A prolonged no-fly zone has hovered over the Jets every time they play the Patriots.
Quarterbacks beware — passes end in disaster against New England’s secondary. And soon after, catastrophic results for the Jets against their bitter rivals.
The Jets have lost their last 14 games against the Patriots entering their Week 3 matchup Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium.
The streak, which began in 2016 when the Jets lost both matchups, is the second-longest current regular-season losing streak any team has against one opponent, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Only the Broncos’ current 15-game losing streak to the Chiefs is longer.
All time, the Jets’ losing streak is tied for the seventh-longest. The Bills’ 20-game losing streak against the Dolphins is the all-time record.
Going back to 2014, the Jets have lost 17 out of 18 games against the Patriots.
“It wasn’t really a rivalry, because it wasn’t really competitive,” Logan Ryan, who played for the Patriots between 2013-16, told The Post over the phone Tuesday afternoon. “In New England they don’t necessarily weigh one more than the others, that will never be what Bill [Belichick] says or what it will be. But you know the history behind that because of Bill’s one day as a Jets coach and that whole thing, I think he knows the animosity Jets fans have for him.”
Ryan, who won two Super Bowls with New England before stints with the Titans, Giants and Buccaneers, was a key part of Belichick’s secondary.
The Patriots owned a 6-2 record against the Jets when Ryan was there, and he played a pivotal role in helping begin the streak with two wins over the Jets his final season with the team.
Ryan’s secondary, and all the subsequent Patriots secondaries to follow, have long emerged as Belichick’s favorite way to terrorize the Jets and their quarterbacks.
Eight different Jets quarterbacks have played during the 14-game losing streak, combining to throw 23 interceptions to just 12 touchdowns.
Jets quarterbacks threw multiple interceptions seven times, and threw for under 200 yards five times.
The most infamous was Sam Darnold’s performance in a 33-0 loss in 2019, when he completed just 11 of 32 passes for 86 yards and tossed four interceptions with no touchdowns, uttering that he was “seeing ghosts” in the Patriots’ secondary.
The most recent was the worst moment of Zach Wilson’s young career, the quarterback who will again be under center for the Jets on Sunday making his second consecutive start after Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles.
In a 10-3 loss last year, Wilson completed just 9 of 22 passes for 77 yards and pointedly answered “no” after the game when asked if he let his defense down.
He was subsequently benched and apologized to the team for his demeanor.
What again awaits Wilson in the Patriots’ secondary?
“I don’t think the Jets really had a quarterback in those 14 games, not really a good one,” said Ryan, who is a free agent and is open to an NFL return in the right spot. “Bill has the best defensive schematics in football. … Bill has the best nuances and he’s able to do a lot of different things with the defensive line around a lot of different coverages. A lot of them look the same, and they play out differently. If you don’t have a seasoned quarterback that is really good at reading defenses, and you have some obvious tendencies, he’s gonna pick that apart. If you don’t have a complex scheme, he’s gonna pick that apart. …
“There’s enough wrinkles where it can look like a completely different defense, but it’s only two players switching, doing something different. Bill is gonna make you figure it out. If you think you’ve got it figured out, he’s gonna make you prove it.”
For much of the losing streak, the Jets lacked star weapons on offense to help counter the Patriots’ defensive tricks.
Star receiver Garrett Wilson is likely the best talent they’ve had in that span.
He’s already 0-2 against the Patriots and eager to finally put an end to the streak.
“It’s time that things change around here. … That’s unacceptable,” Wilson said Tuesday on “Bart & Hahn” on ESPN NY Radio. “I walked into a team that, we haven’t beaten the Patriots. I feel like that’s why they brought me here, brought me and Sauce [Gardner] here and the guys here — to make things like that change. It’s time we do what we get paid for.”
Other trends from the 14-game losing streak:
— The Jets reached 100 rushing yards only three times.
Can Breece Hall and Dalvin Cook bounce back and provide Wilson support?
— The Jets’ defense forced just six combined turnovers. A supremely confident group, can they provide a game-changing play?
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