By Jim Scott
DNAinfo Senior Editor
MANHATTAN — The Jets' Super Bowl dreams crashed and burned on a frozen field in Pittsburgh, ending New York's season one victory short of the big game for the second year in a row.
The Steelers jumped out to a 24-point lead and held off a furious second half rally by the Jets to beat New York 24-19 in the AFC Championship Game at Heinz Field Sunday night.
"They came out fast and got on top of us real quick and we couldn't bounce back from it," Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said after the game.
Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall ran around, past and over Jets tacklers in the first half. Mendenhall, who finished with 127 yards on the ground, opened up the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run in the first quarter to culminate a long opening drive by Pittsburgh.
A 20-yard field goal by Pittsburgh kicker Shaun Suisham made it 10-0 before the Steelers exploded for two touchdowns in less than a minute leading up to half time.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger capped another long Pittsburgh drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to put the Steelers up 17-0 with two minutes left in the half.
Forty-seven seconds later, defensive back Ike Taylor hit Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez as he was about to release a pass, causing a fumble that was picked up by William Gay and returned 18-yards for another Pittsburgh touchdown.
"To come out as flat as we did against a great team ... it just doesn't work," Sanchez told reporters after the game. "You can't play just 30 minutes in a game of this magnitude."
The Steelers went into halftime with a 24-3 lead, but the Jets came out in the second half with a vengeance.
Sanchez threw second half touchdown passes to wideouts Santonio Holmes and Jerricho Cotchery and Gang Green's defense scored a safety to pull New York within five points of Pittsburgh with just over three minutes remaining in the game.
But the Steelers were able to get a couple of first downs on offense to run out the clock and send the Jets home.
"I'm proud of our football team. We had a helluva year, yet we finished short again," Jets head coach Rex Ryan told CBS-TV.
New York lost in the AFC Championship game for the second straight year after being beaten 30-17 by the Indianapolis Colts iast year.
Ryan was unapologetic about his team's performance and vowed the Jets would be back in the thick of championship hunt again next year.
"We don't need to apologize to anybody. And I mean anybody," Ryan said told CBS-TV. "We'll be back and you'll see. We'll back and the only difference is we plan on winning that sucker."
