These teams will need the extra week off between the conference championship games and Super Sunday. The NFC will be decided by the rubber match of the season pitting the North Division champion Chicago Bears and their division and long time rival Green Bay Packers. These teams hate each other and will go at it in the early game at Soldier Field.

The AFC is up next and the Cinderella New York Jets hope to keep the glass slipper on when they visit Heinz Field for the second time since December to take on the Steelers. The Week 15, 22-17 victory by Gang Green may be in the past, but it came at a crucial time for Rex Ryan and his bunch after they dropped two straight.

Just for shits and giggles, let’s take a look towards February 6 in North Texas at what might be:

PACKERS VS. JETS – Back on Halloween, Green Bay came into the New Meadowlands Stadium and shut out the Jets, 9-0. The home team was soundly booed and rightfully so, playing an atrocious game versus a quality opponent. The Pack didn’t exactly light it up, but their defense was on point.

That shouldn’t be the case if they meet again next month. The Jets will score more points, as will the Packers. This would be a great match-up and could go either way. What would be the main thing to watch here is how the Jets can exploit the Packers’ lack of a running game. Ryan can blitz all night long and still have Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie blanketing the receivers.

PACKERS VS. STEELERS – With Pittsburgh going for their second ring in three years, it would be a shock if they were beat by Green Bay in this potential contest. The Steelers, like the Jets, would be able to put a lot of pressure on Aaron Rodgers and the one-dimensional offense.

BEARS VS. JETS - When the Jets visited Chicago late in the season, they allowed way too many yards and points. Jay Cutler had all day to find his receiving corps and didn’t disappoint. Mark Sanchez had a decent game but the defense didn’t get the job done. For anything to turn out differently at Cowboys Stadium, a pass rush must be more like it was in the Divisional round versus New England.

Cutler is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the NFL. If he is having a good game and gets protection, he can light up the scoreboard. But if is hurried and banged around, the sacks and interceptions will be a plenty. This game would be decided by that factor.

BEARS VS. STEELERS - Pittsburgh would have the best chance to stitch Mr. Hyde on the back of Cutler’s jersey and would in all likelihood be able to handle Chicago without much of a problem.

Photo: William J. Hauser

Although they still have a long way to go, the Jets (5-6) can at least think about the playoffs if not talk about them. But that word didn’t even come up after the game. “This was a great team win,” head coach Rex Ryan said. “It feels good to say that. It’s been a while.”

The team’s much-maligned secondary stepped up on this day with four interceptions and sent 76,381 fans home happy. It all began on the Panthers’ opening drive, one in which they converted three third down plays. Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme then tried to hit Steve Smith on a slant that would have gone for a big gain, but there was apparent miscommunication and the wideout had yet to turn in. The ball caromed off his heel up in the air and right into the hands of Darrelle Revis, who returned it 67 yards for the Jets first defensive touchdown of the season.

“The great ones are lucky,” joked Ryan.

After trading field goals, the Jets capitalized on Delhomme’s third pick of the day when Kerry Rhodes – who was removed from the starting line-up this week in favor of Eric Smith – pulled down the floater and brought it back to the Carolina 38-yard line.

“The message was sent to me by Coach and now I’m moving on,” said Rhodes, who also had another interception and received a game ball. The Jets extended their lead to 14-3 when Thomas Jones (25 carries for 75 yards, 1 touchdown) plunged into the end zone from three yards out.

The big talk all week leading up to this game was that Ryan was going to take a more active role in the offense to try to cut down on the mistakes of his rookie quarterback. A more conservative game plan seem to benefit Mark Sanchez, who completed 13 out of 17 for 154 yards and one interception, but the USC product was not totally satisfied with his performance.

“I was playing smart on offense and we still gave up a couple of turnovers,” he said. “They (the coaches) were telling me in the meetings, ‘If you take a sack, that’s OK. Just don’t lose the ball.’”

Ryan added, “I thought he did a great job. He really managed the game well and had some nice runs. When in doubt, he checked the ball down.”

At one point in the third quarter, Sanchez was shaken up with an apparent knee injury and missed the majority of one series, but returned the next one. “He said he was good to go,” Ryan said. “I was just anxious to get him back in there.” Sanchez had the knee checked out by the team’s medical staff after the game and said that there was nothing abnormal found.

The Jets sealed the win with a 47-yard field goal by Feeley with 3:39 left to make the score 17-6. The big play on the drive was a 16-yard completion to converted running back Danny Woodhead on third down to move the chains.

“Coach put me in a great situation, Mark put the ball on me and the line did a great job so I just had to make the catch,” the wide receiver humbly said.

The Jets do not have much time to enjoy this win due to the Thursday night affair against the Bills in Toronto. “This is a short week for us, so we can enjoy it for about five hours,” said Ryan.

Better to enjoy the victory than wallow in another loss.

Photo by William J. Hauser

A team that fell apart during the most important time of the season needs a good shot in the arm, and a guy like Rex Ryan may just be the one to do it. Running the Baltimore Ravens vaunted defense the past 10 years, quality coaching runs in the family. The son of Buddy Ryan (who invented the ’46′ defense that produced a Super Bowl ring in Chicago), he was named the head coach of the New York Jets the day after Baltimore was eliminated by Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game.

The Jets have been a franchise that has always found a way for things to go wrong, regardless of who was in charge. For the past 40 years, that has been the case. The closest that they came to righting the ship was back in 1998 when Bill Parcells brought them within one game of the Super Bowl. Since then, it has been a mixture of nice guys like Herm Edwards and the secretive, quiet type such as Eric Mangini.

When Mike Tannenbaum sought to find Mangini’s replacement, Ryan was on a short list of favorites. Perhaps the five hour meeting they had a week ago sold the Jets general manager on Ryan, and the fact that the Ravens were still alive – even though they were supposed to be going through a rebuilding season – couldn’t have hurt his chances.

“During our search, we were looking for a great football mind and a passionate leader,” said Tannenbaum. “Rex is a coach with an established track record who is universally respected by players and coaches for his skills as a communicator and his creativity.”

The Jets defense, which had played well at some points during the season, looked extremely vulnerable during the fateful December collapse that left them out of the postseason. Ryan will instill the schemes that practically won Super Bowl XXXV single-handedly.

Of course, personnel have a lot to do with success. The Jets do have some talented players on the defensive side of the ball, such as Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace, Kerry Rhodes and Darrelle Revis. If put in the right spot, any one or all of them can become elite.

Ryan will be officially introduced on Wednesday at a press conference at Jets headquarters in Florham Park, New Jersey.

Perhaps this is a sign of things to come. Buddy Ryan was a member of the Jets coaching staff from 1968-1975, which included the franchise’s lone Super Bowl victory in 1969.

At least for one more summer, the Jets will appear to be a New York – and more specifically – a Long Island team. Although they moved out of Shea Stadium for the swamp lands of New Jersey nearly a quarter of a century ago, holding training camp and the organization’s home office on the campus of Hofstra University made things seem almost normal.

Once this training camp concludes, Gang Green will pack up on September 1 and move to their brand new facility in Florham Park, New Jersey, cementing their roots in the Garden State. Come 2010, both they and the Giants will open their new stadium adjacent to the existing Meadowlands.

On Thursday, head coach Eric Mangini and the rest of the staff stepped on the field for the first day of training camp, and anticipated another ‘nose to the grindstone’ month of two-a-days, sweltering temperatures and job battles.

“I’m excited to be back and I know the players are excited to be back,” Mangini said. “You can feel it in the room, the energy level, the focus and all of those things.”

The one missing ingredient, and a glaring one at that, was Vernon Gholston, the number-six overall draft pick out of Ohio State. The team announced that same evening that Gholston signed and it is a plus that he only missed one practice. A year ago, first round pick Darrelle Revis missed the first 20 days of camp while holding out before signing. He fit right in once he reported and ended up starting at cornerback. With Gholston moving from defensive end to a rushing outside linebacker position in the 3-4 defense, it was imperative that he didn’t miss too much time.

The biggest question going in to camp is who will win the starting quarterback job. Chad Pennington had better numbers than Kellen Clemens in practically equal playing time last year; the young gunslinger did produce more wins.

“Last year was great for me in the chance that I had,” said Clemens. “I was able to start some games, have some success. That showed me that I can do it and I can play at this level.

“Coach Mangini, above everybody, wants what’s best for the organization, so we trust him and when the decision is made, it’s made and we go from there.”

Pennington has been successful in the past and should be the favorite to win this competition. “I am here to do one, play football,” the Marshall product said. “I am here to win this job. That is my goal and focus. That has never changed and that will never change.”

Mangini always says that he will pick the quarterback that gives the team the best chance to win. With their expensive offseason shopping spree, the Jets need to ensure themselves of getting off to a good start and have a leader behind center. Clemens may have his day, but he may have to wait for tomorrow.

And there are not many tomorrows left in New York for the Jets. Once they break camp, they will be in a new ‘state’ of mind.

Photo credit: Sports Hernia.com