Jets defence dams Rivers to overcome Chargers

The New York Jets upset the San Diego Chargers to reach the AFC Championship game with a 17-14 win in southern California. The Jets, with a first-year head coach in Rex Ryan and rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez, outsmarted the AFC second seeds at Qualcomm Stadium to set up a trip to the top-seeded Indianapolis Colts next Sunday, who on Saturday had beaten the Baltimore Ravens. The Chargers had gone into the game on the back of an 11-game winning streak in the regular season to finish with a 13-3 record as AFC West champions. The defence-minded Jets, meanwhile, had scraped into the post-season on the final day of the regular season with a 9-7 record and they upset the odds in the opening, wild card round of the play-offs by winning at the Cincinnati Bengals. New York ended the first half just 7-0 down, the Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers having found Kris Wilson with a 13-yard touchdown pass, the kicker Nate Kaeding adding the extra point at the beginning of the second quarter. The Jets got on the scoreboard at the start of the third quarter with a Jay Feely field goal and then the New York defence took over, containing Rivers with two interceptions and also seeing Kaeding miss his third field goal attempt of the game. The fourth quarter saw Sanchez throw a touchdown pass into the end zone for Dustin Keller and then running back Shonn Greene broke the game open with a 53-yard touchdown run to put the Jets 17-7 ahead with seven minutes and 17 seconds remaining. Rivers got the Chargers within three points when he rushed over the goal-line with 2:14 left on the clock but the Jets held onto the football for an upset victory, New York becoming the only wild card team on the road to have upset a seed in the four games this weekend.

* PA Sport