FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — So the Jets 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 and the Jets sacked Tom Brady five times in the most-hyped of the weekend’s four postseason games following a week of verbal potshots from both teams.
New York led its fierce rival 14-3 at halftime before Brady’s 2-yard touchdown pass to Alge Crumpler and Sammy Morris’ run for a 2-point conversion made it 14-11 late in the third quarter. But Sanchez came right back with a 7-yard scoring pass to Santonio Holmes and New York finished the upset with Shonn Greene’s 16-yard touchdown run.
The Jets (13-5) kept Ryan’s prediction of a Super Bowl appearance alive. The Patriots (14-3) lost their third straight postseason game.