Troy Polamalu, Clay Matthews, Mark Sanchez and Joe McKnight are advancing to the AFC and NFC Conference Championships. The Jets led by Mark Sanchez will face off against Troy Polamalu and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Packers and Clay Matthews will battle the Bears. After the jump I will tell you who wins and why….

In two years, Mark Sanchez is 4 – 1 in the playoffs. He has beaten Tom Brady and the Patriots, Peyton Manning and the Colts, Philip Rivers and the Chargers and Carson Palmer and the Bengals. All his playoff wins were on the road. This season he has had his ups and downs but when it matters most he has come through in the clutch. This is what Peter King wrote about Mark Sanchez after his win against the Pats:

I think there’s something about Mark Sanchez that isn’t measurable in stats, though his numbers were good Sunday in Foxboro after he started the day throwing the ball off-target. What he’s shown this year — in overtime in Detroit and Cleveland, and Sunday in the second half in Foxboro — is the ability to make a big throw or two at the biggest of moments. There’s something to be said for being able to perform at your best when it’s most important. That’s the moral of the Sanchez contribution to the first two games of the Jets’ playoff run.

The Jets vs. the Steelers should be an awesome battle. The Steelers are always tough at home and their defense is strong but I am not sure if Troy Polamalu is completely healthy. Big Ben has been here before and they have a balanced offensive attack with a strong running game and good receivers but right now their offensive line is thin. They gave up five sacks against the Ravens.

The Jets were destined to make it to the conference championship this year. I can’t remember a week when they weren’t the news, mostly for the wrong reasons. It all started with Rex Ryan flipping off the crowd at a MMA fight in Miami. Then HBO Hard Knocks portrayed the Jets as the most cocky team in the league and showed that when put on the spot Antonio Cromartie has a hard time remembering all his kids names and ages (even though most of his kids are the same age).

The off the field chaos continued with the Ines Sainz locker room incident, the Braylan Edwards DUI, and probably some other stuff I can’t remember or blocked out. When we thought we had seen it all with Jets, the Ryan family foot fetish videos came out (I will never understand the “foot thing” but more power to a fat guy with an attractive wife that can get her on camera to role play).

This story has actually turned into a lighting rod for the Jets. After Wes Welker’s press conference where he casually dropped innuendo after innuendo about feet, it seems like this fired the Jets players up. It gave them something to rally around. They all wanted to defend their coach, his wife and toe sucking in general. Some are saying now that the genius of Rexy made this whole thing up to give his team extra motivation. A clever ruse to have the public perceive his team as a bunch of misfits that nobody believed in. All the Jets wanted now was respect.

Whether it was planned or not, it worked because on the field the Jets are finding ways to win. With all the distractions it was hard to remember that Santonio Holmes was a Super Bowl MVP, Revis is an Island and Rex Ryan was a really good defensive coordinator for the Ravens a few years ago. Those are the real reasons the Jets are in the AFC championship.

If I had to make a pick I would say the Jets pull another one out this weekend. They remind me of the Giants a few years ago. A team that got hot at the right time and can win on the road. I expect Rexy to come up with another killer game plan that beats up Big Ben and exposes the Steelers banged up O-Line. And if Karma is somehow involved in sports, sorry Pittsburgh this is where Big Ben’s off field the bathroom behavior hurts your chances. Plus the world needs to see a Jets Super Bowl media day, especially after this Bart Scott interview.

The other game this weekend is the Packers vs. the Bears, a legendary rivalry. I am going to keep this analysis short. I am taking the team with Clay Matthews and Aaron Rodgers. They are the two biggest game changers on offense and defense in the NFL right now (and they both played in the Pac-10 even though one of them went to dirty Cal). Rodgers is playing out of his head and many believe he is the best all-around QB in the NFL. And what else is there to say about Clay Matthews. He was born to play football. After sacking Matty Ice twice last weekend and recovering a fumble Matthews will torment Jay Cutler all day.

So there you go. My early picks to face off in the Super Bowl, The Jets vs. the Packers.

And if I was Super Bowl betting… I am taking the Packers because of this video.