Oh, how time flies… or drags, if you’re a New York Jets fan.

It’s already been 15 years since that fateful day: Jan. 23, 2011. The Jets, fresh off back-to-back road playoff wins over MVP quarterbacks, took the field on a frigid 17-degree night in Allegheny County, where they would battle the Pittsburgh Steelers for a trip to the Super Bowl.

With the experience of an AFC championship loss in Indianapolis the year prior, the upstart Jets, winners of four playoff games in just two years under head coach Rex Ryan, seemed poised to get over the hump. After all, they had beaten Pittsburgh on the very same field a month earlier. Just four more quarters, and the hinges would finally give in after 42 years of kicking the door.

After falling into a 24-0 hole to open the game, New York rallied, racking up 19 straight points. With two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Jets buried the Steelers in a third-and-6 situation, leaving Gang Green one play away from possessing not just the football, but a chance to drive their way to the Super Bowl for the first time since Apollo 11 was in its pre-flight stage.

The 2010 season was the year of the comeback for the Jets. Second-year quarterback Mark Sanchez racked up five game-winning drives in the regular season and another in the playoffs. Riding the momentum of a 19-0 run, the Jets’ sideline and fanbase believed they were about to win the AFC if their elite defense could get just one more stop.

The pocket was caving in. The coverage was tight downfield.

Then… Big Ben Roethlisberger scrambled, sluggishly hauling all 240 pounds of his 6-foot-5 frame out of the pocket as the Jets’ terrifying defense closed in on him. Roethlisberger hurled the ball in the direction of an uncovered black jersey, and the whole world watched as No. 84, a little-known sixth-round rookie who had not caught a pass all night, dove to the ground and secured the pigskin in his arms, cradling it as he tumbled to the turf with the Jets’ hopes and dreams in his arms.

A decade-and-a-half later, the Jets are still waiting to get the ball back from Antonio Brown.

January 23, 2011

AFC Championship

NY Jets 19
Pittsburgh 24

Heinz Field 6 :30PM CBS

Mark Sanchez 20-33-233-2-0
Shonn Greene 9-52
Dustin Keller 8-64
Santonio Holmes 2-61-1
Braylon Edwards 3-50
Jerricho Cotchery 5-33-1
Jets D 2 Ints, 2 sacks, safety#JetUp #Jetshistory pic.twitter.com/teBPRG1Z3B

— New York Jets History (@nyjetshistory) January 23, 2026

It is fascinating to think about the ramifications of the game after all this time.

If the Jets had won, they would have faced Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl. Rodgers wound up defeating the Steelers to secure his first and likely only ring as an NFL quarterback.

Had Rodgers faced the Jets’ dominant pass defense, though, there is no telling how things could have gone. When Rodgers faced the Jets in the regular season, they held him to no touchdowns and a season-low 44.1% completion rate, although the Packers won 9-0.

Of course, Rodgers ended up joining the Jets 12 years later, beginning a two-year stint that he does not seem to remember fondly. He also ended up playing for the Steelers, the team he faced in the Super Bowl instead of the Jets.

Meanwhile, the Jets are still trying to return to the playoffs. Since Brown converted on third-and-6, the Jets have embarked on the longest playoff drought in franchise history, a 15-year run of futility. It is also the longest drought in the “Big 4” North American sports leagues.

The silver lining for Jets fans, though, is that even with 15 years to make a move, two of the Jets’ AFC East rivals have still unable to match the Jets’ playoff success over the last three decades.

Across the past 30 seasons (1996-2025), the Jets have made three AFC championship appearances (1998, 2009, 2010). That remains more than the combined total of the Buffalo Bills (two) and the Miami Dolphins (zero) over that span, a fun little factoid that was cemented with Buffalo’s divisional loss in Denver last week.

Of course, the New England Patriots are laughing in the faces of their futile division rivals as they prepare for yet another AFC championship, the cherry on top of a comically short period of “dark days” following Tom Brady’s exit.

Still, Jets fans can take solace in the fact that, even with a decade-and-a-half out of the dance, many teams across the NFL have still failed to match the playoff achievements New York has recorded in the lifetimes of many fans, including two of the team’s most bitter rivals.

In fact, the Jets still have a chance to extend their active streak of four consecutive decades with an AFC championship appearance, which is a pretty impressive feat across the league.

The Jets made it to the NFL’s semifinal round in 1982, 1998, 2009, and 2010. So, if they can manage to pull it off in the next five seasons, they will keep pace with the Patriots for at least the third-longest streak in the conference. The Steelers are trying to make it six straight decades in the next five years, while the Broncos just made it six straight with their divisional win over Buffalo.

While the last 15 years have been trying for the Jets and their fans, this period has also highlighted just how remarkable it is that the team did what it did over those two magical years under Ryan. Making back-to-back AFC championship appearances without a single home game is an achievement that borders on the unfathomable.

Since 2010, numerous NFL teams have cycled through multiple eras of their history without making a single championship game appearance, let alone two. The Jets pulled it off in back-to-back years without even winning their division.

Still, Jets fans are understandably tired of waving pom-poms for achievements that took place when a current member of the team was seven years old (Braelon Allen). It’s about time that the Jets create some new highlights for fans to look back fondly upon after 15 years.

January 16, 2011

AFC Divisional

NY Jets 28
New England 21

4:30PM CBS

Mark Sanchez 16-25-194-3-0
Shonn Greene 17-76-1
Jerricho Cotchery 5-96
Braylon Edwards 2-52-1
Santonio Holmes 3-20-1
Jets D 5 sacks, Int#JetUp #Jetshistory pic.twitter.com/SevdyNlCh2

— New York Jets History (@nyjetshistory) January 16, 2026

While Jets fans will never get tired of re-watching the highlight of David Harris picking off Tom Brady in January 2011, that CBS footage looks a little more reminiscent of black-and-white television with every passing day. At this point, it surprises me when I remember that the Reebok uniforms did not, in fact, have leather helmets.

Sid Luckman, Mark Sanchez; what’s the difference?

Go make some new highlights, Jets.