THE BIG CHILL; RAMS TOO TOUGH: IT'LL BE GEORGIA IN GEORGIA.

Byline: Doug Krikorian

ATLANTA - In the first Extortion Bowl - the two participants left their ancestral roots when they were able to fleece new suitors for taxpayer-subsidized stadiums - the St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans will settle their difference today in the 72-degree warmth of the enclosed Georgia Dome.

This will be a match painful to watch for many of the disenfranchised fans in Los Angeles, who supported the Rams for 49 seasons, and in Houston, who did the same with the Oilers for 37 seasons.

What will be even more aggravating to these people is that one of the miscreants responsible for the shift in residences - either the Oilers' Bud Adams, or the Rams' Georgia Frontiere - will be strutting on center stage this evening celebrating a Super Bowl victory.

The hunch here is that person will be Georgia Frontiere, which would contradict once again that hoariest of maxims that good things tend to happen to good people.

The guess here is that Tennessee's remarkable postseason run that included the Music City Miracle over Buffalo to go with stirring road victories over the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars finally will come to an unfortunate conclusion in a blizzard of Kurt Warner completions to Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt.

It doesn't figure to be a runaway victory for the Rams, as were most of their triumphs during a regular season in which they were blessed to have one of the weakest schedules in NFL history, facing only one team, Tennessee, that wound up with a winning record.

The fact that the Rams lost 24-21 to the Titans on the grass at Adelphia Coliseum would seem to bode well for Tennessee, which seems to have developed a knack this season for repeating victories over good teams (the Titans beat Jacksonville three times.)

But the Rams are a team built specifically for the indoors, and their array of whippet-quick performers - Faulk, Bruce, Holt, as well as Az-Zahir Hakim and Tony Horne - figures to break a few long ones against a gambling Titans defense weakened by the injury to its extraordinary free safety, Marcus Robertson, who broke his ankle last week against the Jaguars.

The heralded Rams offense, the highest-scoring in the NFL this season, was muffled thoroughly a week ago by Tampa Bay, and only a late scoring pass from Warner to Ricky Proehl enabled St. Louis to survive.

There are those observers who now feel that the Rams' regular-season numbers were inflated by the poor quality of the opposition, and that Dick Vermeil's team isn't nearly as dominant when it faces a stern adversary.

That might be true, but no team other than the Oakland Raiders this season was able to torment a Buccaneers defense that ranks among the best in recent NFL history.

The Titans defense isn't bad, either, but it's nowhere near as stingy as Tampa Bay's, having this season yielded 35 points to the Cincinnati Bengals, 41 points to the Baltimore Ravens and 36 points to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Tennessee coach, Jeff Fisher, likes to blitz, and that will create pressure on Warner. But it also will leave many of the Rams receivers being covered by only one defender, which could result in some lengthy touchdowns for the Rams.

Conversely, the Titans don't figure to take such a route to the end zone, since their quarterback, Steve McNair, has had only one completion in the postseason for more than 15 yards.

Indeed, Tennessee's most successful advancements on offense this January have come on the strong running of Eddie George and the madcap scrambles of McNair, who has thrown for a total of only 300 yards during the playoffs and whose 40 completions include 31 for 10 yards or less.

The Rams, with their bruising, pocket-sized middle linebacker, London Fletcher, have been one of the toughest teams in the league this season to run against - and George and McNair figure to endure their miseries today.

But who knows for sure?

The Titans somehow have been able to navigate a daunting playoff gauntlet, and have that destiny aura about them.

``We just find a way to win each time out, and I think the same thing will happen against the Rams,'' says the Titans' 38-year-old, 6-5, 305- pound guard, Bruce Matthews.

Maybe so.

Maybe the Titans defense will stifle the Rams attack like the Buccaneers did, and maybe Eddie George and Steve McNair will dispense their heroics again for this unlikely team.

But it's difficult to envision this explosive Rams offense being contained a second consecutive Sunday on the turf.

And thus expect to see the ungodly spectacle of George Frontiere, the seven-time married Rams owner, on the sidelines late in the fourth quarter tonight, savoring a 30-20 win by her minions and defying the laws of compensation yet again.

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photo, box

Photo: The surprisingly frigid Atlanta skyline serves as the backdrop to the Georgia Dome, site of today's Super bowl.

Dave Martin/Associated Press

Box: Tennessee vs. St. Louis