A Closer Look

Tipped pass, interception tipped scales the Broncos' way

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Posted: Monday February 01, 1999 12:51 AM

With Atlanta threatening to cut into Denver's lead, Gordon came up with the big pick AP

By John Donovan, CNN/SI

MIAMI -- Every defensive lineman in the NFL is taught that when some lug of an offensive lineman has stopped you and there's nowhere else to go, you go up.

That's what Keith Traylor did Sunday night in Super Bowl XXXIII. And it turned out to be a turning point of the game.

Traylor, the Denver Broncos' 304-pound tackle, was putting a bull-rush on Sunday when he was stopped cold in his tracks. So he stuck his hand up, jumped as much as he could and got a hand on a Chris Chandler pass. It deflected to Broncos cornerback Darrien Gordon, changing the face of the game.

"When that happened, I was like, 'Damn, can't we get anything to go our way?'" said Atlanta tackle Bob Whitfield, the 310-pound block Traylor found himself up against. "They get a lucky break to get an interception, and we had two or three tips and didn't get the ball."

Gordon snagged the ball at the 18-yard line and returned the tipped pass 58 yards -- Chandler made a touchdown-saving tackle -- stilling an Atlanta drive that could have cut the Broncos lead to less than a touchdown.

Five plays later, just after the start of the fourth quarter, Howard Griffith bulled in from 1 yard out and the Broncos pushed their lead to an insurmountable 18 points.

"I thought the real big turning point was the tipped pass for the interception," agreed Dan Reeves, the Falcons' snakebitten head coach.

"The tipped pass was going to be a big play to Terance [Mathis]," said Chandler. "If he didn't score, it was going to be close."

Mathis was running a corner route on the play, a route that starts in the middle of the field and ends up near the sideline. It had been very successful for the Falcons all evening long, and Gordon had sunk inside on it this time, too, leaving Mathis wide-open.

So, in fact, Gordon found himself in the wrong place at precisely the right time.

A lucky interception?

"Well, yeah," Chandler said. "Or I was unlucky the ball got tipped, whatever way you want to look at it."

When Traylor smacked the ball in the air, it didn't go directly to Gordon. In fact, it looked like Falcons tight end O.J. Santiago had a good bead on it -- until Gordon scooped it up on the full run.

"It was up there so long, I knew there were going to be three or four guys with a shot at it," said Gordon, who was watching Chandler the entire time. "Luckily, I was the first one to get to it."

While Reeves, Whitfield and Chandler saw the play as a lucky break for Gordon and the Broncos, Gordon saw nothing of the kind. In fact, he was still bemoaning the fact he didn't take the pick all the way for the score.

"Chris Chandler tackled me in the open field," he said. "My family is never going to let me live that one down."

 

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