True grit

Titans' McNair swaggers his way into the AFC title game

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- We know, already, that Steve McNair is one tough SOB. The man fights through turf toe and a bad shoulder and bruised ribs, ignores an aching back and a sore thumb and comes limping across the field like a shoulder-padded John Wayne, all attitude and confidence and know-how.

What we may not realize is that McNair does that better than maybe any quarterback in the NFL. Certainly any QB this side of Brett Favre. When all seems lost, when his team is falling down around him, when his Tennessee Titans have taken the other team's best volley, McNair simply saves the day.

"The man, to me," said his teammate Eddie George, "is a legend."

McNair stepped up another level on the legend scale on Saturday with one of the most awe-inspiring NFL playoff performances in recent memory. Without George, his main offensive tool, with a couple of unknown receivers, with a forgotten tight end and all the Wayne-like gifts that he brings to every game, McNair carried his Titans to a thrilling win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in a Divisional playoff game.

Football is a team game, you know. Everyone will tell you that.

But McNair, alone, carried the Titans. He lifted them up after George was literally knocked out of the game on the first possession of the third quarter, ran around, slipped some tacklers, gave his young receivers time to get open and willed the Titans into next weekend's AFC Championship game.

Late in the game, after Pittsburgh linebacker Larry Foote pressured him and slammed him to the turf at The Coliseum, McNair actually had to leave the game for a few plays. He bruised the thumb on his right hand, his throwing hand. The skin was ripped off one of his knuckles. He couldn't grip the ball.

"I didn't know he was hurt, honestly. But anything that bothers him, you got to check," said Tennessee wide receiver Derrick Mason. "He's our ballteam."

McNair is the Titans. So he had to come back. And he did. You could almost hear the theme music in the background as he marched his team close to a game-winning field goal in regulation and completed the job in overtime.

"I see him get hurt, keep getting back up, keep balling. … He's the toughest guy I've ever seen," said Tennessee defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. "Mac … he'd be my MVP. Doesn't matter what anybody else says. He's a great player."

McNair threw for 338 yards against the Steelers on Saturday, threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran for another score. Those numbers, though, don't tell half the story.

He was sacked only once. He was intercepted a couple of times, sure, but he got out of a lot more trouble than he got into. He rolled out of the pocket, he broke tackles, he ran up the teeth of the Steelers' defense on quarterback draws, he found his favorite escape valve, steady tight end Frank Wycheck, for a career-high 10 catches for a career-high 123 yards.

And he trusted the ball to guys like Drew Bennett and Justin McCareins, guys who never get the headlines, and they made big plays when they saw how hard McNair was working.

"You better be on your toes with a guy like that," said McCareins, who turned a little turnaround route into a 31-yard gain in overtime that helped set up the winning field goal. "He's been doing that all year. That's the kind of man he is. Guys like me look up to that."

The Titans converted 12 of their 18 third-down tries, largely because of McNair.

"What can you say?" said Pittsburgh cornerback Dewayne Washington. "He's the X factor on their team."

The Titans, of course, are used to this from McNair. He didn't practice at all in December because he was so banged up, but he started every game and carried the Titans to a 5-0 mark that month. That got the Titans a much-needed break last week for the wild-card weekend, and McNair came into the game against Pittsburgh as healthy as he had been since the start of the season. He felt so good last week he even practiced.

He felt so good it scared him.

"I really find myself doing better when I'm injured," McNair joked after the game, "so sometimes I look forward to it."

Now the Titans play for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. George, who didn't return to Saturday's game after his nasty helmet-to-helmet hit with Pittsburgh's Casey Hampton, should be back. If there were any doubt at all -- and, by this time, there certainly shouldn't be -- McNair will be, too.

Limping, maybe. Sore, for sure. But he'll be there.

Cue the music. The Duke is coming through.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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