On Jan. 3, 2004, the Tennessee Titans bested their old AFC Central rivals, the Baltimore Ravens, in a wild-card showdown. Gary Anderson connected on a 46-yard field goal with 29 seconds left, clinching the Titans‘ fifth playoff win in five seasons since moving to Nashville.

Going to the playoffs felt like a birthright at that point in Titans history. Winning playoff games was an expectation, not a goal.

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But 14 years and 2 days later, and they hadn’t won another playoff game. If you were in diapers for the Ravens game in 2004, chances are you could legally drive a car when the Titans traveled to Kansas City for a wild-card game against the Chiefs on Jan. 6, 2018.

Marcus Mariota was 10 years old when Anderson hit that field goal. Fourteen years and two days later, he was quarterbacking the Titans in what looked like another playoff disappointment. With less than seven minutes left in the third quarter, the Titans trailed 21-3.

Mariota lined up in the shotgun for a third-and-goal from the 6-yard line. He danced around from within the pocket, deking left, then right, then left again, before escaping out toward the sideline.

It looked as if he had a clear path to waltz into the end zone, but safety Daniel Sorensen screamed into the frame from the back of the end zone and forced Mariota to pull up. Mariota decelerated and noticed receiver Corey Davis pop open in the back of the end zone.

Cornerback Darrelle Revis, playing in the final game of his Hall of Fame career, showed he could still ball, reading Mariota’s eyes and tipping the ball upward before it could get to Davis.

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Then it happened: No. 12 on The Tennessean’s list of 25 best moments in Tennessee Titans history.

After 14 years of bad juju, a ball finally bounced their way. Mariota reacted quickly, reading Revis’ deflection and benefiting from a bit of a shove from linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis to gather under the ball, catching his own pass and stumbling forward for two steps before recalibrating and diving inside the pylon for the touchdown.

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A few minutes later, Derrick Henry broke free for a 35-yard touchdown run, a precursor of the era to come. Just after that, Mariota led a masterful drive capped by a go-ahead touchdown pass to Eric Decker that might’ve been the prettiest throw of Mariota’s Titans career. One stop and two more big Henry runs later, Mariota got to go into kneel-down mode.

And an entire generation of Titans fans could now, finally, celebrate their first playoff win.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at  nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Titans’ best moments: Marcus Mariota passes to himself in NFL playoff win