Sanchez on the hot seat Sunday

PITTSBURGH - He's mired in a horrific slump, and his coach publicly admitted he thought about yanking him a week ago. Not exactly the best thing to hear as his team makes its December playoff push.

Mark Sanchez is on a hot seat that's getting warmer with each interception. He's taken shots regarding his recent lack of productivity from every direction imaginable.

"That's the way it is," the second-year quarterback said. "You're a hero when you win and you're the goat when you lose. That's the nature of playing this position and you have to have thick skin, you have to be mentally tough, and it's a good challenge for me early in my career where people might doubt you, even in the building.

"It's a tough business. I just need to be ready to play."

So what awaits the struggling Sanchez, engineer of an offense that's failed to get in the end zone in its last nine quarters? Hard-hitting linebackers James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley and the vaunted Steelers defense (albeit without safety Troy Polamalu, officially doubtful with an Achilles tendon injury).

Losers of two in a row with three games left, Sanchez and the Jets (9-4) still hold a two-game cushion for the AFC's final wild-card slot. They'll try to stop the bleeding Sunday against the Steelers (10-3) in the hostile environment of Heinz Field.

"This is going to be the biggest challenge yet," Rex Ryan said. "Clearly, we have to improve, and that is a tough combination because you are going against what I think is always in the top one, two, three defenses in the league when you're talking about Pittsburgh. They've done it consistently through the years.

SEE PHOTOS10 greatest Jets ever

"But I think our guys will respond. I think our offense will respond. I think Mark will respond."

He hasn't been lately. After a brilliant four-game stretch, Sanchez has thrown at least one interception in his last eight games, racking up 12 picks and only eight touchdown passes. His fundamentals have been way off.

His passer rating of 74.2 is 28th of 31 NFL qualifiers and he has nine fumbles, tied for third in the league among all players.

At times, he's not taking the correct amount of steps when he's dropping back in the pocket, disrupting the precise timing of the play. He's also getting back into a bad habit of sloppily holding the ball with one hand, leaving it out in the open for a defender to slap away, leading to things such as the four fumbles - one lost - he had against the Dolphins last Sunday.

So this past week, Sanchez watched video to try to get a better grasp of all the things he's not doing properly, went through a few drills in practice and talked to veteran backup Mark Brunell. All with hopes of rectifying the way he's been playing during this rough stretch.

"It's just trying to do too much at times," Sanchez said. "You get away from what you know the best, and if things aren't going right, you might try to make something up a little bit or do something a little different. Now is the time to really stick to the game plan and really just be smart with the way you go about moving in the pocket, hanging on to the ball, your footwork and all that.

"I guess things can get away from you when you're trying to win games down the stretch and doing stuff at the end of games to win, but it's important to stay focused even in those tough times."

Actually, especially in those tough times.

Times that offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer points out took place a season ago, too, on the way to the AFC Championship Game.

"When he had a couple games, a bad stretch, [it was] 'who is this guy?' " Schottenheimer said. "He's mentally tough, and that's one of the things we liked about him. I think he'll bounce back and we thought he'd bounce back a lot quicker than he did. We didn't think he'd have two games back-to-back that really weren't very [good].

"That is his charge this week, to kind of get off to a good start. We offensively need to get off to a good start. That would help us. It would help us to have some success early in the game to kind of just get into a rhythm."

But it all starts with Sanchez, the guy under a glaring-hot spotlight.

"This really tests your mettle, and this is a good opportunity for us," he said. "I'm excited about it. Whether it's the biggest or smallest challenge, it's a challenge nonetheless, and I just need to play well."