PITTSBURGH — Rex Ryan was teary-eyed when he stepped to the podium after another Super Bowl berth had slipped through his fingers.
“It cuts your heart out,” Ryan said.
It didn’t take long for Ryan to turn defiant.
“Our goal for next year — I got news for ya, it won’t change,” Ryan said. “And it’ll never change.
“We’re gonna chase that Super Bowl. We’re gonna chase it till we get it. And then we’ll chase it after that again.
“But that’s it. People want to criticize us, then you go ahead, but you really got no right.”
That’s not exactly correct. His team had played 30 minutes for the second straight time in the AFC Championship. This time, it was the second 30 minutes, and they deserved to lose 24-19 to the Steelers.
“They did a great job running the football on us — we just did a poor job of tackling,” Ryan said. “For whatever reason our technique wasn’t as good. We made some adjustments at halftime. The tackling, that’s not up to our standards by any stretch of the imagination.”
Ryan expected Ben Roethlisberger to run a quarterback draw on the third-and-6 dagger pass he completed to Antonio Brown to seal the game.
“We were supposed to have pressure off both edges, and I think we were a little late on the pressure,” Ryan said.
He never stopped expecting his team to win.
“It’s supposed to hurt,” he said. “That’s only three years in a row for me, to be knocked out in this game. I’m gonna keep swinging. We’re gonna get through this thing eventually.”
But he said the future is bright and raved about Mark Sanchez.
“This football team’s gonna be good for a number of years,” he said. “Our resolve’s gonna be that, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be right back here.’ I’d like to play in our stadium, but if we don’t, we’ll travel on the road and we’re gonna find a way to win it. And I believe it.”
He told his Jets he was proud of them.
“We had a heckuva season,” he began. “Obviously we came up short tonight, just like we did last year — one game away from the Big Game. We played a good half, we just never played a good game.”
Asked if this was the most crushing loss of his career, Ryan said: “I’d say if it wasn’t, it’s certainly right there. But I would say it’s a safe statement.”
