Confident Jets happy to control destiny

Rex Ryan laughed. Maybe he was thinking about how he stood behind the same podium a year ago, talking about his Christmas wish list that included Peyton Manning taking a seat and resting up for the postseason rather than helping the Colts chase perfection.

But thanks to Sunday's 22-17 win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh, there's no need for Ryan to ask Santa for any additional help this time around, no reason for the Jets (10-4) to scour the Internet looking for the complicated scenarios that feature the dreaded word "if."

There's only one equation he has to scribble on a piece of paper: One win against the Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday = a second consecutive postseason appearance.

"The great thing is yeah, all we have to do is win," he said at the team's training complex Monday. "That's all I know and that's all I'm concerned with right now - just try to get a win any way, anyhow."

The Jets' chances for their first AFC East title since 2002 are all but dashed and will be officially finished if they lose one of their final two games or the Patriots win one of their two against the Bills and Dolphins. So the Jets' best shot at punching their postseason ticket lies as a wild-card team. They hold the last spot, sporting a two-game lead over a pair of 8-6 teams, San Diego and Jacksonville.

That's why the Jets would love to blow out of the Windy City with a win, which would clinch a playoff spot.

"Any time you can go in and put yourself in that situation for the playoffs instead of having to go to the last game, it would be big for us," said Calvin Pace, adding that the Jets need to "play our game, don't worry about all the implications. Just play, have fun and not be too uptight. Just come out fast and finish strong and we'll be fine."

They finished strong defensively against the Steelers, stiff-arming an 82-yard drive that ended when Ben Roethlisberger's pass intended for Matt Spaeth on third-and-goal from the 10 fell incomplete as time expired.

Pittsburgh converted a third-and-24 on that drive with a 29-yard completion. The Jets later might've gotten away with a pass-interference penalty; Dwight Lowery appeared to grab Emmanuel Sanders' jersey, stopping a potential go-ahead touchdown pass with 24 seconds left.

"Did we play our best ball? No," Shaun Ellis said. "Did Big Ben give us some problems? Yes. But when the tide was starting to go completely the other way, we kind of put brakes on it and just held them out, which was huge for us, considering going up to New England and giving up 45 points. No one saw that coming.

"It definitely does a lot for our confidence. It's a little bit of a momentum-booster, considering the previous two weeks of letdowns that we had as a team."

That's why they said they needed Sunday's victory badly.

"For whatever reason, I think we were probably doubting ourselves after we lost those two games," Pace said of consecutive losses to the Patriots and Dolphins. "But we just kind of had to go back to the drawing board, kind of look at ourselves in the mirror and say that we need to get back on a roll. It was pretty much as much of a must-win as you can get."

That win put them in position to control their own destiny, which is precisely the way they like it.

"It's definitely a good feeling," Tony Richardson said. "We obviously still have a lot more work we need to do. But that's our main goal, to win our next game. We had a big win and now we move on to Chicago. And for us, it's a must-win situation, and we know it's going to be a tough challenge for us.

"But I think we're up for the task."