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Young rallies Titans to improbable comeback win

Nov 27, 2006 - 12:56 AM NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Ticker) -- Vince Young left the New York Giants feeling lost.

Young took over the game in the fourth quarter, throwing for two touchdowns and running for another score as the Tennessee Titans rallied for an improbable 24-21 victory over the Giants.

Adam "Pacman" Jones also had two fourth-quarter interceptions that set up a pair of scores for the Titans (4-7), who overcame a 21-0 deficit with under 10 minutes remaining.

"It's a sneak peek of what's to happen not just for me, but this team in general," Young said.

Jones' second interception of Eli Manning came at the New York 49 with 23 seconds left.

"I should have tried to get the ball out of bounds and not turn the ball over," Manning said. "I should have thrown it away. If worse comes to worse, we take it into overtime and try to win it there. It was a bad decision on my part. If you are going to miss you have to miss high and away rather than short."

Young followed with completions of 11 yards to tight end Bo Scaife and seven yards to Brandon Jones, setting the stage for Rob Bironas, who drilled a 49-yard field goal with six seconds left to give the Titans the lead.

"The legend of Vince Young began a long time ago," Jones said.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 21-point fourth-quarter comeback engineered by Young was the biggest by a rookie quarterback, topping John Elway's 19-point rally with Denver on December 11, 1993 in a 21-19 win over Indianapolis.

"You can see what he did today," Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "He used his legs and he used his arm. That's why we drafted him. He took a big step today. I think the whole team did."

It also was the Titans' biggest comeback in team history, topping a 15-point deficit in a 31-29 win at Cincinnati on November 1, 1987, when the franchise was located in Houston.

Conjuring up memories of his Rose Bowl performance from last January when he led Texas over Southern California in the national championship game, Young looked unstoppable in the fourth quarter.

On 4th-and-10 from his own 24 with 2:44 left and the Titans trailing 21-14, Young looked like he would be sacked by rookie defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, who stopped playing thinking either Young already had thrown the ball or that he had a sack. Instead, Young spun way and raced past free safety Will Demps for 19 yards, leaving Giants coach Tom Coughlin with a befuddled look on his face on the sidelines.

"Thank God. Thank you for letting me get loose," Young said. "He is a physical guy and I thought he was going to bring me down, but at the same time I'm trying to fight out of it and he just let me go."

"I don't have the words to talk about it right now, and I probably won't when I see it," Coughlin said. "We're going to be sick about this one forever."

Young followed up the brilliant play with a 20-yard completion to Roydell Williams and another scramble of 16 yards. After a seven-yard completion to Drew Bennett, Young found Jones over the middle for a 14-yard touchdown with 44 seconds left, tying the game at 21-21.

"Vince Young did a great job for the Titans," Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce said. "You could feel the confidence building in number 10. To me I think it was just him. I don't know who else to talk about other then number 10. He did a great job today."

Young completed 24-of-35 passes for a season-high 249 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 69 yards on 10 carries, including a one-yard TD with 5:24 left that pulled the Titans within 21-14. Jones helped set up that score with a 23-yard punt return.

"To me, this guy is like an arcade game," Young said. "You see him on the punt return. When a guy is getting tackled, he spins out and makes a play ... You can't coach that."

Jones' first interception with under 13 minutes remaining led to Young's four-yard TD pass to Scaife with 9:35 left that got the Titans on the board.

The Giants helped the Titans on the drive when cornerback Frank Walker drew a personal foul for a late hit on Young after Young was stopped short of a first down during a run on 4th-and-9.

"Was it a forearm to the head or was it helmet to helmet? What was it? That was stupid. It was a bad play," Couglin said.

Tennessee won for the fourth time in six games and matched its win total from last season.

After an efficient first half, Manning finished 18-of-28 for 143 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions. He was 9-of-16 for 64 yards with both of his picks in the second half.

The Giants (6-5) suffered their third straight loss and fell behind first-place Dallas (7-4) in the NFC East. The teams meet next weekend at Giants Stadium.

"It's a terrible shock to everybody in the organization," Coughlin said. "For everybody. There's no excuse. There's no sympathy. There's no nothing. We had the game well in hand and we didn't finish the game."

Manning threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress in the first quarter and Brandon Jacobs had TD runs of 10 and four yards in the second quarter for the Giants.

Giants running back Tiki Barber, who said he felt "insignificant" after last Monday's loss at Jacksonville, rushed for 82 yards on 25 carries.