Steve McNair and the Titans will try to beat the Jaguars for the third time.

Only this time, in both cases, the advantage probably goes to the hare.

Certainly in St. Louis, where the Rams are so good at home -- with the dome noise, the artificial turf and the Olympic speed of Isaac Bruce, Marshall Faulk, Tony Horne, Torry Holt and Az-Zahir Hakim.

"So much for us not having experience in the playoffs," Rams coach Dick Vermeil said after his team scored 35 points in 22 minutes to lead Minnesota 49-17 and cruise home 49-37.

"I expected to win. Our players expected to win. Our coaches expected to win."

A capsule look at the title games:

Tennessee (15-3) at Jacksonville (15-2)
Those two Jacksonville losses were both inflicted by the Titans, 20-19 in Jacksonville and 41-14 three weeks ago in Tennessee.

That gives Tennessee some confidence. But it also gives Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin a motivational tool in bringing his team back to earth after its 62-7 victory over Miami in a game not as close as the score.

"That will make us very humble," Coughlin said of the losses to the Titans.

Despite those two losses and despite the loss of left tackle Tony Boselli to a knee injury, the Jaguars are favored by a touchdown.

And beating a team after losing to it twice is not unprecedented. The two-time loser won three of eight matchups in the '90s. The most recent example was last year, when Arizona won in Dallas in a wild-card game after losing twice to the Cowboys during the season.

Still, Tennessee has a good shot, particularly since Boselli's absence and Mark Brunell's lack of mobility from a knee injury make Jacksonville vulnerable to Tennessee's strength -- its pass rush. The Titans did not sack Peyton Manning in Sunday's 19-16 win, but the front four was on him quickly, forcing him to make quick reads and throws.

On the other hand, the Jacksonville defense is far better than that of the Colts -- Eddie George ran for 162 yards, 124 of them in the second half. The Jaguars undoubtedly will play eight men up to stop George. That will force Steve McNair, who threw for just 112 yards Sunday, to go downfield.

McNair certainly did that in the 41-14 win against the Jaguars, throwing five touchdown passes. He won't need five this week, but if the Titans are to have a chance, one or two would help.

Tampa Bay (12-5) at St. Louis (14-3)
On paper, this looks like no contest. The oddsmakers immediately made the Rams two-touchdown favorites.

"We're used to being in close games. We're used to being behind by three points or so," Tampa Bay coach Tony Dungy says. "As long as we don't get too far behind, we can sit in there and play our style of ball, especially at home. It looks painful, but that's kind of the way we play."

But the Bucs aren't at home, and the Rams can score points in bunches, threatening even a defense as good as Tampa's. The Bucs like those 14-13, 16-14 kind of games. But the Rams have been held under 27 only once this season -- a 24-21 loss at Tennessee -- and are 9-0 and averaging 36 points a game in their dome.

Moreover, rookie Shaun King will be making just his seventh NFL start at quarterback. He has shown the ability to make big plays, but he became only the second rookie to win a playoff game, and none has ever won two.

Can the Bucs win?

Sure.

These kinds of games can be traps for heavy favorites. If Warren Sapp and his friends up front pressure Kurt Warner early and get a few stops in the first quarter, some of the confidence might go out of the Rams.

But St. Louis also tends to score early and often, throwing deep in the first quarter and giving the ball later to Faulk. Dungy admits his team is in trouble if it gets down by 14 points or more.