Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez Winning as the Jets Odd Couple

New York Jets head coach, Rex Ryan and his second year quarterback, Mark Sanchez, may be forming one of the great bromances.  Maybe its not exactly Walsh and Montana,  Holmgren and Favre or Louis and Rick in "Casablanca."  Let's say it is more like Unger and Madison. 

Believe it or not Ryan has won playoff games in more seasons than New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin.  Pretty amazing, considering that Coughlin has been around the Meadowlands for seven seasons, while Ryan hopped on board in 2009---the same year the Jets drafted the USC signal-caller.

Now both coaches go in different directions for the second year in a row.

Now,  the disparate partners (Ryan and Sanchez) will pull a Hope and Crosby as they hit the road to New England where they will meet their division rivals, the Patriots next Sunday.

After Saturday's last-second victory against the Indianapolis Colts, 17-16, in an AFC wild card match-up,  the Jets can't afford to rest.  Awaiting them will be the anti-Ryan, Bill Belichick and his better half QB, Tom Brady.

Ryan and Sanchez couldn't be at more opposite ends of the social spectrum.  Sanchez, the second year QB, and Adrian Grenier lookalike,  came to New York with all the perks having a glamorous career as a USC quarterback could provide.  There weren't any shortages of dates with starlets and a shirtless photo-spread in GQ started all the talk about Sanchez living up to being the reincarnation of Joe Namath.

Ryan, on the other hand, came to New York with loud-mouth bravado and a girth to match.  His free-wheeling coaching style made the Jets the focus of a number of scandals, incidents and controversies.  This season alone has been a non-stop collection of Page Six entries.  There was HBO's "Hard Knocks," the Inez Sainz incident, the Braylon Edwards DUI, all the old dirt dug up on former Jets quarterback Bret Favre and finally the foot-fetish video.

Off the field the Jets duo are as different as Times Square and Wall Street.  Ryan has been prone to wearing wigs at press conferences and being photographed giving Dolphin fans the finger in a Florida honky-tonk, while the subdued Sanchez has only lived up to a Broadway Joe reputation by attending musicals on The Great White Way.

While Sanchez shows his affinity for the footlights of Broadway,  Ryan has shown his predilection for just the feet.

Still, Ryan continues to ruffle feathers and incite controversy while proving his large persona is comparable to his coaching ability.

Make no mistake about it, Sanchez has come a long way this season and he is lugging Ryan with him.  It was Sanchez who won the game yesterday at Lukas Oil Field.  His last minute drive has become sort of the norm for the Jets signal caller.  The Colts Peyton Manning almost pulled another last minute victory from his bag of audibles, but the last 53 seconds of the game were all Sanchez's.  He seems to play from behind with a veteran player's panache.

The Jets now know they have a quarterback who can perform in crucial situations and win games if they are close.  Sanchez already has more playoff victories than Namath and is only the second rookie quarterback to win his first two playoff games.  After finally beating the Colts, Sanchez is now 3-1 in playoff games.

The Jets travel to Gillette Stadium to face their nemesis, and arguably the best NFL team, the Patriots as big underdogs.  They have been given about as much of a chance of winning on Sunday as a red-winged black bird has of surviving in Arkansas.

Except for dimming Brady's star by comparing his skills to Manning's last week, Ryan has been relatively quiet since the seven "it's personal" comments regarding the foot-fetish video.  There are still six days for Sexy Rexy to stir up some sort of melodrama.

The road to the Super Bowl gets harder through playoff powerhouse New England.  The Pats thumped the Jets by 42 points last month and, even then, the brash Ryan still had the gall to disrespect Brady. 

Ryan continues to lose pounds and gain bravado, but it is Sanchez  who must take control of this season's third meeting with the Patriots.  The Jets beat a Colts team with 18 players on the injured reserve list.  The only injury the Jets must worry about this Sunday is Brady's bruised ego.  The teams are familiar with each other and have plenty of game film to prove it.

The New York Giants are out of the playoffs...again.  Ryan and Sanchez have the back pages of the local tabloids to themselves.  I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.