FREEZEFRAME

Hit rewind.

The St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans meet tonight in a meaningless NFL exhibition, but this one has more juice than most.

Cue the play.

“I know it’s not the last time,” said Kevin Dyson, the Titan receiver who was stopped a yard short of the goal line by Ram linebacker Mike Jones on the final play of the Rams’ 23-16 Super Bowl victory in January.

It will live on as one of the most dramatic finishes in Super Bowl history.

One yard. Three feet. Thirty-six inches.

No matter how it was measured, it meant the Rams would win their first Super Bowl title and Coach Dick Vermeil could seize the opportunity to go out a winner.

It also meant Jones, 31, and Dyson, 25, are forever linked--Dyson stretching futilely for the end zone after Jones wrapped him up with his right arm, then pulled him down by the leg with his left.

“That play was total money,” Ram cornerback Todd Lyght said.

So close.

“It could have gone either way,” Titan quarterback Steve McNair said. “If it went the opposite, you’d be asking Mike Jones, ‘How well can you tackle?’ ”

Give Dyson credit for being one of the more gracious athletes to end up on the wrong side of a famous play.

Even though he is tired of talking about it, he still does.

Last spring, he flew to St. Louis to sit with Jones and analyze the film ad nauseam for a magazine story.

This summer, he agreed to film a segment for NFL Films, pretending he was seeking counseling.

“It was like I was going to see a psychiatrist because I was having trouble and couldn’t let go,” Dyson said. “Ever since I did that, I’ve had to assure people, ‘This really didn’t happen. I really don’t have any psychological problems.’ ”

It’s in the past, but it won’t really ever be.

When the Titans visited the Rams’ training camp for joint practices in Macomb, Ill., Titan Coach Jeff Fisher walked over to a Ram defensive huddle to ask if they were planning to stop his team a yard short again.

But on a Hail Mary pass during a Titan two-minute drill, there was a little role-reversal.

“I jump up and tip the pass,” Jones said. “Then Kevin Dyson catches it in the end zone.

“I didn’t even turn around. As soon as I heard the crowd noise, I already knew who caught it.”

For Dyson, the road from miracle to miserable took only a few weeks.

Formerly best known as the only receiver taken ahead of Randy Moss in the 1998 draft, his first real flash of fame came in the AFC Wild Card game with the “Music City Miracle” against Buffalo. Dyson won the game for the Titans when he took Frank Wycheck’s controversial lateral on a kickoff in the final seconds and returned it 75 yards for the winning touchdown.

The former Utah receiver couldn’t have imagined an even more famous play awaited.

People tend to forget about the next-to-last play of the Super Bowl, but Dyson was in on that one, too--McNair’s scramble to elude the rush and hit Dyson with a 16-yard pass to the 10-yard line with six seconds left.

Then came the final play.

The Titans used their last timeout. From the booth, offensive coordinator Les Steckel--now with Tampa Bay--conferred with Fisher on the sideline.

The Titans would run a play called “Z sliver.”

Tight end Wycheck and Dyson lined up on the right side. Wycheck was to run a seam route, and Dyson would come underneath on a slant.

“It was just a read by Steve,” Wycheck said. “We ran it earlier in the year, and I actually scored on it against Pittsburgh.”

In the defensive huddle, the Rams gasped for air. Kurt Warner’s quick-strike 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce with 1:54 left had given the Rams the lead--and sent the defense quickly back onto the field.

“Everyone was just gassed,” tackle Jeff Zgonina said. “We looked around the huddle and said, ‘Come on, we’ve got to make this play. One more play.’ ”

There probably wasn’t anyone on the field more prepared to make it than Jones.

A 10-year veteran who started his career with the Los Angeles Raiders, Jones is the consummate hard-working technician.

He has played more defensive snaps for the Rams than anyone in each of the last three seasons.

Kevin Carter and D’Marco Farr took themselves out of the game for a play during the final drive. Not Jones.

The coverage call was “Trio”--a three-on-two with the linebacker, cornerback and safety responsible for the tight end and the receiver.

“I had to cover the first inside receiver, whoever came,” Jones said.

He picked up Wycheck, but out of the corner of his eye, he was watching Dyson.

At the last moment, when Jones saw Dyson look back for the ball, he broke away.

“Watching the replay in slow motion, if he takes a half-step more with me, Kevin walks in,” Wycheck said.

Dyson caught the ball around the four.

Jones dove for him, wrapped his right arm around his hips, and swung around to grab Dyson’s left leg with his left arm.

“It wasn’t the initial hit. My momentum carried him over and he made the tackle,” Dyson said. “It wasn’t a perfect tackle like people say. He’d tell you that. It was second effort.”

Second effort, and that left leg.

“That was it,” Jones said. “He was trying to break the tackle, then I brought my left arm around and I caught his foot and he went straight down.”

And that was it.

“We looked at it, studied the play,” Dyson said. “If I could have gotten my left leg up I was in. That’s all I could have done.”

The play wasn’t designed for the pass to be caught in the end zone, but Dyson could have run the route better, McNair said.

“The ideal route--he ran the right route, but you’d like him to take it a couple steps further. It would have given the linebacker a chance to go deeper, into the end zone, and once Kevin came up underneath Mike, he would have scored. I don’t think he’ll make that mistake again.”

Receiver coach Steve Walters saw the same thing.

“He probably should have pushed it up a yard deeper. He probably wouldn’t have caught the ball any closer to the goal line, but he may have been a little bit further outside of the tackler and given himself more of a chance to make the guy miss.”

Dyson went down short of the goal line, rolled over and tried to stretch his arm into the end zone. He finally put the ball across, but he was already down.

“I knew he wasn’t in,” Jones said. “I laid there. I saw the referee come over, and the game’s over with. I stand up, raise my arms, like, ‘We won the game.’ That was it. I was tired.”

Lyght, a Ram through the darkest days, watched from across the field.

“I saw him make the play, the clock read two, one, zero, then I knew we were world champs.

“Kevin made a great attempt to put the ball in the end zone, but Mike’s just a sound football player, a great fundamental tackler, one of the best athletes we have on defense.”

Just like that, it was over.

Ram Coach Mike Martz, the offensive coordinator last season, could toss the overtime plays he was preparing.

Three days later, he was named head coach after Vermeil retired.

One more yard by Dyson, and most people think Vermeil would have come back to try again had the Rams gone on to lose.

“It’s hard to say,” Martz said. “He surprised me by not staying to begin with.”

One more yard by Dyson, and the Titans still figured to have a chance in overtime. (They would not have attempted a two-point conversion.)

“We would have kicked the extra point,” Fisher said. “I could handle that [going for a victory], but I could not do that to our football team and players.

“Most people would agree we had a momentum shift. I would have liked our chances.”

Now the shift is to this season.

Dyson has fame beyond his game.

“On one hand, Kevin’s name is now out there,” Fisher said. “On the other--and he’d be the first guy to say this--he still has not reached his potential as an NFL receiver.”

Jones watches Dyson from afar.

“I think he’s hoping it won’t be the defining moment of his career,” Jones said. “He’s a good player, he’s getting better. He’s young, he has a future.”

In his immediate future, he’ll be reliving the Music City Miracle: The Titans open at Buffalo.

Jones is enjoying the fruits of his celebrity--not easy to gain with a name as common as his.

There have been endorsement opportunities, not all of them up his alley.

“I never thought someone would come to me and say, ‘Endorse a John Deere tractor,’ ” he said. “I’m a city boy. I’ve never been on a tractor. I’ve never been on a farm.”

He doesn’t think about “What if?” Dyson says he doesn’t either.

“Not any more.”

Running back Eddie George feels for him.

“I think he’s handled it extremely well. It’s getting to the point it’s become monotonous,” George said.

A great tackle by Jones--it could have been anybody on that play. It could have been George.

“I’m glad it wasn’t,” George said.