Mark Brunell was sacked for a safety in the third quarter, part of 23 unanswered points for the Titans.

The deafening roar that caused Steve McNair to call two early timeouts had been silenced.

Tennessee led 17-14 with six minutes remaining in the third quarter and was marching toward another score, with the ball at the Jacksonville 9-yard line. A touchdown here, and the Jaguars would have their backs to the proverbial wall.

In an instant, however, the momentum changed. And an instant later, Big Mo' changed again.

It all began with that play from the 9. On second down, McNair found tight end Frank Wycheck across the middle near the goal line. As Wycheck struggled toward the end zone against safety Carnell Lake, Jags linebacker Kevin Hardy came over and stripped Wycheck of the ball. Lonnie Marts recovered, and Jacksonville had thwarted the drive.

Towels? Back in action. Crowd? Extremely loud.

On first down, Fred Taylor barely escaped a safety. After a timeout, Jacksonville called a pass play. Mark Brunell dropped back and immediately ran into the big forearms of Titans lineman Josh Evans. Jason Fisk finished off the sack and the safety and the Titans led 19-14.

"I think that was the dagger," Titans safety Blaine Bishop said. "The biggest play of the game."

Evans got through despite heavy protection from the Jaguars offensive front.

"We called a maximum-protection scheme," Jacksonville coach Tom Coughlin said. "We kept everybody in except the two wide receivers. We got the coverage we wanted, got the play from the outside and got the sack. ... You're not going to win football games like that."

The ability to force safeties has helped the Titans win football games this season. Tennessee has collected six safeties in its 19 games.

"We've had a tendency of scoring safeties this year," Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "And that was the expectation, that we were going to try and make a play in the end zone."

If the safety was the dagger, the next play twisted the knife.

Derrick Mason fielded the free kick, a low liner from punter Bryan Barker, at his own 20.

"I saw a lot of green grass. Green grass and then the end zone," Mason said. "One guy missed, and I found the gap."

Mason nearly had returned a first-quarter kickoff for a score, going 44 yards before kicker Steve Lindsey forced him out of bounds. The free-kick return was set up for Mason to attack the middle and look for the first hole he finds. He found it.

"They were over-flowing and pursuing hard," said Mason, whose longest kickoff return during the regular season had been 41 yards. "We thought if I could make one cut, they might not be able to cut with me."

When Isaac Byrd delivered the final block downfield, Mason was gone. Titans 26, Jaguars 14.

"Our special teams were non-existent in terms of our coverage," Coughlin said. "They were able to return kickoffs and punts despite the fact that about everything we did throughout the week in practice was to stop that."

Ironically enough, when the Titans beat the Bills in the "Music City Miracle," Mason was supposed to be on the field for the final return. But he had been injured in the game, so Kevin Dyson was his emergency replacement.

"It was Kevin's time to shine in that one," Mason said.

So, with another special play from the special teams, that fumble at the 1-yard line suddenly didn't look so bad anymore.

Luck? Destiny?