Jets' Ryan walks the walk while talking all the way

Without the success of the past two weekends, Rex Ryan is a punch line. A joke. A carnival barker who eventually blends into the background and is laughed at or, worse yet, ignored.

Without those two weekends, Rex Ryan is basically Tim Brewster. Stripped bare in front of the world while proven incapable of uniting reality on the field with the bluster from off the field.

Today, however, Ryan and his New York Jets stand 60 minutes from completing the greatest of all postseason journeys to reach the Super Bowl.

Or, as Ryan put it, "We now go to Round 3 of Mission Impossible."

In the 21 years since the NFL went to a 12-team playoff format in 1990, only one No. 6 seed has advanced to the Super Bowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers did it in 2005 and went on to win Super Bowl XL.

Five years later, Super Bowl XLV would have two No. 6 seeds if on Sunday the Jets beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh and the Packers beat the Bears in Chicago. The Packers are favored to win, and while the Jets are underdogs, what else is new?

Ryan's Jets have played five playoff games in two years. All of them on the road as underdogs. They're 4-1.

Amazing.

Brett Favre played 20 seasons and went 3-7 on the road in the playoffs. Dan Marino played 17 years and went 1-6 on the road in the playoffs. Sanchez is in his second year, and he has as many road playoff victories as both of these legends combined.

For now, Bill Cowher's Steelers of 2005 own the greatest playoff run to reach a Super Bowl. They hit the road and beat No. 3 seed Cincinnati, No. 1 seed Indianapolis and then No. 2 seed Denver in the AFC Championship Game to reach the Super Bowl, where they beat Seattle, the NFC's No. 1 seed.

The Jets can top that if they win on Sunday. Beating Manning, Brady and Roethlisberger -- a trio with six Super Bowl wins between them -- towers over the 2005 Steelers beating Palmer, Manning and Jake Plummer -- a trio that had no Super Bowl victories at the time.

Meanwhile, as hot as the Packers and Aaron Rodgers are, their journey, while outstanding, wouldn't compare either. The Packers beat Michael Vick and Matt Ryan, who, btw, needs to be stripped of his "Matty Ice" moniker ASAP, and now need to beat Jay Cutler, who is making only the second playoff start of his career.

Belichick isn't the only coach who's probably cursing the fact Ryan has been able to win with an outspoken honesty and bravado that's rare among NFL coaches and frowned upon for players. Giants old-school coach Tom Coughlin was verbally body-slammed earlier this week when Giants safeties Antrel Rolle and Kenny Phillips said they'd love to play for Ryan.

"He allows you to be you," Phillips said. "He's not asking you to hide. If you're a guy that likes to talk, go ahead and talk. I'd love to be a part of that."

Forty-two years ago, the Jets won Super Bowl III. Ryan was 5, and his father, Buddy, was on the Jets coaching staff. That's the Super Bowl in which Jets quarterback Joe Namath famously predicted during the week leading up to the game that the AFL Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts of the NFL.

If the Jets win on Sunday, Ryan won't have to pull a Namath. He's been predicting this since last summer.