Mark Sanchez leads drive to set up Nick Folk's game-winning kick

INDIANAPOLIS -- Personally, Rex Ryan will take it.

He beat Peyton Manning with a made-for-TV script.

Nick Folk made a 32-yard field goal as time expired Saturday night, finally giving the Jets and their bombastic coach a 17-16 playoff victory over Manning's Colts to wrap up a head-to-head showdown that Ryan called personal.

"I'll tell you what, it feels awesome because this is the playoffs and we're moving on," Ryan said.

Manning, somewhat surprisingly, is not.

After winning four straight to clinch the AFC South, Manning moved the Colts into position for a go-ahead field goal with 53 seconds left. Then the four-time league MVP watched helplessly as the Jets drove down the field for the final time.

It's not the kind of finish Manning, or Ryan, are used to in this series.

"It's certainly disappointing tonight and that's really all you think about tonight," Manning said. "It's disappointing with the way we lost tonight. Any time you lose on a last-second field goal, it certainly stings."

With his main tormentor out of the way, Ryan and his Jets (12-5) head to New England for a third meeting with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick next Sunday; they split during the season, but the Patriots won 45-3 at Foxborough.

The Colts (10-7) beat the Jets for the AFC title a year ago. But both defending conference champs were eliminated from the playoffs Saturday. New Orleans, which beat Indy in last February's Super Bowl, lost at Seattle.

It was a remarkable turn of emotions -- and events -- for the Colts, who thought they had just beaten Ryan again when Adam Vinatieri made a 50-yard field goal that could have added to Vinatieri's reputation as the best clutch kicker in NFL history.

"You know, he [Manning] is the best," Ryan said, "and he almost did it to us again."

Fast Facts

• The Jets are 3-1 in playoff road games under coach Rex Ryan.

• New York will play the Patriots in New England in the divisional round, its ninth consecutive playoff road game.

• LaDainian Tomlinson had two rushing touchdowns for the second time in a playoff game, and has six playoff rushing touchdowns -- the most among active players.

• Tomlinson also is the third player in franchise history with multiple rushing touchdowns in a playoff game, joining LaMont Jordan (2002) and Curtis Martin (1998).

• Peyton Manning has a 9-10 playoff record in his career, including a 1-2 mark against the Jets.

• The only other playoff game won by the Jets in which they did not have a touchdown pass was Super Bowl III.

-- ESPN Stats & Information

But Antonio Cromartie returned the ensuing kickoff 47 yards and Mark Sanchez needed only five plays to get the Jets into position for the winner.

Manning certainly had chances to beat Ryan again. He was 18 of 26 for 225 yards and one TD and put Vinatieri in position to win it with the eight-play, 48-yard drive.

The mistake Manning made was the one opponents like the Jets usually make against him: leaving too much time on the clock.

"We were certainly trying to pick up that first down at the end, we thought that would make them use some of their timeouts and we could run the clock down," Manning said. "But we didn't pick up the first down and had to settle for the field goal."

The Jets made Manning pay, and when the Colts called timeout with 29 seconds left and the ball at the Indianapolis 32, Sanchez connected with a high pass toBraylon Edwards for an 18-yard completion on the right sideline to the Colts 14.

On the next play, Folk trotted on and won it.

"We've got to tip our hat to our offense. It was unbelievable," said Ryan, whose bravado made him a summer sensation in HBO's "Hard Knocks" series. "I mean, we totally dominated the second half offensively. On defense, we had to hold serve. Against Peyton, you're not going to stop him completely, but our guys played well enough to get it done and keep him out of the end zone. Our offense was just spectacular."

Manning connected with Pierre Garcon, the star of last year's championship game, on a 57-yard TD pass for the only score of the first half.

LaDainian Tomlinson, considered washed-up by some before the season, carried 16 times for 82 yards and scored on two 1-yard runs to give the Jets their first lead at 14-10 with 9:59 left in the game.

"It's emotional, exciting and all those things at once," Tomlinson said. "We knew it was going to be a dogfight against a great team."

It needed to be after Vinatieri made it 14-13 and then put Indy back in the lead with his longest field goal since making a 51-yarder to beat San Diego on Nov. 23, 2008.

And it looked like Manning would top Ryan again.

But Cromartie, Sanchez, Edwards and Folk didn't let it happen.

"We've been in some close ones this year, but to come out and pull this game out against a great football team, against a great quarterback, it was a Herculean effort," a relieved Ryan said. "I mean really, I'm just thankful for the men I coach. Thankful for the two backs we got, that pounded it in there. Thankful for that coaching staff. Thankful for Nick Folk, and I'm thankful that I finally got to beat Peyton Manning."

Game notes
Indy finished the season with 18 players on injured reserve after putting cornerback Kelvin Hayden on the list before the game. ... Manning's 18 completions left him eight short of passing Joe Montana for second on the career playoff list. ... Jets running back Shonn Greene carried 19 times for 70 yards, and Sanchez was 18 of 31 for 189 yards with one interception. ... New York receiver Brad Smith left in the first half with a quad injury to his right leg, but returned in the second half.

Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press

Jets-- Steelers RECAP

PITTSBURGH -- The New York Jets weren't supposed to be able to win this game in this city, not with this quarterback.

Somehow they did, and the playoffs are looking like a great possibility because of it.

Mark Sanchez stood up to the pressure created by the Steelers' defense and his team's two-game losing streak, scrambling for the Jets' first offensive touchdown in 12 quarters and leading a decisive field-goal drive as New York beat Pittsburgh 22-17 on Sunday.

The Jets (10-4) held on to win even as Ben Roethlisberger drove the Steelers (10-4) from their own 8 to New York's 10 in the final 2:08, only to throw incomplete on the game's final two plays.

Roethlisberger repeatedly kept the drive going, finding rookieEmmanuel Sanders for 29 yards on third-and-24, Mike Wallace for 18 on third-and-10 and Antonio Brown for 16 on third-and-10. The Steelers had to go for a touchdown rather than settling for a field goal because Mewelde Moore was tackled in the end zone for a safety with 2:38 remaining.

The Jets won in Pittsburgh for the first time after going 0-7 there since the 1970 merger. Only two NFL teams have longer winless streaks in an opposing city during that span.

Sanchez fooled the NFL's best run defense by faking a handoff before racing into the end zone untouched on a tying 7-yard TD run in the third quarter. Before that, Pittsburgh had taken its first lead at 17-10 on Rashard Mendenhall's 2-yard run.

The Jets ran for 106 yards against a defense that came in allowing only 60 yards per game.

The Steelers, winners of their previous four, shook off Brad Smith's 97-yard kickoff return on the game's opening play to take that lead but, playing without injured defensive star Troy Polamalu, fell back into a tie for the AFC North lead with Baltimore.

Pittsburgh still owns the tiebreaker and will win the division if it beats Carolina and Cleveland in its final two games.

Sanchez, rallying the Jets from demoralizing losses to the Patriots (45-3) and Dolphins (10-6) that raised speculation they might be headed to a 2008-like playoff collapse, followed his TD run by hitting Braylon Edwards for 16 yards on a key third-and-9 play. That completion led to Nick Folk's go-ahead 34-yard field goal on a snow-splattered turf with 10:07 remaining. Folk hit earlier from 25 yards.

Sanchez went 19 of 29 for 170 yards, with Edwards making eight catches for 100 yards, as New York won in one of the NFL's most difficult road venues in December despite being outgained 378-276.

An 11-play Jets drive didn't produce any points but wound down valuable time and, after the Jets punted, former Pittsburgh high school star Jason Taylorblew through the left side of Pittsburgh's offensive line to tackle Moore for the safety.

Still, the Jets weren't in the clear in a game they desperately needed to win. They couldn't move the ball after the ensuing free kick, forcing them to hold off one last desperation drive by a quarterback, Roethlisberger, who has led a dozen and a half such drives to win games.

Long before that, Smith's kickoff return directly in front of Pittsburgh's bench got the Jets off to a promising start. No Steelers defender got a hand on Smith during the Jets' NFL-leading 14th kickoff return touchdown since 2001.

The Steelers gave up a league-high four such touchdowns last season, but this was the first against them this season.

The Jets missed a chance to go up by two scores when a holding call negated Sanchez's completion to former Steelers star Santonio Holmes at the Pittsburgh 5. Holmes, the Super Bowl MVP two seasons ago, had six catches for 40 yards.

Roethlisberger (23 of 44, 264 yards) then put together one of Pittsburgh's best drives of the season, a 16-play possession that took up more than half of the second quarter and was completed by a 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end Matt Spaeth.

Spaeth filled in as the primary tight end in place of Heath Miller (concussion), who sat out a second successive game.

Sanchez then found Edwards behind cornerback Bryant McFadden for 38 yards, leading to Folk's 25-yarder. Shaun Suisham tied it at 10 with 33 seconds left in the half.

Mendenhall ran for 100 yards on 17 carries, only his second 100-yard effort in 11 games. Wallace had seven catches for 102 yards.

Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press

Patriots to Jets: Who's the boss in AFC East? THIS TEAM!

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It was not about a bounce here or there, an officiating call here or there, a coach's decision here or there.

What transpired Monday night in Gillette Stadium was unequivocal.

The New England Patriots slobberknocked the New York Jets. The domination was systematic from the head coach to the offense to the defense to the special teams and on down to the equipment manager.

The Patriots obliterated New York 45-3, the worst loss of the Rex Ryan era and the fifth-largest blowout in Patriots history.

And these teams were supposed to be equals. Each had a 9-2 record, knew control of the AFC East and probably the entire conference was at stake and had 10 days to prepare.

Jets coach Rex Ryan announced a week earlier he "came here to kick Bill Belichick's ass." After Belichick ransacked Ryan's team, the Jets' bravado was muted.

"We know that this division goes through New England," Ryan said, "and we thought we were going to put a stranglehold on it."

The Patriots piled up 405 yards on the Jets' vaunted defense. The Jets' offense was impotent against a defense with a poor track record. The Jets' special teams were woeful. Ryan made coaching blunders. His players seemed mentally overmatched. The Patriots were sharp like a sickle.

The Jets simply weren't in the Patriots' league.

"I've seen a lot of crazy stuff in the NFL," Jets right tackle Damien Woody said. "I never envisioned coming in here and having this happen."

The Patriots proved they're the NFL's best team. The Jets showed they were a fraction of that, failing to compete from the opening kickoff and falling behind 17-0 with a minute left in the first quarter.

[+] Enlarge

William Perlman/US PresswireDevin McCourty had one of three New England interceptions. Mark Sanchez went 17-for-33 with a 27.8 passer rating -- his lowest of the season.

"This," said Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, "was a good-old fashioned butt kicking."

The Jets have beaten one team with a winning record -- the Patriots in Week 2. In their three other games against teams over .500, the Jets haven't produced a touchdown and have been outscored 64-12.

Had the Jets won Monday night, you better believe they would've declared themselves the team to beat.

The Patriots, while they earned that privilege, did the opposite. They emphasized the mistakes they made. They noted they didn't play that elusive infallible game.

Patriots quarterback Tom Bradystormed into the locker room at halftime and shrieked at his teammates about a lackadaisical couple drives. The Patriots were ahead 24-3.

"It wasn't perfect out there," Brady said in his postgame news conference. "I think there were a few plays we can definitely do better on. Communication within the whole offense needs to continue to improve. But, all in all, it was a fun night."

Brady, in fact, did record a perfect 158.3 passer rating against the Detroit Lions in his previous game. Versus the Jets he notched a mere 148.9 rating. He completed 21 of his 29 attempts for 326 yards and four touchdowns to four different targets with zero interceptions.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns. Danny Woodhead, against the team that cut him, caught four passes for a game-high 104 yards.

The Patriots' defense played its best game of the year. The Pats went in ranked 32nd in total defense, 32nd in pass defense and 32nd in third-down efficiency. They'd allowed fewer than 18 points once.

The Jets exploited nothing. Their offense was negligible despite 152 rushing yards. Sanchez completed barely half his passes and short-circuited some drives with three interceptions.

The Jets certainly expected to win Monday night. Should the lopsided result be chalked up to underestimating the Patriots or overestimating themselves?

"You know, that's a great question," Woody replied, staring off to the ceiling tiles. "They're a really good team. No question about it. But we played terrible. When you play against a really good team that's humming on offense, and you don't play well in any phase of the game, this type of stuff can happen to you."

There were two recurring thoughts in the Jets' locker room: 1) They must turn the page and concentrate on the Miami Dolphins on a short week of preparation; 2) They might get the chance at a trilogy with the Patriots.

Whether the latter is something to wish for is hard to say.

"They're not going to feel sorry for us, and we don't want anybody to feel sorry for us," Jets linebacker Bart Scott said. "We'll take our medicine, and we deserve whatever comments are written about us of who we are and what we are. We got big shoulders. We'll take it, and we'll move forward. I'm not flinching. We still got a lot to play for."