The Jets welcome the denizens of the Black Hole, the Oakland Raiders, to North Jersey and their own "gray hole," which could describe MetLife Stadium under slate gray skies that rained heavily all night and could continue to bring precipitation on into the first quarter of today's game (1 p.m. ET kickoff).
The goal for the Green & White is to continue their recent sunshine with another victory, which will extend their winning streak to three games, and perhaps turn their opening-drive touchdown streak into a franchise record.
The Raiders do lead the all-time series 25-19-2, including four playoff meetings, but the Jets are 12-8-1 at home and have won their last five home games over the Silver & Black, the most recent MetLife meeting in 2014.
QB Sam Darnold and the Jets have been hot lately in scoring 34 points in their back-to-back wins over the Giants and last week at Washington. The last time the Jets won three games in a row was early in the 2017 season, when they beat Miami, Jacksonville and Cleveland. And the last time they scored 30-plus points in three straight games was in the Brett Favre season of 2008 (in wins over St. Louis, New England and Tennessee).
And Darnold has lately been leading a dynamic out-of-the-gate offense, which has scored touchdowns on each of its four game-opening series at Jacksonville and Miami and against the Giants and Redskins. If the Jets do it again today, the five games in a row will be the longest such streak in franchise history and would be one of the four longest streaks by any NFL team since 1990.
Despite the Jets' injury-marred season, Darnold should be surrounded by a healthy complement of offensive players, topped by RB Le'Veon Bell, WRs Jamison Crowder, Robby Anderson and Demaryius Thomas, and TE Ryan Griffin, who's also been a hot Darnold target this season and just signed a contract extension with the team Saturday.
Darnold will also have a line that has been healthy recently after many earlier injuries, with LT Kelvin Beachum (ankle), LG Alex Lewis (elbow/shoulder) and RT Chuma Edoga (ankle) all active today after being listed as questionable for the game.
Defensively, the Jets will continue to rely on its NFL-leading run-stopping front seven to battle rookie RB Josh Jacobs and key players such as S Jamal Adams and LB Jordan Jenkins to hold the fort against Oakland QB Derek Carr, enjoying arguably his best season in his second campaign under HC Jon Gruden. Two Jets corners who have started earlier this season, Nate Hairston and Darryl Roberts, are inactive.
Here is the Jets' seven-player inactive list:
- CB Nate Hairston
- CB Darryl Roberts
- LB Paul Worrilow
- S Matthias Farley
- LB C.J. Mosley
- DL Jordan Willis
- T Leo Koloamatangi
And the Raiders' inactives are:
- QB DeShone Kizer
- WR Keelan Doss
- S Lamarcus Joyner
- LB Preston Brown
- C Erik Magnuson
- T David Sharpe
- DT Terrell McClain
The Jets are wearing their green jerseys and white pants for today's game against the Raiders, who are in their white jerseys and pants. The Jets were in green/white for the opening-day home loss to Buffalo and the Game 8 road loss at Miami. Their last win in green/white was the wild 38-31 verdict over the visiting Chiefs in December 2017.
Clete Blakeman is the referee. Blakeman has presided over six previous Jets games since 2011, including the 2013 home win over Drew Brees and the Saints and the 2015 Eric Decker "Meadowlands Leap" OT win over Tom Brady and the Patriots. The Jets won both games by identical 26-20 scores.
