NFL 2000 Super Bowl XXXIV - St. Louis Rams vs Tennessee Titans - Final Seconds - ESPN NFL 2K5 - HD

• Report rights infringement
• published: 26 May 2012
• views: 44816

Last play of Super Bowl XXXIV, the St. Louis Rams prevented Steve Mcnair and the Tennessee Titans from tying the game and taking it into overtime! On that note, rest In peace to Steve Mcnair. I hope his family is at some sort of peace - ESPN NFL 2K5 - HD Super Bowl XXXIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Tennessee Titans to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1999 season. The Rams defeated the Titans by the score of 23--16, capturing their first Super Bowl win and first NFL championship since 1951. The game, played on January 30, 2000 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, was the fourth Super Bowl to be held a week after the conference championship games (the previous time this happened was Super Bowl XXVIII, and coincidentally that game was also played on January 30 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta). The Rams entered their second Super Bowl in team history with an NFC-best 13--3 regular season record. It was the franchise's first playoff appearance in 10 years. The Titans also finished the regular season with a 13--3 record, but advanced to their first Super Bowl in team history after entering the playoffs as a wild-card team. Tennessee finished in second place in the AFC Central Division behind the Jacksonville Jaguars. The first two quarters of Super Bowl XXXIV were largely a defensive battle. Despite outgaining the Titans in total offensive yards in the first half, 294--89, the Rams held merely a 9--0 halftime lead on three field goals. St. Louis later scored their first touchdown midway through the third quarter to go up 16--0. Tennessee then responded by scoring 16 unanswered points to tie the game with 2:12 left in regulation. This was the largest deficit to be erased in a Super Bowl and the first greater than 10 points. On the Rams' ensuing drive, quarterback Kurt Warner completed a 73-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Isaac Bruce to regain the lead. The Titans then drove to the St. Louis 10-yard line with six seconds remaining, but on the final play of the game, Rams linebacker Mike Jones tackled Tennessee wide receiver Kevin Dyson one yard short of the goal line to prevent a potential game-tying touchdown. This play went into NFL Lore as ""One Yard Short", or simply "The Tackle." The Titans had just used their final timeout with six seconds remaining. With no timeouts remaining and the ball on the Rams' 10 yard line, the Titans were trailing by a touchdown and had one last opportunity to tie the game. The plan was to use tight end Frank Wycheck as a decoy. Wycheck would run straight up the field on the right side, to lure linebacker Mike Jones away from receiver Kevin Dyson. Dyson would then slant left through the middle of the field. With Jones occupying Wycheck, quarterback Steve McNair would pass the ball to Dyson, who would be open from about five yards out for the score. As the play began, everything appeared to go as planned. Jones ran with Wycheck up the field at the beginning of the play. However, as the pass was being delivered to Dyson, Jones, who was at the goal line, glanced over his left shoulder and noticed an open Dyson catching the ball. Jones switched directions and ran towards the Titans receiver. Dyson ran directly toward the end zone, but his legs were wrapped up by Jones with about two and a half yards left to the goal line. Since Dyson was being tackled by the legs, there was still the possibility he could reach towards the end zone and get the ball above the goal line. Both players went into a rolling motion as Dyson outstretched his hand with the football towards the goal line in the hopes of scoring the touchdown. Though his reach was close, and the ball mere inches away from the end zone, it was still not enough to score. As the rolling motion came to an end, with Jones now on top of Dyson's legs, his shoulder had touched the ground and, therefore, the game was over. Had Dyson scored and the extra point been made, it would have been the first Super Bowl overtime period in history. Considering the magnitude of the Super Bowl, and the wild game that preceded it, "The Tackle" is considered one of the greatest and most exciting game-ending plays in modern National Football League history. The image of Dyson stretching the ball towards the goal line with Jones wrapped around him has become a staple of NFL highlights. ESPN.com ranked "The Tackle" as the 35th greatest moment of the past 25 years in sports (as of 2007) and the second-greatest moment in Super Bowl history.[35] Fox Sports ranked The Tackle as the Greatest Clutch Play in Super Bowl History (as of 2007). Like Dallas Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown, Mike Jones was included on the NFL Network's "Top 10 One-Hit Wonders" list (Jones was #10, Brown was #3), although Jones also mirrored Brown in having a solid if unspectacular career outside of his Super Bowl heroics.