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Jan. 30, 2000 By Len Pasquarelli SportsLine Senior Writer |
ATLANTA -- Their entire 1999 season was defined by blazing speed, dozens of big plays and, most of all, creating the kind of lopsided individual matchups that are brought about by the first two elements. So with the outcome of Super Bowl XXXIV on the line Sunday night, the St. Louis Rams and offensive coordinator Mike Martz weren't about to divert from the often tried and truly fabulous.
"We're just confident that we have too many people for most (secondaries) to cover," said Bruce, who finished with six receptions for 162 yards. "Early in the game, we had some chances but we just didn't make the play. But let's face it, we're like a ticking time bomb. If you don't put out the fuse for good, we're going to explode at some point. It just took a little bit longer tonight for the bomb to go off, that's all."
On a play termed "Twins right/Ace right/999 halfback balloon" in the St. Louis terminology, the Rams were aligned in a four-wide receiver formation, with Bruce flanked wide to the right. That put him opposite third-year cornerback Denard Walker, who had an uneven performance throughout, and Bruce turned the Titans' coverage into a mismatch. He made a superb adjustment on the ball in the air, cutting inside of Walker to gather in Warner's slightly underthrown pass at the Tennessee 39-yard line.
The fleet Bruce then eluded one would-be tackler before cutting back inside the hash mark, then moved back outside to race into the right corner of the end zone. Having dodged bullets all night, the Titans were hit right between the eyes by Bruce's stunning score, which came on the first offensive snap after Tennessee kicker Al Del Greco had tied the score with a 43-yard field goal only 18 seconds earlier.
Martz mentally debated with himself about calling the deep pass on the first snap and nearly used the same play on the previous series. But he rationalized that, if the pass were incomplete, he would come back with two possession-type routes on subsequent plays to try to get a first down and keep the drive alive. Actually the Rams twice ran similar plays earlier out of three-wide receiver alignments. But the ball went to the opposite side of the field one time and Warner missed Bruce on the other occasion.
On this play, Warner knew exactly where he wanted to go when he saw the "trips" formation on the right side left Walker man-to-man against Bruce. The cornerback felt Bruce was going to run the same deep crossing route at about 18 yards that he had been successful with earlier in the contest. But after a subtle inside deke, Bruce merely continued upfield and, when the ball went into the air, got enough burst to create separation between himself and Walker.
Said Warner, who earned the game's Most Valuable Player honors by completing 24 of 45 passes for 414 yards, two touchdowns and an efficiency rating of 99.5: "With the kind of offense we've got, it's just a matter of distributing the ball because there's usually going to be somebody open. If you scan the field correctly, you're going to find people running free."
Built for speed, and probably a half-step quicker on the lightning-fast artificial turf of the Georgia Dome, the Rams rely on the simple strategy that their third and fourth wide receivers are better than the opposition's nickel and dime cornerbacks. Martz loves to spread the formations out horizontally and then attack vertically up the field, and few secondaries can cover such a design without coming apart at the seams.
Tennessee opened the game shorthanded, with the broken fibula sustained by free safety Marcus Robertson in last week's AFC Championship Game forcing untested Anthony Dorsett into the starting lineup. The Titans' interior secondary was further weakened when strong safety Blaine Bishop left the game because of a sprained neck, with 8:24 remaining in the third period. Dorsett struggled, especially in the first half, with mental adjustments and physical miscues. He completely busted a first-quarter pass coverage that allowed Warner to connect with wide-open tailback Marshall Faulk for 52 yards on a play where the Rams surprised the Titans with a quick snap count.
It is the backup cornerbacks, however, on whom St. Louis exerts the most pressure, and the trio of Dainon Sidney, Donald Mitchell and Steve Jackson might as well have come into the game with bull's eyes painted on their chests. St. Louis operated from three- or four-wide receiver sets on 33 of its 59 plays.
Titans coach Jeff Fisher and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who used seven and even eight defensive backs at the same time in a regular-season victory over St. Louis on Halloween, began the game in combination coverages but couldn't stay with them for long. "Sooner or later," said cornerback Samari Rolle, "they're going to force you into man-to-man, and then their eyes get real, real big. We thrive on that challenge of playing a lot of man, but everyone knows you're going to give up some plays and we did."
"We were running out of bodies," Williams said. "That's not an excuse, it's just a fact."
Of Warner's 24 completions, at least half came against a Titans nickel or dime cornerback. Only in the red zone, where he missed his first 12 attempts as the Rams drove inside the Titans' 20-yard line on each of their first five possessions, was Warner unable to take advantage of some of the mismatches in the secondary. The shortcoming was primarily attributable to the inability of the Rams to shield off some inside blitzes and, frankly, some tentativeness on the quarterback's part when St. Louis got into plus-20 territory.
Typical of Martz's scheming was the first touchdown of the game, which came on Warner's first red zone completion, a 9-yard inside slant to rookie wideout Torry Holt. The Rams came out in a trips formation, with three wide receivers to the right and Holt alone on the left side. With Dorsett drawn to the middle of the field by Faulk swinging into the flat, Warner had Holt locked up one-on-one with Sidney. The wideout easily beat the cornerback with a hard I-cut and took the slant for the score.
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| Kurt Warner and the Rams are able to make the plays when needed to win the Super Bowl.(AP) |
"We're going to dictate coverages just based on formation alone, and that was one example," said Holt, who had seven catches for 109 yards. "I mean, even as a rookie, I understand you've got to be able to beat a guy one-on-one every time. And we see lots of one-on-one opportunities."
The conventional wisdom has been that if an offense could block the Tennessee pass rush, and principally defensive end Jevon Kearse, it could throw deep against the Titans' secondary. It's clear Martz believed in such a blueprint. He ordered only 13 running plays the entire game and the Rams called passes on 20 of their 26 first-and-10 plays. Warner completed 12 of 19 for 225 yards on those first-down plays and was sacked once. Three of his four longest completions -- for gains of 31, 32 and 73 yards -- came on first-down passes.
The Rams ran for just 29 yards but, while Faulk was hardly a factor on the ground, he had five catches for 90 yards and Warner completed passes to nine different receivers. Included in that were 13 completions of 15 yards or more.
The early passes allowed the Rams to stay out of third-and-long situations most of the evening, thus blunting the pass rush of Kearse. Just as he promised, offensive line coach Jim Hanifan used a variety of blocking schemes on Kearse, who had four tackles and two deflected passes, but was not a consistent factor in pressuring Warner.
Right tackle Fred Miller, who was embarrassed by Kearse in the regular-season meeting, did a fairly solid job in the few instances when he was left alone on the Titans star. But there were at least four times when Kearse actually drew triple-team blocking and he struggled to cut through the traffic as the Titans garnered only one sack.
"From the first snap, we were in attack mode," Bruce said. "We feel like we have so many great athletes that it's just a matter of time until the defense can't keep up anymore. We sure didn't go into this game with the idea of holding anything back. We love to throw the football, we've got a great scheme to throw it, and that's what won us the Super Bowl.
"We try to turn every game into a track meet, and you saw that tonight."