FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) -Steve McNair limped off the field for the final time this season Saturday night.

Known for playing through injuries and pain, the NFL’s co-MVP almost single-handedly took Tennessee down field in the final minutes. But the man playing with a cracked bone spur in his left ankle didn’t get much help from the rest of the Titans in a 17-14 playoff loss to the New England Patriots.

“I can’t ask any more of Steve, what he did down the stretch and his effort today, the effort at the end to have a chance to put us in position to kick a field goal or perhaps score a touchdown,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said.

The Titans had been trying to return to the AFC championship for the third time in five seasons, and McNair nearly got them there. He had tied the game with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Mason in the third quarter on a drive in which he was a perfect 5-of-5 for 59 yards.

But he came up short of his only goal this season – returning to the Super Bowl.

“There’s no easy way to say it. Frustrated? Yes. Angry? Yes. Mad? Yes. Because you have one destination in training camp – the Super Bowl. And when you’re stopped short, it hurts,” McNair said.

And as in the 2000 Super Bowl in which he took the Titans to a yard from possibly forcing overtime with the Rams, McNair nearly did it Saturday night. He completed his first three passes for 31 yards and scrambled for 12 yards, bulling his way upfield to get the Titans as close as second-and-3 from the New England 33.

His teammates had been in this situation so many times they just expected McNair to work his magic yet again.

“I thought we were going to go down and score and win the game,” right guard Benji Olson said.

Tight end Frank Wycheck said: “That’s Steve’s time. That’s where he thrives. But it just didn’t work out.”

McNair, who missed two of the final three games of the regular season because of the painful bone spur, aggravated his ankle yet again and limped to the sideline at the two-minute warning. Fisher said that’s when the Patriots started blitzing even more.

“When he started limping, everyone was like, “C’mon Steve. Everyone knows you’re OK,”‘ Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. “He gets hit and keeps coming.”

NcNair limped back onto the field but couldn’t move under a blitz by the Patriots and threw away the ball. Officials flagged him for intentional grounding, pushing Tennessee back to the Patriots 43.

He once again found receiver Drew Bennett on third-and-13, but Olson was called for taking down a blitzer in what the guard called a petty call. That left McNair with 3-and-23 at his own 47.

The Mississippi native found Bennett for the third time on a great catch on the left sideline, leaving the Titans with fourth-and-12 at the Patriots 42. McNair once again faced a fierce pass rush, but he tossed the ball downfield to Bennett at the 17. This time, Bennett had his hands on the ball only to bobble it, and Patriots rookie Asante Samuel dove in and kept Bennett from pulling it in as he fell to the ground.

Patriots safety Rodney Harrison saw the ball in the air with New England cornerback Tyrone Poole slipping to the ground and started praying Bennett wouldn’t catch it. Samuel had a different thought.

“I was thinking, “Oh God, I better try to get over and make a play,”‘ Samuel said.

Bennett, an undrafted free agent out of UCLA who became a starting receiver with the Titans, stood before his locker after the game and answered repeated questions about the final play. Yes, the ball hit his hands. Yes, he outjumped the defensive back. Yes, he just dropped the ball.

“It’s definitely an image that will stick with me throughout the offseason,” Bennett said.

McNair went over and talked to Bennett, and the quarterback said one play wouldn’t change his perception of him as one of his great receivers. Bennett said it was his fault.

“He put it right there for me, too,” Bennett said.

The league’s top-rated passer in the regular season, McNair finished 18-of-26 for 210 yards.

AP-ES-01-11-04 0100EST

Titans’ receivers willing to share
Knight Ridder Newspapers

FOXBORO, Mass. – Perhaps the best pass coverage the defenses for Tennessee or New England can hope for Saturday night is that the biting cold will make catching a painful proposition.

With frostbite-inducing temperatures, the AFC Divisional playoff game between the Titans and Patriots at Gillette Stadium figured to be problematic for two teams that prefer to live by the pass.

The Titans and Patriots, the AFC’s top-seeded team, share offensive philosophies based on the diversity of their receiving corps.

At a time when many NFL receivers possess serious diva qualities – grabbing attention with the aid of Sharpies and cellphones – receivers such as Tennessee’s Derrick Mason and Justin McCareins and New England’s Deion Branch and Troy Brown are content sharing the spotlight.

“Neither one of those teams have any one receiver who you say, “Well, if we take him away, we can stop them from doing this and this,’ ” Dolphins defensive coordinator Jim Bates said. “What they have is a bunch of guys who are so good that you have to play them straight-up.”

Bates and the Dolphins faced the Titans and Patriots three times this season. Tennessee was one of two teams to score 30 or more points against Miami. The Patriots used their ball-control passing game to win the time-of-possession battle in sweeping the Dolphins in two games.

The key for the Titans and Patriots against the Dolphins – and against every team, for that matter – was the ability to spread the ball around. Neither team ran the ball with consistent success this season, except when they were ahead in games.

Tennessee averaged 3.3 yards per carry and New England 3.4.

But the Titans had three receivers catch at least 40 passes. Mason was the runaway leader with 95 catches for 1,303 yards, averaging 13.7 yards per catch. Still, he isn’t the team’s top big-play threat.

In fact, Mason is probably the Titans’ most physically limited receiver. At 5-10 and 190 pounds, he isn’t overwhelmingly strong or fast.

“There are guys in the league who, to be productive, have to be very, very good pattern runners,” Titans general manager Floyd Reese said, referring to Mason – a fourth-round pick in 1997 who was originally selected to be a return man. “They have to be real quick, have to be able to separate, and he does all that real well.”

That makes Mason the go-to guy, but not necessarily a superior threat. McCareins, who averaged 17.3 yards with 47 catches for 813 yards and seven touchdowns, was just as important and would have had a bigger role if not for injuries that forced him to miss time.

Aside from Mason and McCareins, the Titans relied heavily on tight ends Erron Kinney and Frank Wycheck and wide receivers Tyrone Calico and Drew Bennett. It will be a worthy challenge for the Patriots secondary, which allowed only 11 touchdown passes and grabbed a league-leading 29 interceptions.

“What the Titans are looking for is where to take advantage of you,” Bates said. “They’ll run deeper stuff because of McNair’s arm, so they just want to find the best matchup.”

The Dolphins got a taste of that when the Titans put up two quick scoring drives against them. McNair found Mason single-covered once by safety Arturo Freeman, then hit Calico twice when he was in mismatches. The Titans took a 14-0 lead and coasted for a 31-7 victory.

The Patriots were had five players catch between 34 and 57 passes, led by second-year receiver Branch, who averaged 14.1 yards per catch.

“They’re totally interchangeable,” Bates said. “All of them run great routes, get open quickly, and with QB Tom Brady so accurate, that’s all they need to do.”

Branch is proof of that, elevating his game when Brown, the Patriots’ version of Tennessee’s Mason, missed extended time with an assortment of injuries.

“There’s just no tendency that you see on a consistent basis with who they are going to throw to,” Bates said.

—

(c) 2004, The Miami Herald.

Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

—–

ARCHIVE PHOTOS on KRT Direct (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):

Tennessee Titans

AP-NY-01-09-04 2312EST