Three sets of statistical trends, records, mileposts and highlights following the Jets' 38-33 home loss to the Raiders on Sunday:
More One-Two Wideout Punch
Garrett Wilson and Adonai Mitchell, who figured to be a dynamic duo atop an intriguing wide receiver corps, teamed up in Week 8 against the Raiders. Mitchell had a career game with 7 receptions for 142 yards and a touchdown, while Wilson returned to high visibility with 12 targets making 6 catches for 83 yards.
There was at least one more way besides yards and receptions to measure their impact. Wilson's 6 catches all resulted in Jets first downs, while 6 of Mitchell's 7 did the same. Each also notched a pair of third-down conversions. They became just the Jets' fourth pass-catching tandem since 1970 to each register 6-plus first downs and 2-plus third-down conversions together in the same game.
The duo of Jerome Barkum, then still a WR, and Richard Caster, who had become the starting TE, achieved this rare double in 1973 at Cincinnati, with both Joe Namath and Al Woodall under center. Fifteen years later, WR Al Toon and TE Mickey Shuler both went 6-plus/2-plus with another QB team, Ken O'Brien and Pat Ryan, doing the dishes vs. Miami in 1988.
Most recently, Jermaine Kearse and Robby Anderson teamed up with Josh McCown to move the chains a half dozen times each in the Jets' 38-31 MetLife Stadium win over none other than the Chiefs. It's a good omen, perhaps, with the Jets going to Kansas City this weekend to try to outscore Patrick Mahomes and friends at Arrowhead Stadium.
Those Were the Days
It hadn't been that long ago that the Jets and their opponents cleared 70 points combined in a game as they did with their 71 combined points Sunday. Last season the Jets and Bengals scored 77 in the Jets' 39-38 comeback win at Cincinnati.
But the Jets and Raiders? They had played 32 games against each other over the past half-century-plus since the last time these old frenemies reached 70 points. And that was "the Heidi Game," in which the Jets held a 32-29 lead before NBC ended its telecast from Oakland to air, on schedule beginning at 7 p.m. ET, the children's classic movie Heidi.
Thus, Jets fans in the eastern United States missed the final minute of play, during which the Raiders scored two touchdowns to secure their 43-32 comeback victory. Seventy-five points the hard way for the Jets, who of course got payback six weeks later with their own stunning comeback over the Raiders, 27-23, at Shea Stadium for the AFL Championship ─ and a trip to Super Bowl III.
Moore Special Streaks
Malachi Moore kept his special teams coverage streak rolling along with a second-quarter solo tackle on a Raiders kickoff return. That extended Moore's streak of games with at least one special teams tackle to every game this season, eight in all, which is the longest streak by a Jet since ST tackles were rigorously recorded beginning in 1994.
But Moore's mark is for the longest in-season streak in recent franchise history. Chris Hayes, one of the special names in Jets special teams history, assembled a 9-game tackle streak over two seasons, the final 6 games of 2007 and the first 3 games of '08. So Moore can do am even deeper dive into team history with one more takedown in KC to equal Hayes' nine in a row.
