NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It did not matter how many points their offense did not score or how few their defense allowed, it all came down to one play for the Steelers yesterday.
It turned on fourth-and-8, Tennessee's ball on the Steelers' 42 with 2:12 left. Stop them, and the Steelers win and close within a game of the Central Division lead. Don't stop them, and it's a knockout punch for their division title hopes.
"Whatever happened all day today," Steelers safety Brent Alexander said, "it boiled down to one play."
Quarterback Steve McNair, who beat the Steelers Sept. 24 in the closing two minutes, did it again yesterday. He completed a 17-yard pass to Derrick Mason in front of cornerback Dewayne Washington against a blitzing Steelers' defense. Al Del Greco then kicked the winning field goal from 29 yards out to give Tennessee a 9-7 victory yesterday.
The loss dropped the Steelers to 5-4, three games behind the 8-1 Titans in the AFC Central and leaving them to wonder if they will ever beat Tennessee again.
"It seems like it always comes down to this with these guys," Washington said after the Steelers' seventh consecutive loss to Tennessee, which dropped them into third place in the division behind the Baltimore Ravens.
The Steelers lost to the Titans in the third game of the season when McNair came off the bench and directed a winning drive that ended with a touchdown pass with 1:25 left for a 23-20 victory.
Yesterday, the Steelers spotted the Titans two Del Greco field goals of 21 and 31 yards, then snatched the lead with 8:27 to go on the most improbable of plays -- a 30-yard pass from Kordell Stewart to tight end Mark Bruener. It was the longest touchdown reception of Bruener's career, his second-longest catch and his first touchdown in two seasons.
That gave the Steelers a 7-6 lead and had the players on the bench rejoicing. Any touchdown the Steelers score these days will do that, but this one put them ahead, and their defense had not allowed a touchdown in the previous four games.
They extended that streak to five games yesterday, but it wasn't enough.
"We asked to be back on the field to redeem ourselves from the last game," safety Lee Flowers said, "and gave up a field goal and lost the game."
It was the first loss for the Steelers since the Sept. 24 loss to the Titans that put them at 0-3. They had won five in a row to climb back into playoff contention.
They came to Nashville hoping to jump back into the race for the division title, and they seemingly did that when Bruener beat a safety, took Stewart's pass over the middle and followed rookie Plaxico Burress' block into the end zone.
"Looking at scoreboard at 7-6, I thought we had a very good chance of winning the game," Bruener said.
It looked even better when the Steelers forced the Titans to punt on their next series and got the ball with the lead with 4:38 to go at their 26.
They ran Jerome Bettis off right tackle for 3 yards. But on second down, with the Adelphia Stadium crowd of 68,498 roaring, right tackle Larry Tharpe jumped early, and the penalty left the Steelers with a second-and-12. Stewart's pass to Troy Edwards fell incomplete. Under pressure on third down, Stewart threw the ball away. The Steelers had to punt.
Tennessee then started at its 26 with 3:42 to go. It was a chance for the Steelers' defense to win it. Instead, McNair completed two passes to Mason for 30 yards to get them going, and on fourth-and-8, he came up big to Mason again.
"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."
Actually, the game should not have been as close as the score, and the Titans should not have had to pull it out at the end.
Tennessee had more than double the yardage, 364 to 167. They had the ball nearly twice as long, 39 minutes and 30 seconds to 20:30. Eddie George had more than twice the yardage as Bettis, 98 to 42, although he had nearly triple the carries, 34 to 13. And McNair outhrew Stewart, hands down. McNair completed 20 of 31 for 227 yards. Stewart, missing open receivers and having passes dropped, completed just 7 of 22 for 112.
What kept Tennessee from winning by a comfortable margin were penalties and blown opportunities. They had 14 penalties for 115 yards, compared to the Steelers' four for 25 yards.
"Every time we made a gain, we shot ourselves in the foot," said tight end Frank Wycheck. "There were yellow hankies all over the field. It seemed like the referees didn't want us to play."
Del Greco also missed a 24-yard field goal after the Titans reached the 6. And linebacker Joey Porter intercepted a McNair pass at the 4 to prevent another Tennessee score.
Instead of a 2-point victory, this could have been a Tennessee rout.
"We made it very difficult on ourselves," Tennessee Coach Jeff Fisher said. "Typically, when you play the way that we played today, you do not get a win. We're very fortunate to have made the plays at the end of the ballgame to set ourselves up for a win."
The Titans also dropped two possible interceptions, though cornerback Samari Rolle did have one in the first quarter.
Nevertheless, as poorly as the Steelers played on offense, they still led 7-6 until Del Greco's field goal with four seconds left.
"We were playing great defense all day long," linebacker Levon Kirkland said. "It's a shame it came down to that. [McNair] can make plays. He made the play he needed to make."
One play. It has been that way in three of the Steelers' four losses this season.
"We stop them, we win," Porter said. "If they complete the pass, they kick the winning field goal."
Steelers lose a tough one to Tennessee, 9-7 
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