NY Jets (10-7) at Oakland (11-5)
4:30pm EST
AFC divisional playoff
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA (TICKER) -- The New York Jets and Oakland Raiders are quite familiar with each other. On Sunday, they will meet again in the AFC divisional playoffs.
The macabre Raiders fans in the "Black Hole" will welcome the Jets for the fourth time since last January.
"When we pull up to that place, the people know all the players' names now, because they have been there at the same hotel the last two years," Jets coach Herman Edwards said. "I'm a partial resident. The guy over at the coffee place up the street, the Starbucks, they'll have my coffee ready when I go over there."
But all joking aside, familiarity often breeds contempt and a war of words developed between the teams this week.
The Raiders won the most recent meeting here, 26-20, on December 3 as NFL Most Valuable Player Rich Gannon completed 31-of-42 passes for 342 yards.
When asked about that game recently, Jets guard Dave Szott told reporters that his team just ran out of time since the game ended with the Jets deep in Oakland territory.
"It's not like they clearly beat us. We just ran out of time," Szott said.
The Raiders posted Szott's comments on the bulletin board in their locker room and Oakland guard Frank Middleton downplayed the Jets' 41-0 rout of the Indianapolis Colts in the wild card round.
"The Colts are not one of the better teams in the league, so they don't impress me," Middleton said. "The Colts are a turf team, not a grass team. I don't think the Colts should have been in the playoffs."
In the last meeting, Jets defensive tackle Josh Evans accused Middleton of "dirty hits to the knees." Middleton didn't forget Evans' accusations when addressing reporters this week.
"He (Evans) has got to come back on Sunday and if he didn't like it then, he's sure not going to like it now," Middleton said. "Nobody on that D-line scares me."
The Jets have won eight of their last 10 games, but the Raiders closed the season with seven wins in eight games to clinch home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.
Last season, the Jets and Raiders were involved in two critical games here in a span of six days. They met in the final week of the regular season before playing again in the wild card round.
John Hall ensured the teams would meet in the playoffs, kicking a 53-yard field goal with 59 seconds remaining, lifting the Jets to a dramatic 24-22 victory. That defeat cost the Raiders a first-round bye.
But in the playoff game, the Raiders got their revenge as Jerry Rice had nine catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-24 victory. Gannon passed for 294 yards and two scores.
In the meeting last month, Tim Brown became the third player in history to record 1,000 career receptions on a six-yard catch 3 1/2 minutes into the second half. He was surprised by his entire family as the Raiders held a brief on-field ceremony.
The Jets held a 10-6 lead at the time and appeared upset that the ceremony delayed the game.
"We were not pleased with that," said Evans, a member of the Tennessee Titans' 1999 Super Bowl team. "We were wondering how long that was going to last."
Rice hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass immediately after the ceremony, giving Oakland the lead for good.
"Well, we tried to distract them with that little performance," joked Gannon.
After Gannon hooked up with Rice for the go-ahead score, kick returner Chad Morton replaced an injured Santana Moss on punts and fumbled his first try on a hit by Marcus Knight.
Oakland responded with a 12-yard TD drive, making it 20-10 on Zack Crockett's one-yard run with 3:32 left in the third quarter
The teams then exchanged field goals before Chad Pennington engineered a 71-yard TD drive, capped by his 13-yard toss to Wayne Chrebet, pulling the Jets within 23-20 with 5:32 remaining.
After Sebastien Janikowski's fourth field goal of the day, the Jets got the final possession of the game with 66 seconds left but needed to drive 74 yards. Pennington got them to Oakland's 35 before taking a sack and throwing an interception.
The game was a coming out party for New York's Laveranues Coles, who had 10 catches for 158 yards. He finished the season with 89 catches for 1,264 yards and five touchdowns.
Pennington was 22-of-34 for 265 yards and two touchdowns with one interception in the loss. He led the NFL in passer rating this season and is 9-4 since taking over as New York's starting quarterback.
Pennington has passed for 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions in his last three games as the Jets scored 113 points in wins over New England, Green Bay and Indianapolis.
Raiders cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Tory James had steel plates inserted in their legs to stabilize fractured bones last month. Woodson's surgery occurred on December 24, but he expects to play on Sunday. James underwent surgery on December 12 and will start.
Both cornerbacks will indeed be tested by Coles, Chrebet and Moss.
The Jets were 0-8-1 in Oakland since 1963 before Hall's winning kick in last year's wild card round.
The winner of this game will play the Tennessee Titans in the AFC championship game.
The Raiders lead the series, 20-11-2.