NASHVILLE - The chants began with two minutes to play, the Tennessee Titans holding tightly to a 15-10 lead over the Jacksonville Jaguars inside Nissan Stadium.
"Marcus, Marcus, Marcus!" screamed the semifrozen faithful toward their third-year quarterback, Marcus Mariota, after a 13-yard gain delivered the home team the last first down it would need to clinch its first playoff berth since the 2008 season.
"Marcus, Marcus, Marcus!"
It was third-and-5 when he began that scramble around left end from the Tennessee 44 to the Jacksonville 43. At that point, nothing was certain. These were the Titans, after all, losers of three straight entering this meat locker of an afternoon, the temperature only 23 degrees at kickoff, soon to grow much colder.
Their no-nonsense leader, Mike Mularkey, had never been to the playoffs, despite concluding his fifth season as an NFL head coach, including his second full one with the Titans.
But now Tennessee had first-and-10 inside of two minutes, and soon Jacksonville would be forced to burn its final timeout. Within a couple of minutes, it would all be over, this semiugly victory punctuated by beautiful fireworks and joyous fans and a coach who would soon say of his first trip to the postseason: "To see it turn around to where we have a chance to win every single Sunday I feel good about sticking to our plan."
The plan will now focus on the Kansas City Chiefs, the AFC West Division champs who will host the Titans in a wild-card playoff game Saturday afternoon at 4:35 p.m. EST.
"Tough place to play," Mularkey said. "Good football team. At least we're familiar with them."
They're familiar because, in one of the first and foremost examples of Mularkey's influence on this franchise, the Titans went to KC in mid-December last season, the wind and cold arguably worse than Sunday, and won 19-17.
Then, as now, they finished second in the AFC South. Only this time, second was good enough to reach the postseason.
"This is a different locker room," Mularkey added. "This is a different group of guys. It's a very together locker room. I was not at all surprised by this effort. That's who we are."
There have been times when who Mariota is has been a mystery. He says all the right things. He does all the right things off the field. He clearly wants to be a success on the field, and he appears to have all the physical and mental tools to make that happen.
But Mariota has also seemed to struggle at the worst of times, as inside the first five minutes of Sunday's fourth quarter, when he and running back Derrick Henry collided. The Jaguars grabbed the resulting fumble and raced 67 yards for their only touchdown of the day, turning a comfortable 15-3 cushion into a nervous 15-10 nailbiter.
Of course, he and Henry had also hooked up on their team's lone touchdown of the day some 56 seconds into the second quarter, Mariota hitting Henry on an inside screen pass that became a 66-yard score.
Still, it would all come down to that third-and-5 - both the game and the season, for a loss would deny the Titans any shot at the playoffs. His receivers covered, Mariota took off as he had been encouraged to do throughout the week. Thirteen yards and one very big stiff-arm later, the Titans had the first down they needed to erase a very cold and dark nine years of futility. They did so despite the absence of injured starting running back DeMarco Murray, who sat out the regular-season finale.
Said Mularkey of Mariota's big play: "He's been taking notes from Derrick and DeMarco."
Added Jags head coach Doug Marrone regarding that run: "It's not something you are prepared for or ready for, and that's what he does and that's why he is a good quarterback."
It took more than an hour after the game for that good quarterback to reach the interview room Sunday evening.
"It's hard to describe," said Mariota, who won the 2014 Heisman Trophy at Oregon and was drafted second overall the following spring. "I'm just so happy for these guys. These guys deserve an opportunity to get in the tournament."
The last time a team of pro sports guys from Nashville got into the "tournament" by the skins of their chinny-chinny-chins in similar fashion to these Titans was the NHL's Nashville Predators last spring. As some of you may recall, they wound up narrow losers to Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup finals, taking the entire Volunteer State on the ride of a lifetime in the process.
"It's great for the city," Mariota said. "We're excited. I hope we can take it as far as they did."
Or maybe, for the first time in Titans history and some 18 years after their first Super Bowl appearance, one magical win further.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.