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What They're Saying: Oakland Sportswriters
''Steve McNair was the NFL's third-most-instrumental player this season, according to the MVP voting. Curious, then, that fans, players and coaches found three better quarterbacks to represent the AFC in the Pro Bowl.
That's one advantage the Tennessee Titans have over the Raiders on Sunday at Network Associates Coliseum. Where the home team invented a persecution complex against the New York Jets, the Titans got motivation handed to them last month. Despite matching the Raiders for the AFC's best record at 11-5, the Titans got zero Pro Bowl invitations.
The Raiders' Rich Gannon, who beat out McNair for the MVP award, gets the start in the all-star game. Buffalo's Drew Bledsoe and Indianapolis' Peyton Manning also head west to Honolulu in a couple of weeks.
But wouldn't Bledsoe and Manning rather have McNair's itinerary of playing Sunday in Oakland, and maybe the following Sunday in San Diego?''
''The oddsmakers initially made them eight-point underdogs. That's one point higher than they were Sept. 29, when they lost 52-25 at Network Associates Coliseum. And the Raiders are honestly supposed to believe the Tennessee Titans are greatly improved?
They had better believe it.
The New York Jets were only 5 1/2-point underdogs last Sunday on Planet Raider. The Jets have far more track-team flash at receiver than the faceless, graceless Titans. The Jets have a more elusive running back in Curtis Martin. Jets quarterback ``Broadway'' Chad Pennington came in with a rating about 20 points higher than the artless dodger at the wheel of Tennessee's beat-up pickup.
But Steve McNair is the one-man gang of a reason the Raiders had better take the Titans at least as seriously as they did the Jets. McNair is everything Pennington wasn't. McNair is big enough, tough enough, wily enough and competitive enough to beat the Raiders by himself.''
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