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Game 2 - Tennessee 26, Cleveland 9
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Sun Sep 19 21:45:03 1999) -- Neil O'Donnell started for the injured Steve McNair and passed for 310 yards and a touchdown to help the Tennesee Titans to their best start in eight years with a 26-9 victory over the Cleveland Browns.
Eddie George rushed 31 times for 97 yards and had a pair of one-yard scoring runs for Tennessee (2-0), which is off to its best start since opening 3-0 in 1991 when it was the Houston Oilers and finished first in the AFC Central with an 11-5 mark.
"Like last Sunday, this was a team effort for us," said Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher. "Like we said all week, Cleveland has got a good football team. They're going to win games. They battled all the way through this. I'm, especially proud for our guys in all phases, the offense, the running game did well against us a very tough defense to run against."
O'Donnell, who was signed as a free agent in July to back up McNair, completed 31-of-40 passes. O'Donnell threw a 14-yard TD pass to Yancey Thigpen, who made a diving one-handed catch, to complete the scoring 5:08 into the fourth quarter.
"The passing game, Neal did a great job," Fisher said. "He spread the ball around, making right decisions, finding all his receivers and tight ends."
"You know I have almost 100 career starts in the NFL, so it's not like it's new to me," O'Donnell said. "But I'm happy for the win. We have some tough opponents coming up now, so it's going to be a hostile environment down in Jacksonville. We'll enjoy this win today, tomorrow, and then Wednesday get ready for a great football team."
McNair underwent successful surgery in Los Angeles today to repair a ruptured disc in his back and is expected to be back in six weeks.
Rookie defensive end Jevon Kearse had three of Tennessee's five sacks. Linebacker Eddie Robinson sacked Tim Couch in the end zone to give Tennessee a 2-0 lead with 4:46 remaining in the opening quarter.
"Man, it felt real good," Kearse said about his sacks. "After last week, I didn't get any and if I just keep my confidence up, my defensive coach told me the sacks come in groups. They come, you might not get one this game and next game you'll get like maybe two or three. He just kept telling me to look ahead. If you don't get one in one game, you look for one the next game."
Couch, the first pick in the draft, was 12-of-24 for 134 yards and threw his first career touchdown pass for Cleveland (0-2). Couch threw a perfect 39-yard strike in between a pair of defenders to rookie Kevin Johnson, cutting Tennesee's lead to 19-9 with 2:51 left in the third quarter.
"It was tough, there were some mistakes made out there," Couch said. "We made enough plays where we can go and build on. We came out of the game with some confidence. We were real close on making some big plays, I think if we can make better execution, we can go out there and score a lot more points."
Tennessee scored after the free kick as George's one-yard run capped a 12-play, 59-yard drive and made it 9-0 just over two minutes into the second quarter.
A 15-yard facemask penalty on Doug Colman during a punt return gave Cleveland the ball on the Tennesee 34 and four plays later Phil Dawson kicked a 41-yard field goal to pull the Browns within 9-3.
The Titans answered with a nine-play, 66-yard drive on the following possession to take a 16-3 lead when George scored off right tackle with 2:21 left in the first half.
Tennessee pushed the lead to 19-3 on Al DelGreco's 35-yard field with 6:39 to go in the third quarter.
NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLEVELAND 0 3 6 0 9
TENNESSEE 2 14 3 7 26 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: TEN - SAFETY, TIM COUCH TACKLED BY EDDIE
ROBINSON IN END
ZONE, 10:14. TENNESSEE 2-0
2ND QUARTER: TEN - TD, EDDIE GEORGE 1 YD RUN (AL DEL GRECO KICK),
2:01. Drive: 12 plays, 59 yards in 6:47. Key
plays: O'Donnell 9-yard pass to Thigpen on
3rd-and-5 to Cleveland 45; O'Donnell 10-yard
pass to Dyson to Cleveland 27; O'Donnell
11-yard pass to Thigpen to Cleveland 6; George
5-yard run on 3rd-and-1 to Cleveland 1.
TENNESSEE 9-0
CLE - FG, PHIL DAWSON 41 YD, 8:10. Drive: 5 plays, 10
yards in 1:59. Key plays: Johnson 3-yard punt
return plus 15-yard face mask penalty on
Titans' Colman to Tennessee's 34; Couch 15-yard
pass to Kirby to Tennessee 19. TENNESSEE 9-3
TEN - TD, EDDIE GEORGE 1 YD RUN (AL DEL GRECO KICK),
12:39. Drive: 9 plays, 66 yards in 4:29. Key
plays: O'Donnell 21-yard pass to Thigpen to
Cleveland 45; O'Donnell 16-yard pass to Sanders
on 3rd-and-6 to Cleveland 25; George 7-yard run
on 3rd-and-1 to Cleveland 9. TENNESSEE 16-3
3RD QUARTER: TEN - FG, AL DEL GRECO 35 YD, 8:21. Drive: 12 plays, 64
yards in 6:19. Key plays: O'Donnell 20-yard
pass to Wycheck to Tennessee 41; O'Donnell
14-yard pass to Dyson to Cleveland 45; George
2-yard run on 3rd-and-1 to Cleveland 34; George
13-yard run to Cleveland 21; O'Donnell 7-yard
pass to Harris to Cleveland 17. TENNESSEE 19-3
CLE - TD, KEVIN JOHNSON 39 YD PASS FROM TIM COUCH
(TWO-POINT CONVERSION FAILED), 12:09. Drive: 7
plays, 78 yards in 3:48. Key plays: Couch
15-yard run on 3rd-and-3 to Cleveland 44; Couch
10-yard pass to Johnson on 3rd-and-3 to
Tennessee 39. TENNESSEE 19-9
4TH QUARTER: TEN - TD, YANCEY THIGPEN 14 YD PASS FROM NEIL ODONNELL
(AL DEL GRECO KICK), 5:08. Drive: 14 plays, 60
yards in 7:59. Key plays: George 1-yard run on
3rd-and-1 to midfield; O'Donnell 11-yard pass
to Sanders on 3rd-and-6 to Cleveland 35;
O'Donnell 15-yard pass to Dyson to Cleveland
20; O'Donnell 9-yard pass to George to
Cleveland 10; O'Donnell 7-for-9 for 68 yards.
TENNESSEE 26-9
TEAM STATISTICS
CLE TEN
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 12 24
Rushing 6 9
Passing 6 15
Penalty 0 0
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 4-11 8-14
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 173 412
Total plays 47 74
Average gain 3.7 5.6
NET YARDS RUSHING 83 102
Rushes 16 34
Average per rush 5.2 3.0
NET YARDS PASSING 90 310
Completed-attempted 12-24 31-40
Yards per pass 2.9 7.8
Sacked-yards lost 7-44 0-0
Had intercepted 0 0
PUNTS-AVERAGE 5-47.8 4-39.8
RETURN YARDAGE 125 105
Punts-returns 1-3 4-29
Kickoffs-returns 5-122 3-76
Interceptions-returns 0-0 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 2-7 7-70
FUMBLES-LOST 2-1 1-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 18:40 41:20
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: Tennessee (Al Del Greco 44).
Cleveland rushing: Tim Couch 5-40, Terry Kirby 10-40,
Sedrick Shaw
1-3.
Tennessee rushing: Eddie George 31-97, Rodney Thomas
1-6, Neil
Odonnell 2-minus 1.
Cleveland passing: Tim Couch 12-24 for 134 yards, 0 INT, 1 TD.
Tennessee passing: Neil Odonnell 31-40 for 310 yards, 0 INT, 1 TD.
Cleveland receiving: Kevin Johnson 4-62, Mark Campbell
2-28, Terry
Kirby 2-27, Sedrick Shaw 2-8, Leslie Shepherd 1-7, Irv Smith 1-2.
Tennessee receiving: Frank Wycheck 9-80, Yancey Thigpen
6-84, Kevin
Dyson 5-52, Eddie George 4-27, Chris Sanders 2-27, Jackie Harris
2-16, Rodney Thomas 2-15, Michael Roan 1-9.
Cleveland tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Marquez
Pope 8-4-0,
Wali Ranier 9-2-0, Daylon Mccutcheon 7-3-0, Jamir Miller 6-2-0, Corey
Fuller 6-1-0, Rahim Abdullah 5-1-0, Tim Mctyer 4-2-0, Antonio Langham
4-0-0, John Thierry 2-0-0, Derrick L Alexander 0-2-0, Hurvin
Mccormack 1-0-0, Roy Barker 1-0-0, Darius Holland 1-0-0, Marquis
Smith 1-0-0, John Jurkovic 0-1-0.
Tennessee tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Eddie
Robinson 4-1-1,
Blaine Bishop 2-3-0, Jevon Kearse 4-0-3, Joe Bowden 3-1-1, Dainon
Sidney 2-1-0, Barron Wortham 1-2-0, George Mccullough 2-0-0, Samari
Rolle 2-0-0, Mike Jones 2-0-0, Perry Phenix 1-1-0, Marcus Robertson
1-1-0, Donald Mitchell 1-0-0, Henry Ford 1-0-0, Terry Killens 1-0-0,
John Thornton 1-0-1.5, Jason Fisk 1-0-0, Mike Frederick 0-1-0.5.
Interceptions: None.
Fumbles lost: Cleveland (Tim Couch).
Opponent's fumbles recovered: Tennessee (Mike Jones).
Officials: Referee-Ed Hochuli, Umpire-Chad Brown, Head
linesman-George Hayward, Line judge-Michael Spanier, Back judge-Don
Carey, Side judge-Laird Hayes, Field judge-Jim Saracino.
A: 65,904; T: 2:58.
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