The Jets’ 28-21 over the Patriots Sunday night is excellent news for the Steelers, whose path to the Super Bowl is no longer blocked by perhaps the NFL’s best team in the regular season. Instead, the Jets will come to Pittsburgh to play the AFC Championship Game on Sunday at 6:30. The Jets played very good defense throughout the game and, though Mark Sanchez was a little erratic, made more than enough big plays on offense to put the Patriots away.
Although the Jets beat the Steelers earlier this year, they’re a much better matchup for the Steelers than the Patriots would have been, particularly given that a Steelers-Patriots matchup would have been in New England. The Patriots beat the Steelers too, but did so a lot more soundly, and Troy Polamalu was out for the Jets game. It’s obviously far too early – obviously far too early – to start counting chickens here, but with only the Jets, Bears and Packers standing in the Steelers’ way, Pittsburgh’s dreams of another Super Bowl victory look a lot crisper than they did a few days ago.
Speaking of the Bears and Packers, the Bears won 35-21 today as the Seahawks’ Cinderella story came to an end, so the NFC championship game will be at Soldier Field on Sunday at 3:00 (FOX).
Yesterday was a great day for Steelers fans, but today is a pretty darn good one as well.