NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It has been lurking in the collective psyches of the defensive players, like a red-letter day on a calendar, reminding them of the previous time they failed to make a crucial play. Five games had passed since that mistake, since linebacker Jason Gildon failed to have a change in the defensive coverage communicated to him, and Tennessee beat the Steelers on an 18-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Steve McNair to tight end Erron Kinney with 85 seconds remaining.
But the Steelers never let that memory escape them. They even used it as a rallying point for the defense, which vowed not to let such self-inflicted gaffes get the best of them again.
Yesterday, with the Titans facing a fourth-and-8 at the Steelers' 42, trailing, 7-6, the defense had a chance to erase that memory, to exorcise the demon, and do something they haven't been able to do since 1997 -- beat Tennessee.
"We asked to be on the field so we could redeem ourselves from the last game," safety Lee Flowers said.
But, like the previous meeting, the Steelers failed to do so. Oh, sure, the defense managed to continue its amazing streak of not allowing a touchdown, stretching the mark to 20 consecutive quarters. In the end, though, the defense that has made so many plays the past six games failed to make the biggest one that counted in their 9-7 loss to the Titans.
And that's when McNair, with one play separating the Titans from their first loss at Adelphia Coliseum, threw a 17-yard pass over the middle to wide receiver Derrick Mason to give Tennessee a first down at the Steelers' 25 with two minutes remaining. Four plays later, kicker Al Del Greco atoned for his 24-yard miss in the third quarter with a 29-yard field goal with four seconds remaining, and the Titans had their NFL-best eighth consecutive victory and their seventh win in a row against the Steelers.
"Whatever happened all day boiled down to one play and, unfortunately, they're the ones who made it," said safety Brent Alexander. "We had them in a good situation. We thought we had them."
"We had those guys on the ropes again," Flowers said. "And we just didn't come up with a win."
And, like the previous time, it was McNair who came up with all the magic. Six weeks ago, he had to come into the game, bruised sternum and all, to replace an injured Neil O'Donnell with the Titans trailing, 20-16. All McNair did was complete all three passes he attempted, including the winning 18-yarder to Kinney, to rescue the Titans and drop the Steelers to 0-3.
The situation was a little different this time. The results were not.
Just when it looked as if the Steelers might win their sixth consecutive game, just when it appeared they had climbed back from an 0-3 start to be only a game back in the AFC Central Division, McNair found a soft spot in the Steelers' defense with a laser over the middle to Mason.
"He was in one of those frames of mind that he was not going to be the factor of the team losing," Titans Coach Jeff Fisher said. "He was going to get the job done."
"I think I thrive under pressure," McNair said. "I have been in a lot of pressure situations in the National Football League and, if you look back, it seems as though the guys feel comfortable when their backs are to the wall. We need to have that feeling of comfort on a regular basis and just not when our backs are to the wall."
It appeared as though the Steelers would sneak out of town with a little Music City Miracle of their own. After a day-long struggle in which their passing game managed fewer yards (112) than the Titans had penalty yards (115), the Steelers took the lead on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Kordell Stewart to tight end Mark Bruener with 8:27 remaining.
It came on a third-and-6 play in which the Steelers had four players -- Bruener and three wide receivers -- run slant patterns. When the Titans brought safety Marcus Robertson over to double on slot receiver Bobby Shaw, Stewart read the coverage and delivered a perfect strike over the middle to Bruener at the Titans' 23.
Bruener, who had beaten linebacker Greg Favors to the inside, eluded a hit by Robertson, got a good block from wide receiver Plaxico Burress on cornerback Dainon Sidney, and ran untouched to the corner of the end zone.
"I got just enough of him to get Mark in the end zone," Burress said.
That, though, was all wiped out two series later, when McNair, with one final chance, rescued the Titans again. And it happened on a play in which the Steelers, using their dime defense, tried to blitz nickel backs Deshea Townsend and Jason Simmons up the middle. But the Titans picked up blitz, and Mason, who had eight catches for 92 yards, easily made the catch in front of cornerback Dewayne Washington.
"It didn't have to come down to that," said Hines Ward, who caught just one pass for 7 yards and was symptomatic of what was wrong with the passing game. "We didn't do anything. You can't point any fingers, but we have to pass the ball better."
"I think the offense, we put too much on the defense," Burress said. "We have to put pressure on ourselves to put points on the board."
Otherwise, what happened against the Titans yesterday will continue to happen -- or, at least, have a good chance to happen -- the rest of the way against the Steelers
"They made a play," Flowers said, "and we didn't."
Play of the Day: Defense finds no redemption in Nashville 
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