Patriots-Raiders Week 15 news, notes, and fun facts

BOSTON -- The Patriots are enjoying a week out west following their Monday night win over the Cardinals, gearing up for Sunday's showdown with Josh McDaniels and his Raiders. 

This game was originally scheduled for Sunday Night Football because of the appeal of a Bill Belichick-Josh McDaniels matchup. But that luster dissipated with the Patriots sitting at 7-6 on the season and the Raiders at a disappointing 5-8. While the Patriots are back in the playoff picture, the Raiders have had disappointing loss after disappointing loss. It hasn't been a great start for McDaniels in his second stint as a head coach. 

But former assistants have gotten the better of Belichick before. McDaniels did it back in 2009 in his first season with the Broncos, beating Belichick and the Patriots 20-17 in overtime in Denver.

Matt Patricia picked up his first win as a head coach against his former mentor, beating the Patriots 26-10 in Detroit in 2018. Brian Flores was 3-1 against the Patriots in his two seasons in Miami. Romeo Crennel was 1-1 against the Patriots during his time as a head coach in Cleveland and as an interim head coach in Houston.

Eric Mangini was 3-5 against Belichick and the Patriots during his time in New York and Cleveland, including a playoff loss in 2006. Then there was Bill O'Brien, who was just 1-5 against the Patriots as head coach of the Houston Texas. That includes a 34-16 loss to New England in the 2016 Divisional Round.

Will McDaniels improve to 2-0 as a head coach against his former team? It's pretty much a coin flip given how the Pats and the Raiders have played this season. But it should make for an interesting matchup -- just not interesting enough for the Sunday night timeslot.

Here's everything you need to know heading into Sunday night's tilt:

Week 15 notes

• This weekend will be New England's first regular season game against the Raiders in Las Vegas, though it will not be the team's first trip to Allegiant Stadium. That came during the preseason after the two teams held joint practice sessions over the summer, with the Raiders winning 23-6. 
• The Patriots have won six straight regular season meetings against the Raiders and hold an 18-14-1 edge in the overall series. The two teams first met back in 1960, the inaugural season for both clubs.
• The Pats and the Raiders have met in the playoffs three times, with the Patriots winning two of them. New England advanced to its first AFC Championship Game with a win over the Raiders in Los Angeles in 1985, and then won the famous "Snow Bowl" in the last game ever played at Foxboro Stadium in 2001. The Raiders won the first postseason meeting between the two, a 24-21 win over the Pats in Oakland in 1976.
• The Patriots have squared off against the Las Vegas iteration of the Raiders just once; a 36-20 victory at Gillette Stadium in Sept. 2020. 
  
• New England has four defensive touchdowns this season, the second-most in the NFL behind the five defensive scores by the Arizona Cardinals. The Patriots' team record for most defensive touchdowns in a season is seven, which they set in 2007.
• After a six-sack game against the Cardinals, the Patriots are up to 45 sacks for the season. That's the third-most in the NFL behind Philadelphia (49) and Dallas (48). They are on pace to finish with 58 sacks for the season, which would be tied for the second-most in Patriots history behind the 66 sacks the team recorded in 1963.
• The Patriots defense is allowing just 18.4 points per game, which ranks fifth in the NFL. 
  
• The Las Vegas run game is one of the best in the NFL, averaging 5.1 yards per carry (third in the league) and 128.5 yards per game (10th in the league). But the New England defense is allowing just 4.2 yards per rush, which is good for eighth in the NFL.
• The Raiders secondary ranks toward the bottom of the NFL in both passing yards allowed (254.5 yards per game, 29th in the league) and yards per pass play (7.2 yards, 28th in the league).
• Falling into an early hole on Sunday won't necessarily mean a blowout loss is incoming for the Patriots. Las Vegas has lost four games this year in which they held a 13-point lead.

Player notes

• Patriots linebacker Josh Uche is on quite the streak at the moment, racking up five sacks over his last two games and 10 sacks over a six-game span. His three-sack performance against the Cardinals on Monday night earned Uche AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
• If he gets to David Carr three times on Sunday, Uche would become just the second Patriots player in team history with back-to-back games with three sacks. He'd join Andre Tippett -- who had three sacks in back-to-back games during the 1987 season --in that exclusive group.
• The most sacks by a Patriots player over a three-game span was set by Tippett during that 1987 season, when he recorded seven sacks over a three-game stretchin November.
• Fellow quarterback-seeker Matthew Judon is tied with Nick Bosa for the NFL-lead with 14.5 sacks this season. Judon is on pace to finish with 19 sacks, which would break Tippett's team record of 18.5 sacks in 1984.
• Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson currently ranks third among NFL running backs with 58 receptions. He's fourth in the league with 385 receiving yards.
• New England rookie Marcus Jones leads the NFL with 799 total return yards (301 yards on punt returns and 498 yards on kickoff returns). He ranks first in the league with a 14.3 punt return average and third with a 24.9 average on kickoff returns.
• The Patriots defense will likely try to lock in on Vegas running back Josh Jacobs, who leads the NFL with 1,402 rushing yards. His 11 rushing touchdowns are tied for the third-most in the league.
• The New England secondary will have its hands full with Davante Adams, who is tied for the league-lead with 12 touchdown receptions and is third in the NFL with 1,247 receiving yards.

Connections

Sit down and grab a beverage. This is gonna take a while...

• Josh McDaniels took a trio of New England's offensive coaches with him to Vegas, tabbing Mick Lombardi as his offensive coordinator, Carmen Bricillo as his offensive line coach, and Bo Hardegree as his quarterbacks coach.
• McDaniels also has a handful of Patriots coaches from yesteryear on his staff. Current Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham was on the New England staff from 2009-15, serving a number of different roles. Senior offensive assistant coach Jerry Schuplinski won three Super Bowls with the Patriots as an offensive assistant (2013-15) and assistant quarterbacks coach (2016-18). Senior defensive assistant Rob Ryan was a linebackers coach in New England from 2000-03.
• Raiders GM Dave Ziegler held a number of positions in the New England front office from 2013-21, including director of player personnel in 2021, before leaving for Las Vegas with McDaniels.
• Ten Raiders players previously played for the Patriots: running back Brandon Bolden, defensive end Tashawn Bower, offensive tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, defensive back Duron Harmon, tight end Jacob Hollister, offensive tackle Justin Herron, fullback Jakob Johnson, defensive end Chandler Jones, quarterback Jarrett Stidham, and receiver Isaiah Zuber.
• Raiders safety Jalen Elliott and wide receiver Chris Lacy also spent time with the Patriots, but did not appear in any regular season games with the team.
• The Patriots have three former Raiders on their roster: Nelson Agholor, Trent Brown, and Raekwon McMillan.

WBZ-TV gets you ready for Sunday's Patriots-Raiders clash starting Wednesday night with Patriots 1st Down at 9:30pm on TV38! Coverage continues Friday night on WBZ-TV with Patriots All Access at 7pm, and kicks off Sunday morning with Patriots GameDay at 11:30 am. After the game, switch over to TV38 for full reaction and analysis on Patriots 5th Quarter!