Raiders to face Buccaneers in Superbowl

The Oakland Raiders will try for their fourth Super Bowl title after passing and brawling their way to a 41-24 victory over the Tennessee Titans in the American Football Conference title.

The 37-year-old Rich Gannon made three touchdown throws for the Raiders, while his fellow thirtysomethings Jerry Rice, Bill Romanowski, Rod Woodson and Tim Brown sent the Raiders to the NFL title game for the first time in 19 years.

They will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 in the National Football Conference championship game, in next Sunday's Superbowl. "I've been looking at this game for 14 years and watching other people go," Brown said. "Now, I'm finally on my way. It's a great feeling."

Oakland's oft-touted "Commitment to Excellence" will be tested by a coach who knows it well - Jon Gruden, who left the Raiders after last season for the Bucs.

On a clear, perfect day at a stadium known as the Black Hole, the Raiders looked as much like the old brawling group of renegades they used to be as the new pass-happy team they have become.

The old: 14 penalties for 127 yards, a handful of cheap shots and several vicious hits on Steve McNair, who paid a huge price for every throw he made and the two rushing touchdowns he scored.

The new: unbelievably, Oakland called exactly one running play over the first three quarters, leaving the work to Gannon, the league most valuable player who threw 41 times for 286 yards and also scrambled for 42 more, including a fourth-quarter touchdown.

"We were making a lot of dumb mistakes out there," Oakland linebacker Eric Barton said. "Fortunately, we sucked it up and stopped it. That shows the character of this team."

The Raiders took the lead for good late in the second quarter, when Eric Barton stripped Tennessee's Robert Holcombe, giving Oakland the ball at the Tennessee 16. Two plays later, Gannon hit tight end Doug Jolly for a score and a 21-17 lead.

On the next play, special teams got into the act, forcing a fumble by John Simon and setting up a field goal for a seven-point lead at the half.

Oakland tackled punter Craig Hentrich to set up a field goal for a 10-point lead in the third.

McNair was then at his gutty, gritty best, leading the Titans on a 67-yard touchdown drive to make it 27-24.

Tennessee appeared to be stopped on that drive, but Terrance Shaw got called for a personal foul, Oakland's fourth of the game. On the next play, McNair ran in from 13 yards for his second score.

"McNair played like a true warrior today," said Oakland's first-year coach, Bill Callahan. "He had no quit in him, no die in him."

Earlier, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers recovered from a Philadelphia touchdown in the first minute of the NFC Championship game to win 27-10.

After the first brief Eagles flurry, sparked by Brian Mitchell's 70-yard return of the opening kickoff, it was all Tampa Bay, who led 17-10 at half-time and stifled Philadelphia after the break.

Alstott scored on a one-yard run at the end of a 96-yard drive in the first quarter that was highlighted by Joe Jurevicius's 71-yard catch-and-run.

Brad Johnson threw a nine-yard TD pass to Keyshawn Johnson in the second quarter, and Ronde Barber's 92-yard interception return with 3:12 left in the game clinched it after the Eagles had driven 73 yards to the Bucs ten-yard line.