American Football: Oakland's Gannon leaves young pretender outgunned

The Oakland Raiders last appeared in a Super Bowl 19 years ago, but following their emphatic 30-10 victory over the New York Jets, the team that once set the standard for excellence is only one win away from a return to the grand stage.

In Florida at the weekend, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the laughing stock of the NFL for most of their history, also require one victory to reach San Diegoafter their equally compelling 31-6 triumph over the San Francisco 49ers.

Recent Raiders teams have failed lamentably at this time of year; last season they lost in controversial circumstances in New England, and the season before that, they were befuddled by Baltimore. Both of those teams went on to win the Super Bowl, but on the evidence of Sunday's triumph, Oakland are well placed to pick up their first trophy since beating the Washington Redskins in 1984.

The Jets, a team in a rich vein of form, kept it close until half-time, with the quarterback Chad Pennington throwing a touchdown pass to Jerald Sowell to cancel out Zack Crockett's score for Oakland, but in the second half there was only one possible outcome.

The Raiders, inspired by their veteran quarterback, Rich Gannon, went back to what they do best, which is to throw the ball often. The strategy yielded a prompt reward when Gannon fired a 29-yard strike to Jerry Porter, and when he tossed a nine-yarder to Jerry Rice early in the fourth quarter the visitors were finished.

The 37-year-old Gannon, having established a number of passing records over the season was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player, but like so many of his team-mates, his performances in the post-season have fallen short of expectation.

Many predicted that his rival, Pennington, would steal the show, but the youngster who has been compared to Joe Montana, looked out of his depth in the second half. Pennington threw two interceptions, lost two fumbles and was sacked four times as the relentless Raider defence tested his mettle. "There's a saying that as the quarterback goes, so does the team, and I didn't go today," he admitted. "I was struggling all day long, and I don't know why. It's one of those things I have to learn from."

While the Raiders are poised on the threshold of their fifth Super Bowl appearance, the Buccaneers, coached by John Gruden who was in charge of Oakland for four years until he left last summer, are close to their first championship game following their demolition of the 49ers.

Tampa's quarterback, Brad Johnson, returned to duty following a back injury, to throw touchdown passes to Joe Jurevicius and Ricky Dudley, while the powerful running of Mike Allstott produced another pair of scores. Leading 28-6 at half-time, the Buccaneers then let their top-ranked defence finish the job.

The San Francisco quarterback, Jeff Garcia, was hounded and harried into a series of mistakes as the 49ers struggled in vain to generate the momentum that had produced a stunning second-half revival against the New York Giants a week earlier.

"Nothing seemed to go right today," said Garcia. "When the first quarter didn't go the way we wanted, we started to try to force things and be urgent, but it never did us any good."

The defeat has led to speculation that the 49ers are poised to part company with their coach, Steve Mariucci: he faces an uncomfortable discussion about his future with senior management later today.

For the Buccaneers, however, the road to Super Bowl XXXVII now takes a disturbing detour through Philadelphia, where they will have to make history. Not only have Tampa Bay never won a play-off game away from home, they have also been eliminated in each of the last two seasons by the Eagles.