Rex Ryan is rolling.

The rookie head coach for the Jets, who declared that his team was a Super Bowl favorite after figuring out his team was still in the post season, is only one win away to prove his psychic powers.

Ryan’s Jets are still in the playoffs.

Rookies Shonn Greene and Mark Sanchez led the Jets to a 17-14 stunning upset of the Chargers in Sunday’s divisional playoff game. During the fourth quarter, each of them provided a touchdown marking another post season shortfall for San Diego.

The round, jovial Ryan isn’t ever afraid of saying what he’s thinking. Heading into their AFC Championship Game versus Indianapolis and Peyton Manning on Sunday, the Jets players are following his lead.

Ryan said, it’s a matchup probably nobody want to have. Here we come. Too bad.

What Ryan meant was, we are coming again.

The Colts were the team that pulled Manning along with other starters during the second half in the Week 16 game versus the Jets, allowing New York to rally and get a win and let them control their destiny in the playoffs.

Before the game, Ryan’s wish for the holidays was that Indianapolis would rest Manning and company.

Ryan said, Santa Claus probably won’t be that good for me again. I want to say though I would love this week seeing Peyton Manning not playing.

Once the Jets did clinch their spot in the playoff by routing the Bengals the next week, the Jets coach made an itinerary for the post season for his players. It included being in Miami for the Super Bowl and two days later a parade.

Ryan might just be onto something.

This week maybe he will predict who the opponent for the Jets will for the Super Bowl.

Ryan said, this whole time we believed, all year. It wasn’t probably the popular choice. There’s no need for us to apologize to anybody.

For the Jets (11-7), the upstart team that’s won seven games out of the last eight, it was their first advance into the AFC Championship Game since 1999.

Sanchez said, for our franchise this is a very big win. We’re not done yet.

Bart Scott, referring to his coach said, don’t pay a lot of attention to what words he uses. What you should pay attention to is his content. This isn’t the old Jets. We want to change how people think about us.

While gloomy Chargers fans were heading into a night that was equally grim, there were several thousand Jets fans crowded together in the stands right behind their team’s bench chanting, Jets, Jets, Jets.

There was one fan holding a sign that said, I don’t have 41 more years, referring to the team’s only Super Bowl win, the one predicted by Joe Namath.

They’re hoping another one might be looming.

Early fourth quarter Sanchez threw the go-ahead touchdown pass of 2 yards over to Dustin Keller, tight end. Then on the next possession for the Jets, Green scored on a run of 53 yards.

The Chargers allowed the Jets to hang around. Then finally the Jets stopped getting in their own way and became the only team on the road to win a divisional round game.

With 2:14 remaining Philip Rivers scored a touchdown on a quarterback sneak of one yard, pulling San Diego to within three points. However, the onside kick was recovered by the Jets.

With 1:09 remaining on fourth down and one at the 29 yard line, New York called a timeout. Ryan made the decision to go for it. Then Thomas Jones was able to bull his way through the line of the Chargers and gain 2 yards.

Alan Faneca, guard, said that symbolized what our team is about. We are hard nosed. We come at you. That’s the kind of team we are.

Sanchez reacted by pumping his fist into the air and pointing his hand toward the first down sign.

Ryan, over on the sideline, lifted up the smaller Brian Schottenheimer, offensive coordinator, and gave him a bear hug.

Marty Schottenheimer, father of Brian, was with the Chargers for two playoff losses. One came versus the Jets following the 2004 season. The other following the 2006 season was versus New England, where the top seeded Chargers fell apart with an avalanche of mistakes.

This game just as big of a nightmare, with many predicting that San Diego would win their first Super Bowl.

Norv Turner, Chargers coach who was attempting to lead his No. 2 seeded team into their second title game in the AFC over three seasons said, obviously we didn’t play our best. It’s very disappointing.

The winning streak for San Diego (13-4) stopped at 11 games.

LaDainian Tomlinson, who might have been playing in his last game for the Chargers after nine seasons said, they were the best defense that I’ve played against this year. They are very prepared, run or pass. My hat is off to them.

Native Southern Californian Mark Sanchez changed from looking like a rookie to a guy with two road playoff wins.

Mid third quarter, Quentin Jammer intercepted Sanchez. However the Jets were able to get the football right back from an interception of their own. The football bounced off of Vincent Jackson and landed in the hands of Darrelle Revis, Jets cornerback, with both playing sprawled out on the ground.

On that interception the Jets didn’t capitalize. However the second interception of Rivers’ was costly. Rivers, on second down and 9 from the 5 yards line, under threw Antonio Gates. Jim Leonhard, safety, intercepted the ball and returned it down to the 16 yard line.

Sanchez on third down, rolled to his right and threw a pass into the end zone to Keller, who was able to shed Tim Dobbins, linebacker and make a sprawling catch of 2 yards to give the Jets a 10-7 lead.

Sanchez along with the other Jets raced over and congratulated Keller. The rookie quarterback then ran over to the bench. He made one stop for celebrating with one of his teammates.

During the next drive, the Jets went to their first ranked running game. Greene, the Jets third round draft pick out of Iowa, was able to break a long run to score up the middle. He ran over Eric Weddle, safety, along the way.

Greene said, after I made it into the secondary, there was one tackle left for me to break. I did that and then was off for the end zone. Greene rushed for 128 yards in 3 carries. Lots of people didn’t know who I was, but they do know who the Jets are.

In the playoff win last week versus the Bengals, Greene had 135 yards rushing and scored a touchdown.

Nate Kaeding, the All Pro kicker for San Diego, missed three three field goal attempts. On the second possession for San Diego he was wide left on a 36 yard attempt and as the first half expired he was short on an attempt from 57 yards. With 4:38 remaining in the game and San Diego trailing by 10 points, he was wide to the right on a 40 yard attempt.

After the third miss of Kaeding’s Ryan was pumping his fist.

The last time the two teams faced off in the playoffs following the 2004 season, Kaeding, a rookie at the time, missed wide right in overtime on a wet field from 40 yards out. The Jets were then able to move down field to win the game 20-17 on a field goal of 28 yards from Doug Brien.

The Jets, five years later, were able to leave Qualcomm Stadium as winners once again.

Faneca said, we aren’t supposed to even be here. All week people have been saying thanks for providing the game. We just went out there and took it.

The Chargers are heading into the playoffs with a winning streak of 11 games, mostly due to their backup players.

Jim Zorn is facing being fired after the Redskins lost yet another game.

With 35 seconds remaining, Billy Volek connected with Mike Tolbert, fullback, on a touchdown pass of 2 yards to rally the Chargers to their 23-20 win on Sunday over the Redskins in the last game for Zorn as Washington’s head coach.

According to the Associated Press, an NFL official says that Washington (4-12) on Monday plans to fire Zorn. There has been no formal announcement and the official was speaking anonymously. For months it’s been expected that Zorn would be fired.

According to Zorn he hasn’t been informed that he is being fired.

Zorn said, I’m still reeling over this loss. If I said anything concerning my future here, that would just be a bunch of babbling.

San Diego (13-3), champions of the AFC West, had clinched the No. 2 AFC playoff seed as well bye in the first round already. They didn’t have anything to play for with the exception of avoiding injuries. Once the starters all left, it felt more like an exhibition game.

Five starters, players who had played while hurt, were deactivated by San Diego. The Chargers also pulled most of their starters quickly, including Philip Rivers, Pro Bowlers quarterback, LaDainian Tomlinson, running back, as well as their offensive line.

Norv Turner, Chargers coach who the Redskins fired during the 2000 season after 13 games said, you work hard getting here. You work hard positioning yourself and work hard getting the bye and game at home. We want to be able to take advantage now.

The players who sat out to heal included Shawne Merriman, outside linebacker, Vincent Jackson, wide receiver, Jacob Hester, fullback, Eric Weddle, safety, and Jacques Cesaire, defensive end.

After their first two possessions San Diego had a 10-0 lead. Rivers was replaced by Volek, who hasn’t had any significant amount of playing time since he lead the Chargers on their winning drive two seasons ago in their 28-24 victory over Indianapolis in the division round playoffs.

Volek said, it fell good getting hit again.

Until the last drive, Volek was mostly unimpressive. Then with 4:25 remaining he led San Diego from their own 42 yard line. Volek was 19 for 30 for a total of 216 yards passing and had one interception.

Volek, who almost got picked off five plays before his winning touchdown pass said, hopefully I won’t be playing during the playoffs. I want Philip to be healthy. However, if they call my number, I need to just get out there and executive whatever plays they call. We’ve been waiting for a long time to get onto the field again. It felt good getting a chance to show fans what we are able to do.

San Diego took the lead on a field goal of 47 yards from Nate Kaeding, and a scoring pass of 12 yards from Rivers to Antonio Gates, Pro Bowler tight end. Rivers had several overthrows and went 9 for 15 for a total of 99 yards passing.

River said, anytime you put your uniform on you want to get a win. We had guys get more time playing than they usually get, but also guys from all year that you never know if or when they will get called upon. We’re heading into the playoffs and have won 11 games in a row. Going forward that doesn’t mean anything necessarily. It a clean slate for all of us. It was great getting the win though.

Early on Washington looked very inept. Late first quarter they even chose to punt when on the 34 yard line of the Chargers.

Early second quarter a Kaeding field goal from 24 yards out gave the Chargers a lead of 13-0.

Washington scored on back to back drives during the second quarter, taking the lead at 14-13. Jason Campbell connected on a touchdown pass of 2 yards to Todd Yoder. On the next drive for the Skins on the first play, Campbell threw a pass of 84 yards to Malcolm Kelly down to the 4 yard line of the Chargers. Campbell, three plays later found a wide open Mike Sellers inside the end zone.

During the second half for the Redskins Graham Gano had field goals of 26 and 22 yards, Kaeding kicked one from 45 yards for the Chargers.

Campbell went 28 for 42 for a total of 281 yards passing.

Kelly said, that was a bad loss. A terrible loss really. With all that’s gone on for the team, it kind of just sums things up today. You get down to the end once again having the game won but lose it once again. We need to find some way of putting it all together. We will I think. I think this year we should have been able to do it much sooner.

Firing Zorn probably won’t be the Redskins only change.

Campbell said, the team in lots of ways will be broken up.