Play
The 1999 season had shown Jones and the Rams' defense to be a powerful and stout unit, though overshadowed by the team's high-powered offense, known as The Greatest Show on Turf.
As Super Bowl XXXIV drew to its close, the Titans drove to the Rams' 10-yard line and called their last timeout, stopping the clock with six seconds remaining. Trailing by a touchdown, they had one last chance to tie the game (or win it with a two-point conversion). The Titans drew up their plan: tight end Frank Wycheck would run straight up the field on the right side to lure Jones away from Dyson, who would slant left over the middle. With Jones focused on Wycheck, quarterback Steve McNair would pass the ball to Dyson, who would be open from about five yards out for the score.
In the first moments after the snap, the play proceeded as the Titans had envisioned. Jones stayed with Wycheck on the streak route from the beginning of the play. After McNair fired to an open Dyson, Jones, now at the goal line, glanced over his left shoulder and noticed Dyson catching the ball. Jones then switched directions and managed to wrap up Dyson's legs about 2½ yards from the goal line.
With his legs immobilized, Dyson then attempted to reach towards the end zone and breach the plane with the ball. Both players then went into a rolling motion of sorts as Dyson—his back in the air but nearly touching the ground, as his legs were on top of Jones—stretched out his hand with the football towards the goal line.
When Dyson's knee hit the turf, ending the play and the game, the ball was inside the one-yard line. He reached one last time and placed the ball over the goal line, but it was already too late.
Read more about this topic: Final Play Of Super Bowl XXXIV
Famous quotes containing the word play:
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—Leontine Young (20th century)
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—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.”
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)