Jets have opportunity to turn tables on Patriots and reverse trend of one-sided rivalry
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers signals to his teammates during the first half of an NFL game against the 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sept. 9. Credit: AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — You may have noticed something missing from the buildup toward this latest chapter of the Jets-Patriots rivalry that will unfold on Thursday night.
Bill Belichick? Yes, of course. For the first time since last century the Duke of Dour won’t be hoodied up on the New England sideline haunting the team he left to become the greatest coach of all time elsewhere.
But there is something else absent this time around. A question in the locker room that had become an integral a part of these meetings, particularly in recent years.
That’s right. No one is asking why the Jets can’t beat the Patriots. And the reason is simple. It’s because they did. Back in January they won in Foxborough, 17-3, in the otherwise meaningless 2023 regular season finale, to snap a 15-game losing skid in the one-sided rivalry.
“I'm happy that whole that whole streak and those conversations are over with, I can tell you that,” tight end Tyler Conklin said.
Coach Robert Saleh was able to finally laugh about not facing those queries, too.
“It’s good,” he said. “It is a new regime [for New England], so it is a whole new set up.”
And with it comes a chance to finally change an age-old narrative here in New York and up in New England, to start rewriting the expectations whenever these two franchises meet, and maybe even reverse history to begin an era of Jets dominance over the Patriots.
“That’s the plan,” wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “It’s definitely a rivalry and these are hard games and hard-fought battles. But they’ve had their run and I know we take a lot of pride in trying to go get ours.”
To that end the Jets will also unveil a new addition to the cast of characters who have been defined, in one way or another over the past 23 years, by how they performed in these matchups. Thursday will be the first time Aaron Rodgers plays against New England as a Jet, and there is obvious hope that he can do to them what their future Hall of Fame quarterback did to the Jets for so many heartbreaking years.
In the Jets’ minds there were always three games that stood out as the reason for them to bring Rodgers here when they did. The first was a possible Super Bowl. The other two were the regular season games against New England. Some of that urgency to beat the Patriots had dissipated with Belichick’s removal from the scene and the Jets’ recent success that ushered him out the door, but these games still very much matter. Rodgers wasn’t able to play in them last year. This year he will get to leave his imprint on the long-standing feud.
He doesn’t look at it that way. At least not as something that can be accomplished in one night.
“I think you need more than a couple games to put a stamp on a rivalry,” he said.
But he also noted he was a big part of “arguably the best rivalry in football” when he played for the Packers and faced the Bears twice a year.
“I was a part of turning that thing around,” he said. “When I first started we were behind in the all-time series, and when I finished we were ahead and the Packers had beaten them 10 straight. That was fun to be a part of.”
He probably won’t stick around here long enough to see that kind of turnaround. The Patriots have a 74-55-1 all-time record against the Jets. It would take a decade of dominance to affect that tilt.
But maybe Rodgers can at least be part of the start of a new chapter to a very old story. That would certainly qualify as a “stamp.”
The Patriots may be in the early stages of their own transition, their first season under new coach Jerod Mayo who was their former defensive coordinator, but they remain a dangerous opponent with the same 1-1 record that the Jets have.
“They have shown out really good in the first two games,” Saleh said. “Obviously, defensively, there is still a lot of familiarity. They are doing a lot of the same stuff they used to do, so in our mind, they're running a system that they're very familiar with. They're very sound, very disciplined. They get after it from a defense perspective, so that part of the ball is very, very familiar.”
Offensively, Saleh said, is where the biggest schematic changes can be seen.
“They're running the heck out of the football, they’re playing a physical brand of football,” he said. “[Jacoby] Brissett is doing a great job getting rid of the ball and they're moving it. They're playing well.”
But the mesmerizing mystique this organization once seemed to hold over the Jets is gone. Just like Belichick, just like Brady, just like all the rest of the tormentors who gleefully took part in messing with the Jets.
Those days are over. It’s a new dawn.
Said Conklin: “It's a good opportunity for us to create our own streak.”
It may be a little premature when these teams meet again in a little over a month, but maybe at some point soon the question will start to be asked in the New England locker room with regularity:
Why can’t you guys beat the Jets?
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.