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Monday NBA— 10 a.m., Bulls at Grizzlies, ESPN 1 p.m., Nets at Warriors, CSNBA 5 p.m., Magic at Celtics, TNT 7:30 p.m., Thunder at Lakers, TNT Sports 1B Monday January 17, 2011 Jets shocker Ryan’s boys back up talk, win 28-21 FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Shonn Greene placed the ball on the ground and used it as a pillow, resting his head on it after scoring the Jets’ final touchdown of a stunning upset. A quiet climax to a very loud week of non- stop jabbering, poking, berating, and then some, mostly by the New York- ers. On Sunday, they proved that they weren’t all talk — trash talk — after all. Now Rex Ryan’s rowdy bunch is headed to its second straight AFC championship game after New York backed up its coach’s boasts with a 28- 21 win Sunday over the New England Patriots — the team with the best record in the NFL. Mark Sanchez threw three touchdown passes and the Jets sacked Tom Brady five times in the most-hyped of the week- end’s four postseason games following a week of verbal potshots from both teams. ‘‘Maybe everybody else never believed, but we believed,’’ Ryan said. ‘‘We’re moving on. Same old Jets, back to the AFC championship. The only difference is this time we plan on winning.’’ The Jets, who lost that game to Indianapolis last year, will try to win their third straight postseason game on the road, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, next Sunday. The Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens 31-24 on Saturday. Late in Sunday’s game, Ryan was true to his exu- berant self. He ran down the sideline and celebrat- ed with his players after Greene’s 16-yard score Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings said. ‘‘But we’ll see.’’ That became a reality Sunday, when Chicago beat Seattle to set up one of the juiciest conference championship matchups in recent memory. Injured tight end Jermichael Finley won’t be able to play — but even he’s excited. ‘‘(It’s) going down,’’ Finley posted on his Twitter account Sunday afternoon. The Bears might have won the NFC North this year and hold home-field advantage over Green Bay. But with the way the Packers are playing right now, they might be the scariest No. 6 seed in history. ‘‘Oh, we have what it takes,’’ cornerback Charles Woodson said after Saturday night’s game. ‘‘Make no mistake about that. It’s just about going out and exe- cuting.’’ After holding on to beat the Eagles in Philadelphia last week, the Packers steamrolled the Falcons 48-21 on Saturday night. Then the Bears dismissed the Sea- hawks with a convincing win of their own, 35-24 on Sunday. With Green Bay needing three road wins to make it to the Super Bowl, Packers coach Mike McCarthy has grown fond of saying his team will take on any team, any place, any time. As it turns out, the team and the place they’ll face in their final step to get there is a very familiar one. ‘‘We’re a championship-caliber football team, we MCT photo New York's Santonio Holmes does a back flip after scoring a fourth- quarter touchdown during the Jets' 28-21 win in the AFC divisional playoffs against the Patriots Sunday. with 1:41 left. And, when the game was over, Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards did a backflip. Rite of winter: Steelers advance to AFC title game PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers know better than to make vacation plans for the latter part of January, because they fully expect to be playing football through the end of the month. With their 31-24 comeback victory over Baltimore on Saturday, the Steel- ers earned a 15th trip to the AFC title game. Given what Pittsburgh had to overcome this season, this appearance will be more satisfying than most. ‘‘We don’t take this for granted,’’ coach Mike Tomlin said. ‘‘We are extremely humbled and honored to move on to the AFC championship game, and to be recognized as the true champions of the AFC North. We respect the heck out of the Ravens.’’ The Steelers beat the heck out of the Ravens, too. After trailing 21-7 at halftime, Pittsburgh scored 17 straight points, then mounted a classic drive at the fin- ish to move within a victory of a return trip to the Super Bowl. The Steelers will face the Jets, who topped New England 28-21, in the AFC championship game next Sunday night. Although the Ravens committed three turnovers in the third quarter, the Steelers (13-4) deserve credit for forcing those miscues and scoring 24 points in the sec- ond half — matching the total Baltimore had yielded in its previous three games. Ben Roethlisberger threw for two touchdowns and orchestrated a 65-yard drive in the closing minutes that included a 58-yard pass to rookie Antonio Brown on third-and-19. That set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Rashard Mendenhall with 1:33 left for the winning points. Soon thereafter, the Steelers and a delirious crowd at Heinz Field began gearing up for their fourth appear- See AFC, page 2B ‘‘We don’t care what people say or whether they like us,’’ cornerback Darrelle Revis said. ‘‘We just focus on what we need to do to win games.’’ See JETS, page 2B talked about that before the Philadelphia game,’’ McCarthy said. ‘‘We have 16 quarters on our mind, we’ve completed eight of them and we have an oppor- tunity to play in four more next week. We feel very good about who we are, the way we played, our brand of football in all three areas, and that’s what we’re sticking to.’’ The Packers are rolling behind Aaron Rodgers on offense and dominating on defense. Rodgers played well in beating the Eagles last week, earning his first playoff win as a starter. Then he deliv- ered one of the best performances of his brief-but- impressive career Saturday. ‘‘Yeah, this probably was my best performance, I See NFC, page 2B Bears beat Seahawks, Packers next Packers rolling into NFC title match with Bears MILWAUKEE (AP) — Never mind the weather forecast for Soldier Field next Sunday. The NFL’s most historic rivalry just got a lot hotter. Even before they boarded the team plane back to Green Bay after Saturday night’s rout of the Atlanta Falcons, Packers players were pondering the possibili- ty they might face their fierce rival, the Chicago Bears, in the NFC championship game. ‘‘For us to be playing the Bears next week, that would be some- thing,’’ MCT photo Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler (6) gets a hug from tight end Greg Olsen after his touchdown during the second quarter against the Seahawks. CHICAGO (AP) — Football’s oldest rivalry has a grand new prize: a spot in the Super Bowl. Maybe even with an anniversary reprise of the ‘‘Super Bowl Shuffle’’ if the Chicago Bears can get past the Green Bay Packers. ‘‘It’s a big deal. We have a lot of history with them,’’ Bears star line- backer Brian Urlacher said after a 35-24 victory over Seattle set up an NFC championship game matchup with Green Bay. ‘‘We don’t like them, they don’t like us.’’ Jay Cutler ran for two touch- downs and threw for two as Chicago (12-5) pounded the Seahawks from the outset. The Bears’ built a 28-0 lead, but it was against the first divi- sion winner with a losing record, making it difficult to measure how good they are. The NFL will find out next week against the Packers (12- 6), who have beaten third-seeded Philadelphia and top-seeded Atlanta on the road this month. The last time Chicago won the NFL title, Walter Payton, Jim McMahon and Mike Singletary did the ‘‘Super Bowl Shuffle’’ all over their opponents. That was 25 years ago, and to compare these Bears with the wild bunch that won Chica- go’s only Super Bowl 25 years ago is a stretch. But next Sunday’s matchup is fit- ting if only for the history: It will be the biggest game in Chicago’s 90- year series with the Packers. They will play for the 182nd time next Sunday, but it’s their first meeting for the NFC title. ‘‘Now that we have beaten the Seahawks, it just doesn’t get any bet- ter, as I see it, than for the NFC championship coming down to the Packers coming down on our turf this time,’’ Bears coach Lovie Smith said. ‘‘The Packers and Bears to fin- ish it up.’’ See BEARS, page 2B