No Mistaking What Has to Be Done by Jets

The New York Jets play the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos for the AFC title on Sunday, looking for the team’s first trip to the Super Bowl since Super Bowl III in 1969.

Nobody thinks it will be easy.

“They’re the world champions,” Jet Coach Bill Parcells said. “We’re going to have to play real well to beat them.

“I don’t know how much better we’ll have to play. Certainly they were impressive [in their victory Saturday].”

From Vinny Testaverde to Curtis Martin to Keyshawn Johnson to center Kevin Mawae, the message was the same. The Jets can’t make the mistakes they made against Jacksonville and hope to win.

“They’ve got a ton of guys who are deadly,” Mawae said. “Our defense has got to step up. Their defense is tough too, and our offense will have to step up.”

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Parcells won the Super Bowl as coach of the Giants twice.

Now he’s trying to take the Jets, two seasons after a 1-15 record.

“I’ve said many times, two years is a lifetime in football,” Parcells said. “A lifetime for the players and a lifetime for the coaches.”

Parcells, who is 11-5 in the playoffs, also took the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl.

If the Jets are able to beat Denver, he’ll become the first coach to take three different franchises to the Super Bowl.

The Jets’ turnaround has already been rather impressive.

“From 1-15 to 13-4, in sports, that just doesn’t happen, turnarounds like that,” Johnson said.

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Sorry, long-suffering fans and history books, but these Jet players didn’t reach the AFC title game to try to make up for the Jets’ lack of postseason success.

“The [1996] team was 1-15, or 2-14, or 0-16 or whatever, I don’t know the exact record,” Martin said. “I see the appreciation of the fans and of the people who were here. But I don’t know if we’re living out a destiny. We’re living out our own goals, and our own purposes. We’re doing what we can with the talent we were blessed with.”

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The Broncos lead the series with the Jets, 13-12-1, and won the last meeting, 31-6 in 1996. The Jets’ last victory over the Broncos was in 1994, 25-22 in overtime. The Jets are 6-6 in postseason games, but have never played Denver in the playoffs. . . . The crowd of 78,817 was the largest for a sporting event in the history of Giants Stadium. The only bigger crowd was the 82,948 who attended a papal mass by Pope John Paul II at the stadium in 1995. The largest crowd for a sporting event had been the 78,416 who attended the MLS All-Star game in 1996. . . . John Hall’s 52-yard field goal was the longest in Jet postseason history. . . . Jimmy Smith’s 52-yard touchdown catch and Reggie Barlow’s 88-yard kickoff return were Jacksonville playoff records.