Everything you need to know about Week 3's Patriots-Jets showdown

FOXBORO -- It has been a while since the New England Patriots last lost to the New York Jets. The Pats have won 14 straight against their AFC East counterpart, and could tie a franchise record with another win in New Jersey this weekend.

The last time the Jets beat the Patriots, Ryan Fitzpatrick was throwing passes to Brandon Marshall for New York. Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and James White were still active football players for New England, as was current Patriots inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the top movie at the box office and Adele was saying "Hello" to everyone as her single sat atop the charts. (We've had three Star Wars movies and a slew of shows since then, yet only one additional Adele studio album, in case you were wondering.)

The last time the Jets beat the Patriots was all the way back on December 27, 2015. The Jets have had a dozen different starting quarterbacks since, and none of them have been able to beat Bill Belichick's team.

If the Patriots make it 15 straight wins over the Jets on Sunday afternoon, it would tie the franchise record for the most consecutive wins over an opponent, matching the 15 straight times that New England beat Buffalo between the 2003 season and the 2010 season. 

The 0-2 Patriots could certainly use another win over the Jets, who as you may have heard, had Aaron Rodgers at quarterback for four snaps before he was injured. So now we will be treated to another Mac Jones vs. Zach Wilson rock fight. Defense is going to rule the day in New Jersey this Sunday.

Here is everything you should know ahead of this weekend's Patriots-Jets clash.

Patriots vs. Jets

-The overall series between the Patriots and the Jets was fairly close before New England ripped off this recent run. The Pats are currently up 73-54-1 all-time against the Jets, which includes a pair if playoff wins.

-The Patriots have swept their season series with the Jets 23 times, including 14 times under head coach Bill Belichick. After this Week 3 meeting, the two teams will play against in Foxboro in Week 18.

-Belichick is 38-12 against the Jets for his career, and 37-11 against them during his tenure with the Patriots. 

-New England's 73 wins over the Jets are the second-most over any single opponent. The Jets trail only the Buffalo Bills in that department, as the Pats own 77 all-time wins over Buffalo.

-The Jets are the only AFC East team that Mac Jones owns a winning record against at 4-0. He is just 1-3 against both the Dolphins and the Bills.

Against the Jets, Jones has completed 93 of his 128 passes (good for a 72.66 completion percentage) for three touchdowns and just one interception

-Wilson, on the other hand, is 0-4 against the Patriots and has completed just over 50 percent of his passes against New England (54 of 106). He has just two touchdowns to seven interceptions against the Pats.

Connections

-You know the story: Bill Belichick was supposed to take over as head coach of the Jets when Bill Parcells stepped down in 2000, and he held the position for all of one day. In true Belichick fashion, he resigned as "HC of the NYJ" on a napkin. He was named HC of the NEP less than a month later and the rest is history.

-In a much less exciting tale, Pats running back Ty Montgomery spent the 2019 season with the Jets.

-Former running back Leon Washington, who spent part of the 2013 season with the Patriots, has been the assistant special teams coach for the Jets since 2021.

Other Stuff You Need To Know

-Mac Jones has over 30 completions in each of his first two games this season, including a career-high 35 completions in Week 1. If he hits that mark again this weekend, Jones will join Tom Brady as the only Patriots quarterbacks to have three straight games with at least 30 completions. Brady accomplished the feat to start the 2011, with the Pats going 2-1 in those contests.

-Chances are this will be a defensive battle, and that's a good thing for Mac Jones. The quarterback is 0-13 in his career when opponents score more than 24 points.

-Hunter Henry has a touchdown in each of the first two games, and has already matched his 2022 touchdown total. With another touchdown this weekend, Henry would become the first Patriots player with a touchdown reception in each of the team's first three games since Rob Gronkowski did it in 2011, when Gronk started the season with five touchdowns over the first three games. 

The last Pats player to score a touchdown in each of the team's first three games was LeGarrette Blount, who scored a rushing touchdown in the first three games of the 2016 season.

-The New England offense has scored a touchdown on five of their seven trips into the red zone, and their 71.4 percent success rate ranked fourth-best in the NFL through the first two weeks. The Patriots were last in the NFL in red zone touchdown rate last season at 42.2 percent.

Tune in to Patriots-Jets on WBZ-TV -- the television home of the New England Patriots. Coverage continues Friday with Patriots All Access at 7 p.m. on WBZ-TV. We have everything you need come Sunday, starting at 11:30 a.m. with Patriots GameDay, the Pats and the Jets will kick off at 1 p.m., and we'll have full reaction and analysis of the game on Patriots 5th Quarter after the game -- all on WBZ-TV!