AFC Championship Game

New York Jets (13-4) at Denver (15-2)

1 p.m., Channel 2

* HEAD TO HEAD: The Broncos lead the series, 13-12-1, but the teams haven’t met since the 1996 season opener, when the John Elway-led Broncos overpowered the pre-Bill Parcells Jets, 31-6, at Denver, sending the Broncos on their way to the playoffs and the Jets toward a 1-15 season that led to Parcells’ hiring.

* SCOUTING THE JETS: Rejuvenated under Parcells, the Jets have reached the AFC championship game for the first time since 1982. Quarterback Vinny Testaverde is 13-1 as the Jets’ starter after last week’s 34-24 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, in which he passed for 284 yards and a touchdown. Curtis Martin ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns against the Jaguars and Keyshawn Johnson, who had nine receptions for 121 yards, caught a pass for a touchdown, ran for a touchdown and also had a fumble recovery and an interception. The Jets’ offensive line of tackles Jumbo Elliott and Jason Fabini, guards Todd Burger and Matt O’Dwyer and center Kevin Mawae has started every game and given up only 27 sacks. The defense ranked only 14th in the league against the run and will be trying to stop a rushing offense that ranked second.

* SCOUTING THE BRONCOS: In what is expected to be the final home game of Elway’s brilliant career, the defending Super Bowl champions should get a tremendous boost from a mile-high crowd at Mile High Stadium, where they have won 18 in a row. Last week, responding to whispers that their season was slipping away after two losses in their final three regular-season games, the Broncos ripped the Miami Dolphins, 38-3, in their playoff opener. They outrushed the Dolphins, 250 yards to 14, and strung together touchdown drives of 92, 66 and 87 yards in their first three possessions. Terrell Davis, the NFL’s most valuable player, ran for 199 yards and two touchdowns, Elway completed 14 of 23 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown, and cornerback Darrius Johnson had a 48-yard interception return and forced a fumble.

* NOW YOU KNOW: Bronco defensive tackle Mike Lodish, formerly of UCLA, could become the first player to play in six Super Bowls.

* THEY SAID IT: The Jets’ Curtis Martin: “We’re not even thinking of the Super Bowl. We’ll approach it like Denver’s our Super Bowl.”

* THE LINE: Broncos by 9.