Here are some answers we obtained Sunday at Adelphia Coliseum. After tripping previously unbeaten St. Louis, the Tennessee Titans now own a sparkling 6-1 record that is unsurpassed by any other team in the National Football League.

Steve McNair, just five weeks after back surgery, passed for two touchdowns—and with flying colors.

The Rams—already anointed by many Media Geniuses as surefire Super Bowl finalists—are not only capable of being beaten but eminently able to defeat themselves.

It was Halloween.

Make up your own questions.

Let’s go ahead and proclaim now that Sunday was a seminal day for Nashville, for the Titans, and, personally, for McNair and coach Jeff Fisher. Barring some collapse of Old Testament proportions, it’s safe to project that the boys in blue will earn a trip to the playoffs for the first time since Bud Adams led them out of the wilderness to the Canaan of rent-free stadiums and PSLs.

Whatever lingering doubts that may have remained about the city’s support for the team were emphatically whooshed away by the roaring capacity crowd that filled Adelphia. The fans not only rattled the Rams often enough to matter but even earned a game ball from Fisher.

The coach himself, whose future employment by the team (not to mention his reputation as one of the league’s bright young field bosses) hinged on his success this fall, can clank around town with the swagger of someone who has just earned vindication.

Still, for all these fresh certainties, and for all the heat and hoopla generated at the Delph on Sunday, the largest question remains unanswered. At least for the moment, we can’t be certain whether this is a stellar team or merely one upon whom the stars have smiled.

On the one hand, the Titans are fortunate to play in a neighborhood populated by only one other big dog, Jacksonville. Meanwhile, they can fill six dates with the division’s Chihuahuas—Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Baltimore. Only one of the first six teams the Titans played currently enjoys a winning record.

And even though they raced to a decisive 21-0 lead, the Titans couldn’t quite dispel suspicions that their opponents remained the better team.

The Rams, after all, distinguished themselves as gracious visitors, delivering two touchdown-producing turnovers as easily and generously as if they were sending over complimentary drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

Combined with an astonishing number of penalties (even by Titan standards), you can make a compelling case that the Rams just beat themselves.

Of course, they nearly also beat the home squad. They dominated statistically, seized the momentum in the second half, and, except for a field goal attempt that drifted just inches askew, plumb near completed a comeback that would have sucked the life from the crowd faster than Dracula.

True to the form they have shown in all but one of their seven contests, Tennessee turned this one into a nail-biter. (Actually, it wasn’t over until after it was over, when the officials conferred following the final play to ascertain whether the Titans had roughed the Rams’ kicker.) Maybe we should rechristen these guys as the “Tight-Uns.”

On the other hand, Bud’s boys have somehow wriggled out of five tight ones with W’s. They’ve won every which way: clinging to leads, blowing and regaining leads, rallying from behind. That, as the Football Oracles have always held, is the mark of a pretty good team.

In its own way, even their uneven play is a positive indicator for the Tights. You have to think that, one of these days, they’ll put together four full quarters of the kind of football they’ve shown in flurries thus far. Meantime, they’ve lost but a single game without managing a single complete performance. That’s also a hallmark of a pretty respectable team.

But if it’s as yet hard to say what the Titans are going to be when they grow up, Sunday’s game at least settled two or three issues.

For starters, we’ve confirmed one of the fondest hopes of the Titans’ brain trust: that Jevon Kearse is so “off da hook” he can goof opponents merely by showing up. Just as high mountains create their own weather systems, the rookie defensive end discovered that he doesn’t even have to make a play to make a difference. The Rams’ tackle assigned to block him, Fred Miller, was so unnerved by the threat of Kearse’s speed that he jumped the snap count six times and twice was caught holding.

In frustration, the St. Louis staff moved Orlando Pace, one of the NFL’s most dominating linemen, over to neutralize Kearse—thereby compromising their ability to run to their left, the side where Pace customarily plows pathways for ball carriers. Finally, they removed the thoroughly flummoxed Miller from the game altogether. With the enthusiasm and wonderment of a sixth-grader who has just discovered a more accurate way of flinging spitballs across a classroom, Kearse marveled afterward at how he he’d been able to mess with the Rams’ heads. He’s the Titan who’s never uptight, and it’s infectious.

More significantly, the team finally settled the quarterback controversy it never had.

Last week, a number of fans suggested that Fisher would be nuts not to start Neil O’Donnell, who had led the Titans to a 4-1 mark in McNair’s absence. Others called for McNair’s return as soon as possible. Still others offered that Fisher should play both QBs.

The coach had maintained all along that McNair would reclaim his job as soon as he could safely play. And though McNair’s passing statistics were merely average, he emphatically demonstrated why so much of the team’s offense is built around his talents; his running gives the Titans a formidable weapon employed by few other teams.

And, by the way, can we finally dismiss the weak, tired charges that Steve has been the victim of some vast cracker conspiracy—that Nashville’s Dixie dregs preferred to keep Air McNair in the hangar because they still could not accept a signal-caller of color.

We can be certain that some number of fans—perhaps no small number, even—still cling to some flat-earth übermensch notion that Air could never be as effective as Aryan. But the evidence simply won’t support a contention that anywhere close to a majority of Titans rooters holds this execrable view.

When McNair took the field, he was greeted by a raucous standing ovation. Signs expressing support for the recuperated QB dotted the stands. When the offense went into its all-too-familiar mid-game stasis, no one was heard hollering for O’Donnell.

Next week, after they return from Miami, perhaps we’ll have a clearer picture of this team’s identity. Meanwhile, they won’t feel the least bit insulted if you label them as winners of close, ugly games. Make that “division-leading winners of close, ugly games,” and Jeff Fisher might even smile.

How It Looks From The La-Z-Boy

Titans 19, Dolphins 17

Florida 34, Vanderbilt 17

Tennessee 24, Notre Dame 17

Alabama 38, LSU 17

Ole Miss 26, Arkansas 21

Mississippi St. 31, Kentucky 27

Auburn 28, Central Florida 17

Purdue 24, Wisconsin 22

Ohio State 21, Michigan State 17

Tufts 23, Colby 16

Nebraska 24, Texas A&M 14