New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan is confident his team will not only beat the Cincinnati Bengals this weekend but also go on to win the Super Bowl four weeks from now.
The Jets travel to Cincinnati on Saturday night to begin a play-off campaign they hope will lead to Miami and Super Bowl XLIV on February 7.
Ryan, in his first season in charge, is looking at this American Football Conference Wild Card game for his Jets to pick up where they finished last Sunday when they crushed the AFC North-champion Bengals 37-0 at home in the final game of the regular season.
"We're trying to win this thing," Ryan said this week. "That's our goal. To get to this point and not have that as your ultimate goal, you're not going to be successful.
"To me we should be favourites...for the whole tournament.
"I think we have the best defence. I know we do. I know we have the best rushing attack. Those are two huge factors in our favour. If I had a choice to coach any team in this tournament, I would choose this one."
Just being in the play-offs represents a big achievement for the Jets, who with a first-year coach and rookie quarterback in Mark Sanchez turned a 4-6 start to the season into a winning campaign with five victories in their last six games.
Ryan did acknowledge this weekend's Bengals will be a very different prospect from last Sunday.
Having already qualified for the play-offs, Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer, wide receiver Chad Ochocinco and running back Cedric Benson, the mainstays of the Bengals offence, played little or no part in the big loss as the Jets scored a shutout and enhanced their reputation as the best defence in the NFL.
The other AFC Wild Card game sees the Baltimore Ravens visit the New England Patriots on Sunday night in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The Patriots won the AFC East with a 10-6 record but have lost leading wide receiver Wes Welker to a knee injury that will keep him out until next season. The Ravens secured their berth in the play-offs last weekend, victory over the Oakland Raiders lifting them to a 9-7 record.
AFC first and second seeds the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers await the winners next weekend.
Places in the National Football Conference play-offs were secured before last Sunday's regular season finales, although both wild card games feature rematches from last weekend as the Philadelphia Eagles return to Texas to play the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night and the Green Bay Packers revisit the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday night.
The Eagles lost 24-0 to Dallas to hand their rivals the NFC East title, while the Packers defeated an understrength Cardinals team 33-7, Arizona having already clinched the NFC West
The New Orleans Saints and second-seeded Minnesota Vikings await in the NFC divisional round.