Inside the Numbers | Sam Darnold, Aaron Rodgers Seek Record-Book Entries in London

Coincidences aren't often coincidental in the NFL. Happenstance is baked into the pro game's cake.

Take QB Sam Darnold. On Sunday he'll be leading the Minnesota offense against the Jets defense at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. And besides wanting to do well against the team that drafted him in Round 1 in 2018 and lead his Vikings to victory on this international stage, he can become a part of NFL history.

In his first four games as the Vikes' starter, he has thrown at least two touchdown passes and posted at least a 100 passer rating in each game. If he does it again against the Jets, he'd become only the fifth QB in league history to go 2-plus and 100-plus in the first five games of a season.

Tom Brady (twice), Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson are on that list. And at the top is one Aaron Rodgers, Darnold's Sunday QB counterpart who has the league record for the most of those 2-TD, 100-rating games from the start of a season. A year after winning his first and only Super Bowl with the Packers, to start the first of his four MVP seasons, Rodgers accomplished that rare daily double in each of the first dozen games in 2011.

Included in that 12-game streak for Rodgers: a 33-27 road win over Minnesota and a 45-7 home victory at Lambeau Field over the Vikings. In that streak, he threw for 37 TDs to 5 INTs and had a composite rating of 125.3.

As Rodgers said from London before this afternoon's practice, referring to his ability to still make plays out of the pocket with his legs, "There's a lot of bliss when I'm able to do some of the things that I used to be able to do, that I worked so hard this offseason to be able to do."

Yet while the Jets defense will be trying to prevent Darnold from going off and joining one section of the record book, Rodgers is a near-lock to blissfully enter another section of the big book. With 96 passing yards vs. the Vikes, he'll become only the ninth NFL QB to reach 60,000 passing yards for his career.

Why They Play the Games

As impressive and even formidable as Minnesota's 4-0 record is heading into the Sunday London meeting with the Jets, undefeated records don't win games all on their own. The opponents have something to say about it, too.

The Jets have played 23 games against opponents who were 4-0 or better, winning seven. But they have split the last eight matchups with undefeated foes, each win presenting its own neat storyline.

■ In 2005, Vinny Testaverde, then 41, who Tampa Bay CB Ronde Barber said "had been sitting on his couch eating potato chips," filled in for injured QBs Chad Pennington and Jay Fiedler and led the Jets over the 4-0 Buccaneers, 14-12.

■ In '08, Brett Favre fashioned one of his and the Jets' most impressive victories in his one and only year at the offensive helm, a 34-13 triumph over the 10-0 Titans in Nashville.

■ The next season, Rex Ryan was the HC and rookie Mark Sanchez the QB for the Jets, who went into Indianapolis and built a 29-15 win over the 14-0 Colts, who rested a number of their starters for the playoffs.

■ Last season, the Jets, with Zach Wilson under center, overcame an early 14-3 deficit for the 20-14 win at MetLife for their first win over the Eagles after starting their regular-season rivalry with the Birds 0-12.

There are many more examples of the Jets taking on teams with only one loss but we'll mention just one that stands out. In their first NFL season in 1970, the Green & White struggled to a 3-7 start. The Super Bowl was a recent but fading memory, a challenging foe was up next at Shea Stadium, and Al Woodall was in at QB for the injured Joe Namath. But with a powerful defensive performance featuring four takeaways, the Jets prevailed, 20-10.

The opponents, of course, were the 9-1 Vikings. Will we get a distant replay Sunday? Tune in at 9:30 a.m. ET to find out. Meanwhile, these are the Jets' seven all-time wins over 4-0-plus opponents: