97 pathfinder decides to stall then not run

[LQ1]

Highway doing about 60, everything's going along as usual. I let off the gas a bit to slow, less than a minute later I attempt to accelerate back to speed, car sputters, jerks, tach stays up but mph hold steady at 50, and not an easy 50. Let off the gas a tad and speed drops never to be regained until it dropped to zero.

It'll start and it'll idle at about 1000rpms, rough but not off the wall, give it any gas and it chokes, sputters, God awful rattling from the back of muffler in the area of the (what I assume is) the cat.

Pulled the MAF and cleaned it with recommended MFA cleaner. Didn't seem to make much difference, possibly some but not enough to get it down the road again. Disconnect the plug to the MAF and it smooths out.....just before it dies.

That's where I'm at.
Any ideas?

[rgk]

First things first: check your trouble codes. Even if your CEL is not illuminated, you may have a pending code stored which will shed some light on the situation.

[LQ1]

Thanks. Began with no CEL but I managed to get one after a bit of tinkering. The results form the codes are inconclusive as expected. The research I've done thus far pretty much told me to expect as much.
I'm going to change out the fuel filter today although I don't expect complete resolution to the problem.
Have ordered a new MAF sensor, once it arrives I'll see where that leads.
My next thought following those two things is the cat, followed by the distributer.
So for now, one part at a time trying to follow a logical sequence until something (hopefully) works.

[rgk]

Well, what code did you get?

[LQ1]

Basically it indicated that the O2 sensor was tripping but having replaced that some 6 months ago I wasn't convinced, nor were the symptoms the same as what I was having when it actually did go out prior. I decided to apply some old fashion diagnostics and just listen to it run for a bit. Did that, decided to put the new fuel filter in (PIA if it's not on a rack BTW). Problem solved. Returning the MAF sensor when it arrives.
Thanks for following up!