Last week, before the Titans’ playoff game with the Steelers, CBS football analyst Dan Dierdorf spoke, lineman-to-lineman, with Tennessee’s Kevin Carter.
Carter startled Dierdorf.
“You don’t normally hear defensive guys say the quarterback is the toughest guy on the team,” Dierdorf said.
But that’s just what Carter said about Titan QB Steve McNair.
McNair has survived this season despite turf toe, bruised ribs, a strained back, a sore shoulder, and now a banged-up right thumb that forced him to miss some practice sessions this week.
Still, McNair guarantees he’ll play in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, when the Titans visit Oakland’s Black Hole.
McNair will need to summon every bit of his toughness, plus a helping of luck, for the Titans to survive in that most hostile environment against the AFC’s winningest team and the NFL’s Most Valuable Player, Rich Gannon.
He’s not the only hurtin’ Titan. With all of Tennessee’s varius injuries, and with the Raiders’ owning the home field, Dierdorf thinks Oakland would beat Tennessee eight out of 10 times.
“Given the circumstances, the Titans will be stealing one if they win,” Dierdorf said.
Dierdorf knows this Titan team. He saw it on its bleakest and brightest days.
He saw the Titans at the end of September, when they dropped to 1-4 after being crushed in the Black Hole, 52-25. Then he saw last week’s thrilling win at home over Pittsburgh.
“They’ll have to win it [against Oakland] with Steve McNair doing what he did against Pittsburgh,” Dierdorf said of McNair, who passed for 338 yards and ran for another 29 last week.
McNair also bashed his thumb on a helmet in the Pittsburgh game. Doctors had to trim skin off the first knuckle late in the fourth quarter, and McNair had trouble gripping the ball.
But even as the pain lingered into this week, McNair vowed, “Regardless, if I don’t practice this week or not, I’m guaranteed to play in the game.”
Maybe it’s not Namath in ’69, but it shows a determination that has convinced his teammates to follow his tough lead.
CBS’ Phil Simms, who will do color commentary for the game, is convinced, too.
“We can’t define it, the word intangibles,” Simms said of McNair. “He has them all.”