Three stats to know, and more, from the Jets' 25-22 loss to the Patriots at Gillette Stadium on Sunday:
Q Heating Up in Late October
Quinnen Williams had been having a relatively low-key season but he was a defensive force for the Jets defense in Foxboro. Williams was credited with 1.5 of the Jets' 2 sacks of the Patriots QBs, giving him 3.5 sacks for the season. He also drew a holding penalty on Pats G Michael Jordan, the third time this season opponents have been flagged for holds against No. 95.
It was the 8th multiple-sack game of Quinnen's 6-year career. And while the Jets didn't exactly apply heavy heat to Drake Maye and Jacoby Brissett in the Patriots' pocket, the Jets' 2 sacks gave them a franchise distinction. In their last 6 meetings with the Patriots, the Jets have racked up 28 sacks. Those are the Jets' second-most sacks in a 6-game span against the same opponent in their history, with the only better 6-game run being executed during the Sack Exchange era when the Jets rolled up 30 sacks, again of the Patriots, from 1980-83.
Pass-Catching in the Key of G
Garrett Wilson on Sunday had another big game in his budding career. The Jets WR had 5 receptions for 113 yards from Aaron Rodgers, giving him 3 outings of 100-plus receiving yards in the Jets' last 4 games. No Jets pass-catcher had done that since Brandon Marshall had streaks of 4 and then 5 consecutive 100-yard games in 2015.
G's 22.6-yard average was built on 4 "explosive" receptions, catches of 20-plus yards. He's got 9 catches of 20-plus this season, the most by a Jets receiver in the first 8 games of a season since Jeremy Kerley also had 9 in 2012. Wilson also is on pace to average at least one 20-yarder a game for a whole season, and if he does that he'd be the first since Robbie Chosen, then known as Robbie Anderson, had 17 catches of 20-plus in 16 games in 2017.
We suspect that with Wilson, there are a lot more stats to know ahead.
6 Can Be Good ... or Not
The volatile nature of the game was suggested by its 6 lead changes. The Jets took leads of 13-7, 16-14 and 22-17 while the Patriots went on top at 14-13, 17-16 and by the final 25-22. This was only the 7th game in franchise history that had 6-plus lead changes and the first since 2009 at Miami, a 31-27 loss. The most LCs in a game occurred back when the Jets were the Titans and closed their inaugural season of 1960 at the LA Chargers with a 50-43 loss that had 8 lead changes.
Of their 6 games with 6 lead changes, the Jets won only two, but both were memorable. They outlasted the Dolphins, 51-45, in overtime in 1986 with 6 LCs (plus 3 ties!) made famous by Wesley Walkers 4 TD receptions from Ken O'Brien. And they finished the 2001 season at Oakland with 6 LCs and a last-minute 24-22 win on John Hall's 53-yard FG that earned the Green & White a return trip to Oaktown to play the Raiders in an AFC Wild Card Game 6 days later.
