Rex Ryan, Jets proved they weren't ready for Super Bowl when they failed to gain one crucial yard

By Mike Lupica
The Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com
Tuesday, January 25th 2011, 4:00 AM

Steelers safety Troy Polamalu celebrates stopping Jets running back LaDainian Tomlinson on fourth-and-goal as Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez walks off the field with 7:44 left in the game as the Pittsburgh Steelers host the New York Jets in the AFC Championship game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh on Jan. 23, 2011. The Jets lost, 24-19. (John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

The Jets, starting with their coach, said all along they were championship-ready. They said they couldn't wait to get this title shot against Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers. But in the biggest moment of their season, the Jets were no longer loud and were no longer bullies. In the middle of the fourth quarter, from the Steelers' 2-yard line, they were as quiet as their locker room would be later at Heinz Field. The Jets finally got shut up there, and shut down. You talk as much as they did, you've got to be able to get a yard.

In the end, the difference between the Steelers was not just that their offensive line was better on Sunday, that they forced the biggest turnover of the game - Mark Sanchez's fumble at the end of the first half - or that the Jets let Roethlisberger scramble around as if he were Michael Vick.

The biggest difference of this game is that when the Super Bowl was on the line, the Steelers made the yards they had to make. When the Super Bowl may very well have been on the line, when the Jets had a chance to make it 24-17 with plenty of time left and scare the Steelers and their fans more than they already had in the second half, they had nothing.

The offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, had nothing, the same offensive line that had pushed around both the Colts and the Patriots had nothing, the running backs had nothing, Sanchez had nothing. And the coach needed a day of reflection to figure it all out.

"If we had the benefit of hindsight, we should have probably just ran Shonn Greene or L.T. (LaDainian Tomlinson) four straight times," Rex Ryan said.

Seriously? He needed hindsight to figure that out? In that moment, neither he nor his play-caller were as championship-ready as we had been led to believe.

The Steelers were. Later, when Roethlisberger needed to get a first down on third-and-6, the Jets let him out of the pocket again and let him run again and they couldn't cover Antonio Brown and now all the swagger and talk didn't matter. The Steelers knew how to do it and the Jets did not.

Can anybody say that the Jets would have won the game if they had gotten it to 24-17 after that first-and-goal? Nobody can say that for sure. Do I believe they would have? I do. If the Jets didn't choke it down in that moment, they certainly looked as if they panicked.

"We could've had some opportunities," Bart Scott said Monday. "But when you put yourself in a situation where you have to play perfect in the second half to overcome a 21-point difference ..."

Scott could have stopped right there, but then Scott is a Jet and some of them keep talking even after you're out of the room. The Jets didn't have to play perfect. That is perfect nonsense. After Sanchez hit Santonio Holmes - the Jets are nuts to lose this guy - for the big pass that made it 24-10, they were within two touchdowns and there was still a world of time to play.

The Steelers had stopped scoring. The Steelers were trying to run out the clock, and you would have, too. Even without a running game, the Jets started to show you they could throw the ball on the Steelers. So they went to work. They had the kind of drive that the Steelers had to start the game, eight minutes off the clock and 80 yards.

If the Jets score now the Steelers are in huge trouble, staring hard at one of the worst collapses in championship game history.

Then Schottenheimer came up small in the red zone and so did his players. Greene had just ripped off the big run that got the Jets down there, best run of the game for the Jets, 16 yards to the 8-yard line.

With around nine minutes left in the game, a lifetime, the Jets line up for first-and-goal from the 2. A chance to make it a one-score game with all that time remaining. A chance to be as good as they say they are. As championship-ready. Be loud in the right way, silence one more crowd in one more playoff road game.

They run Greene for one yard.

Now they have just a yard to go. Much would be made about the problems with the equipment Sanchez uses, that all quarterbacks use, to hear plays. But he still ended up with the play he wanted. A pass play. To Keller. Ryan Clark covering.

Incomplete.

If you're wondering why we're still talking about this a day later, it's because this was the Jets season as much as Roethlisberger's pass to Brown was.

Third down. The Jets, who pride themselves on rushing the ball and defense, still don't run the ball. The play is a horror, nearly an interception, Sanchez trying to squeeze one in to Holmes, LaMarr Woodley nearly intercepting.

Fourth-and-1.

Now, after this weird sequence, Schottenheimer decides he is back to being a running guy. He runs old LaDainian Tomlinson. A few plays before, the ball went to Greene on a fourth-down play. Now Tomlinson. Don't look for any logic here, because there wasn't any.

Tomlinson got stuffed.

You bet a lot happened after that. A safety. A touchdown pass to Cotchery with 3:06 left. The Jets needed that touchdown, sure. They needed the one five minutes before that a lot more. Four plays from the 2. Three from the 1. And they were still talking Monday about how it was all about poor tackling.

Ryan called having to play Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Roethlisberger "Mission Impossible." In the end, the impossible mission was getting a yard against the Steelers when the Jets needed one. You can't make that, you deserve to go home.