Countdown to Kickoff: 1 Day
The countdown to kickoff continues.
The Tennessee Titans will open the 2020 regular season Sept. 14 at Denver. That is one day away. So, today we look at one way the number one figures into the team’s recent history.
It was one for the ages, but Super Bowl XXXIV remains the only one of the NFL’s 54 Super Bowls in which the Tennessee Titans have played.
The game took place on Jan. 30, 2000 in Atlanta and the outcome remained in doubt all the way to the end, when Tennessee wide receiver Kevin Dyson was tackled one yard short of the potential game-tying touchdown as time expired.
The final score was 23-16 in favor of the St. Louis Rams, a team the Titans defeated in the regular season, which made it the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in nine years. The Titans fell behind 16-0 and did not score their first points until the final minute of the third quarter. However, they dominated the second half and rallied behind the heroics of running back Eddie George and quarterback Steve McNair. George scored his team’s only touchdowns of the contest.
Tennessee is one of six NFL teams that has appeared in just one Super Bowl. Three of those six (New Orleans, Tampa Bay and the New York Jets) won in their lone try. The Chargers (then in San Diego) and Arizona, like Tennessee, lost in their only shot.
Of the teams that have played in one Super Bowl, the Titans’ 16 points scored are tied with the Jets for the fewest. In New York’s case, that was enough for a victory, 16-7 over the then-Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
The Titans have come close to getting back to the big game a couple times. They played in the 2002 conference championship but then won a single playoff game over the next 14 years.
They finally made it back to the AFC Championship last season and their expressed goal for 2020 is to make it all the way to the season’s final contest.
