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Sporting News, The, July 3, 2000 by Dennis Dillon

Mike Jones and Kevin Dyson get together to replay and relive. The Tackle--the most fantastic finish in Super Bowl history

Shhhh. Come on in and have a seat. Sorry the light is dim, but your eyes will adjust.

See those two guys sitting in the front row? The one on the left, his hair in braids, is Kevin Dyson, the wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans. The other one, with the freshly shaved head, is Mike Jones, the St. Louis Rams' linebackers. That's right, the two players who gave us the most fantastic finish in Super Bowl history

They're here, in this meeting room at Rams Park to dissect and discuss the tie that will forever bind them--the final play in Super Bow 34. A play so momentous in it consequence, yet so fundamental in its execution that it is known by a simple appellation.

The Tackle.

That's it frozen on the projection screen. Remember the situation? Rams leading, 23-16 ... Titans' ball ... first down at the Rams' 10-yard line ... six seconds left ... no timeouts.

It's mid-May, 3 1/2 months since the Super Bowl, but this will be only the second time Dyson has watched the play. The first time was the day after the game, when the Titans returned to Nashville from Atlanta. Dyson secluded himself inside the office of receivers coach Steve Walters and looked for what--if anything--he could have done differently. He has a TV videotape of the Super Bowl, but the last six seconds might as well be blank. He simply has been unable to bring himself to watch them. When the Titans premiered their 1999 highlight film at their training facility and the final play of the game appeared on the screen, Dyson couldn't bear to look. Sitting there in the dark, in the aisle leading up to the second tier of seats in the room, he lowered his head.

But Dyson agreed to let THE SPORTING NEWS fly him to St. Louis to sit down with Jones and examine the play. "I wanted to hear what he had to say about it," Dyson says. "If it was just me, I probably wouldn't have really wanted to watch it."

It seems as if everyone has wanted to watch the play with Jones. In the week after the Super Bowl, he went on a whirlwind trip to New York, where he appeared on Regis & Kathie Lee ("They weren't very personable"), Charlie Rose ("He's a great interviewer") and HBO's Inside the NFL. One of Jones' fondest offseason moments was when the University of Missouri, his alma mater, saluted him during its final home basketball game March 1. He was invited to walk to center court and wave to the crowd, which gave him an ovation befitting a Super Bowl hero.

"That was sweet. I was able to get the monkey off my back," says Jones, a team captain in 1990, when the Tigers lost to Colorado in the infamous "Fifth Down" game.

The Super Bowl has been bereft of suspense all too often, but Jones and Dyson collaborated to produce the ultimate climax January 30 in the Georgia Dome. Now they have convened to replay it--again and again and again. Six seconds of action. Sixty minutes of scrutiny. Let's go to the tape.

Tennessee, you'll recall, had the ball for 13 minutes, 14 seconds in the fourth quarter and ran 32 plays to St. Louis' 6 in that period. The Rams' defense was exhausted. End Kevin Carter and tackle D'Marco Farr took themselves out of the game for one play with 28 seconds left, causing coach Dick Vermeil to clutch his head in credulously. When Dyson looked over to the Rams' sideline and saw someone pouring water on Carter, he smiled to himself.

Dyson, who had only one reception for 9 yards in the game's first 58 minutes, caught three passes for 32 yards on the Titans' game-ending possession. On the next-to-last play, quarterback Steve McNair scrambled, incredibly escaped a sack attempt by Carter and Jay Williams--who dived at his feet simultaneously and completed a 16-yard pass to Dyson. Rams cornerback Dexter McCleon stopped Dyson at the 10 and tried to hold him up, but Dyson smartly went down, and the Titans called their last timeout.

As McNair came to the sideline, coach Jeff Fisher conferred with offensive coordinator Les Steckel, who was up in the coaches' booth. The Titans were in their "gotta win" series of plays, and Steckel called a mouthful: "Gun spear right open zag firm sliver right Detroit." In simple terms, it was a shotgun formation with two receivers to each side. Dyson and tight end Frank Wycheck were to line up on the right side. "Open" meant that Wycheck would be split out, away from the right tackle; Dyson was to line up outside of Wycheck and slightly behind the line. "Sliver" called for Dyson to run a slant pattern and Wycheck to run a vertical route.

The Rams went with a nickel defense and brought in a fresh pair of legs at right end. They replaced Grant Wistrom with linebaeker Leonard Little, hoping to get a speed rush on McNair's blindside. Jones, McCleon and safety Billy Jenkins positioned themselves on the Wycheck-Dyson side in a triangular alignment, each man representing a corner. Jones lined up at the 7, inside of Wycheck; McCleon straddled the 5, on the outside of Dyson; and Jenkins stood behind them at the 2.