If the Rams Lose, They Have None but Themselves to Blame
The St. Louis Rams figure to beat the Tennessee Titans in Sunday’s Super Bowl for one defining reason:
As good as Tennessee is defensively, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are better--and the Rams overcame that defense last weekend.
If they could outscore the Buccaneers, they’ll outscore the Titans.
The problem with relying on a great defense to win playoff games--as Tampa Bay did and as Tennessee does--is that no matter how wonderful they are, defensive teams can’t stop everything.
Sooner or later, a great offense will make a play against any defense.
And that’s how the Rams got to Atlanta.
Arising in the fourth quarter to eliminate Tampa Bay, 11-6, Ram quarterback Kurt Warner threw one perfect pass.
When, for once, his blockers picked up every blitzing Buccaneer, Warner, who had been pounded and trampled all game, gamely aired the winner against a seven-man rush.
The ball flowed 30 yards to reserve receiver Ricky Proehl, who won a fight for possession with cornerback Brian Kelly.
It was the only play Warner could make all day against players who had a defense for everything else he tried to do.
But because he could deliver that one time--and considering the quality of the defense he beat--the game stands as Warner’s best yet in an NFL career in which he has usually thrown touchdown passes in bunches of three to five.
In Super Bowl XXXIV, the Titans won’t be as tough defensively, but their scrambling quarterback, Steve McNair, will make them harder to handle offensively.
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The Titans are probably familiar to fewer Americans than any other Super Bowl entry in 34 years.
Most fans know only three things about the Titans:
They have a formidable defense, a prancing quarterback in McNair, and a large, fast running back, Eddie George.
Bigger than some NFL fullbacks and faster than most tailbacks, the 6-foot-3, 245-pound George is swift for a back that size.
But nobody beats the Rams with a big, strong running back.
Their pass offense will outscore any run-oriented offense--particularly one without its only good receiver, Yancey Thigpen, who is not expected to play Sunday because of a hairline fracture in his right foot.
McNair’s scrambling represents Tennessee’s only chance, and after five years in the league, McNair has become a master in the art of making something out of nothing.
A big man himself, 6-2 and 225, he is not afraid to take on tacklers. He can also throw every NFL pass, though not always with perfection.
The specific Ram problem is that pro teams have no defense for a quarterback who carries the ball on a pass play.
Busying themselves with five potential receivers, they can only react to the quarterback when he takes off as a runner.
They’re also worrying about the Tennessee defense, which is a reincarnation of the Buddy Ryan defense that won Super Bowl XX for Mike Ditka’s Chicago Bears.
The three defensive weapons that knocked out Jacksonville, 33-14, were Tennessee’s complicated, Ryan-like front line, its waves of defensive linemen--there are two complete sets--and its fast, able cornerbacks.
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The Ram offense, designed by assistant coach Mike Martz, is among the two or three best ever.
Martz developed it with players who were mostly hand-picked to meet the specifications of Coach Dick Vermeil.
Thus the Rams have great speed and talent at receiver in Isaac Bruce, Az-Zahir Hakim and rookie Terry Holt, and Proehl, the league’s best backup receiver. They also have the league’s best all-purpose back, Marshall Faulk.
This is Vermeil’s third year in St. Louis and, as usual, he has put a winner together in a hurry.
Previously, after moving UCLA to the Rose Bowl in his second year there, he had moved the Philadelphia Eagles to the playoffs in three years and to the Super Bowl in five.
Beating Tampa Bay was a greater accomplishment than many seem to realize.
If the Rams are among the best offensive teams, the Buccaneers are among the best defensive teams.
Uncommonly quick for zone-defense players, the Buccaneers nullified everything the Rams had--including the long pass--with a three-deep secondary that had the speed to get to every ball as fast as any Ram receiver could.
The Rams are in Atlanta only because if there were 50 decisive plays in that game, Tampa Bay made 49 and Warner one.
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Bob Oates, a sportswriter for more than 60 years, has covered every Super Bowl.