In end, same old story for Rex, Jets, fans

PITTSBURGH

Rex Ryan insisted the third time would indeed be the charm, that he would not walk out of Heinz Field the way he did two years ago with his Ravens team, or last year in Indianapolis with his Jets.

Three straight trips to the AFC Championship Game for Ryan, and this one would be his ticket to the Super Bowl. No doubt in his mind.

But at 24-0, this looked like one of the biggest catastrophes for a franchise littered with heartbreak ever since Joe Namath delivered their first and only championship 42 long years ago. And then it opened a crack, with Santonio Holmes' 45-yard touchdown catch on the first drive of the third quarter making it 24-10.

And then some more hope, as the Jets grinded their way near the Steelers' goal line midway through the fourth quarter. A touchdown would make it a one-score game.

And then . . . and then . . .

Another crushing moment, the latest in a decades-long sequence of disappointment that ended with another crushing defeat in the AFC Championship Game, this one a 24-19 loss at Heinz Field.

That's three straight for Ryan, two straight for the Jets and now four overall for a team that still is waiting to reach the Super Bowl for a second time.

The Mud Bowl in 1983. The blown lead in Denver in 1999. Another blown lead in 2010. And now this, a desultory first half that was almost inexplicable after last week's exceptional performance in New England.

"We came up short one game again, and it cuts your heart out," an emotional Ryan said afterward. "You go through the battles we had to go through, Indianapolis and Peyton Manning, then New England and Tom Brady, then Pittsburgh and Ben Roethlisberger. Probably no tougher way to go. But we thought we'd still win."

But as we've seen from Ryan so often at times of difficulty in his two years on the job, he knows only one way to respond.

"We're going to get through this thing eventually," he said. "This football team is going to be good for a number of years. Our resolve is we're going to be right back here again, hopefully playing in our own stadium . . . We'll find a way to win it."

But as we all know in this ultra-competitive world of the NFL, you are never guaranteed next year. No matter how good you are, no matter how many breaks you get, no matter how plausible things seem, nothing is promised. That's why this one hurts so badly for Ryan and his players.

The loss was painful enough; the way they lost, well, that falls into the category of most agonizing moments yet. This one didn't have to be. If not for a highly suspect play-calling sequence near the goal line once they got close on that fourth-quarter march, the Jets would have been - should have been - in position to at least send the game into overtime if not win it outright.

Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer tried to get cute and wound up coming away with nothing on a series that should have been the ultimate momentum-changer.

First-and-goal from the 2, Shonn Greene for a yard up the middle. Second down, quarterback Mark Sanchez runs a play-action fake and tries to hit tight end Dustin Keller to his right, but the ball falls incomplete.

Third down, another pass attempt to his right, this one batted down at the line of scrimmage. Fourth down, LaDainian Tomlinson up the middle for a yard.

Steelers ball.

"Obviously, they made some good plays on us," Ryan said. "We don't design any plays to fail."

So much promise, and nothing to show for it. The Jets did tackle Ben Roethlisberger in the end zone on the next play for a safety and a 24-12 deficit, but no touchdown in that spot was a killer.

Sanchez explained afterward that his headset was not working properly and he was scrambling to get the correct plays in.

"The headset kept going out multiple times," he said. "I had to piece together some calls. It was one of those things we were fighting through."

Sanchez did throw his second touchdown pass to make it 24-19 with 3:06 left, but that was as close as the Jets got. The defense failed them once more late in the game, when Ben Roethlisberger was able to keep control of the ball to the end and snuff out any last hope for the Jets.

"It hurts any time you lose, especially when you're that close to your ultimate goal," Sanchez said. "It hurts. It just hurts."

Hurts for him. Hurts for his coach. Hurts even worse for long-suffering Jets fans who had so much hope coming in and left with that same empty feeling in the gut they've experienced so many times before.