Patriots-Jets Week 8 news, notes, and fun facts

FOXBORO -- Usually, a meeting with the New York Jets is just what the doctor ordered for New England. The Patriots are riding a 12-game winning streak over the Jets, sweeping the season series in each of the last six seasons.

But this one feels a little different. A lot different, actually. The Jets are 5-2 on the season after rattling off four straight wins and currently sit as a playoff team in the AFC. The Patriots, on the other hand, are 3-4 after an embarrassing loss to the Chicago Bears and are being laughed at by the rest of the NFL for the way they handled their quarterback situation on Monday night.

It's all a bit bizarre and we're bracing for more bizarreness this weekend. Here are all the news, notes, and fun facts you need to know heading into a big Week 8 meeting between the Patriots and the Jets. 

Week 8 Notes

• The Patriots have won 12 straight games over the Jets, and if they make it 13 straight they will tie the Kansas City Chiefs for the longest current winning streak over an opponent. The Chiefs currently have 13 straight victories over the Denver Broncos.
• Those 12 straight wins over the Jets is the second-longest winning streak against an opponent in Patriots team history, behind only the 15-game winning streak that New England had over the Buffalo Bills from 2003-10.
• The Patriots have swept their series against the Jets 22 times overall, with 13 of those sweeps coming under Bill Belichick.
• New England leads the overall series against the Jets, 71-54-1. The Patriots are 33-29 on the road against New York (the Jets version, that is), including a 9-3 record at MetLife Stadium.
• The Patriots are 42-16 against the Jets since Robert Kraft purchased the team. Belichick is 35-11 against the Jets as head coach of the Patriots.

Players Notes

• With 324 total wins (regular season and postseason), Belichick needs just one more victory to move into second place on the NFL's all-time wins list. He is currently tied with George Halas, and trails Don Shula and his 347 career wins.
• With a win this weekend, Belichick would also break a tie with Schula for second place on the all-time list for the most coaching wins with one team in the regular season. Belichick currently has 257 regular season wins with the Patriots, matching Schula's total with the Miami Dolphins. Both trail Halas, who won 318 games during his Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears.
• Heading into Week 8, Matthew Judon leads the NFL with 8.5 sacks. He had 12.5 sacks last season in his first year with the team, and is inching closer to becoming just the fourth Patriots player with back-to-back 10-plus sack seasons.
• Judon has 2.5 sacks Monday night against the Bears, and could become the first Patriots player with back-to-back two-sack games since Trey Flowers accomplished the feat in 2016. Monday night was Judon's second two-sack game of the year, joining his two-sack effort against the Lions in Week 5.
• With five sacks already, Deatrich Wise is one away from establishing a new career-high.
• The Patriots are fifth in the NFL with 21 sacks on the season. Jets quarterbacks -- Joe Flacco and Zach Wilson -- have been sacked 17 times this season. 
• DeVante Parker currently ranks second in the NFL with a 21.4-yard average per reception, trailing only Buffalo's Gabe Davis, who is averaging 27.4 yards per reception. Rob Gronkowski was the last Patriots player to average more than 20 yards per reception, with a 21.6-yard per reception average in 2016. Stanley Morgan has the highest average in team history, when he averaged 24.1 yards per reception in 1978.

Connections

• Bill Belichick was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator of the Jets from 1997-99, and was twice the team's head coach -- but he never coaching a game for the franchise. Belichick was named interim head coach of the Jets while New York and New England negotiated compensation for Bill Parcells in February of 1997, but his run at the top only lasted six days. He was then set to take over when Parcells stepped down in 1999, but that only lasted a day. His introduction turned into a resignation, after Belichick let the Jets know that he was stepping down as "HC of the NYJ" on a napkin. He then took over the New England Patriots, and the rest, as they say, is history. 
• Patriots kicker Nick Folk spent seven seasons with the Jets from 2010-16.
• Braxton Berrios was a sixth-round pick by the Patriots in 2018. He was on IR his rookie season and was released ahead of the 2019 season, which is when the Jets claimed him. Berrios has turned into quite the return man for New York, earning First Team All-Pro honors in 2021.

WBZ-TV has you covered for Sunday's Patriots-Jets clash. Pregame coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. with Patriots GameDay, kickoff is set for 1 p.m., and after the game, tune in to Patriots 5th Quarter -- all on WBZ-TV!