in the flat to Wycheck again. Still getting all day to throw, McNair strung the next play outside, made a nifty move to make Kevin Carter whiff and got out of bounds with a 2-yard gain. Again calm in the pocket (again with no Ram near him), McNair found Kevin Dyson for 6. He was the picture of cool this drive as much as the Rams were the picture of exhaustion. A spike at the 32 stopped the clock at 0:31. Another Ram offsides put the Titans at the 27. That was on Carter, who legendarily was too gassed to line up onside and took himself off the field, much to Dick Vermeil's amazement. The Rams blitzed the next play, and McNair made the right decision in one of the highest-pressure situations of his career, dumping it off downfield for Eddie George, one-on-one downfield with Todd Lyght. George didn't make the adjustment, though, never looking for a ball that hit him harmlessly in the back.
On 3rd-and-5 from the Ram 27 with 0:22 left, McNair kept the Titans very alive with the play of his career. The Rams rushed just three, but didn't give Steve anyone to throw to. He dropped back, then sprinted up in the pocket, but saw that Jeff Zgonina had him cut off. So, as only the NFL's greatest athletes can do, McNair dropped back a second time. But Jay Williams had him hemmed in, bearing down on him like a runaway train. McNair flushed right. Right to Carter, that is. The Rams were about to seal the game and sack McNair back at his 45.
Nope. With Williams and Carter trying to drag him down by his shirttail, by the collar of his jersey, anything they could grab, McNair somehow danced free anyway. And a split second after doing that, he looked up, found a lonely Dyson at the 11, and stepped up and delivered a perfect pass on the run with 0:05 left. A miracle of a play by a miraculous player, who wouldn't give up on any play, any time, ever. Didn't know how.
We know what happened next. The Titans made a good play, though I'll always contend their biggest mistake was not throwing into the end zone. You can't throw short on the last play of the game. The play had been set up by the earlier throws to Wycheck. McNair made a good throw to Dyson on a slant, who made a good catch.
But Mike Jones made a better play.
Head coach Jeff Fisher knelt with McNair right after that play and consoled him. He had done everything he could. He nearly carried his team back into a tie game and another chance to win the biggest game the team ever played. As a Rams fan that day, it was easy to miss the heroism of McNair's performance in the fervor to see our team hang on and claim the happy ending to its miracle season. But there's no other word to describe McNair's play down the stretch of that game than heroic. He nearly brought his team even single-handedly.
Steve McNair has borderline Hall-of-Fame credentials to go with that memorable drive. He threw for 174 TDs and over 30,000 yards. But he'll likely come up just short of Canton because he couldn't claim a championship in a game that ended with his last pass coming up a yard short. Football, as in life, is a game of inches.
Steve McNair leaves a wife and four children.
photo from USA Today
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