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[Dave]

I have this thing...this weird bias in my head that I always feel like the Jets play the Raiders almost every year. Given that teams play a given division in their conference once every three years (plus two games in their conference based on last year's record), it seems improbable. I also feel like the Jets play the Ravens more often than they should. But maybe it's just my imperfect memory conjuring these things. After all, I also feel like the Jets lose to Oakland and Baltimore far more often than they win. So I decided to go back to 1996 (16 seasons) to see how often the Jets played each team (and how they fared). In 16 seasons the results are:

Jets vs Oakland Raiders
11 games (+1 Wild Card game), 5W-6L (0-1 in playoffs). Jets are 3-2 in the last five meetings (including last Sunday).

Jets vs Baltimore Ravens
8 games, 1W-6L (no playoff games). The 8th game is next Sunday. Jets haven't beaten the Ravens since 1997.

So the number should be something like 5.33 games +/- n, where n is the number of times they played based on the previous season's schedule. I guess the Baltimore number is reasonable. 11 games against the Raiders in 16 seasons seems excessive. This includes a stretch between 1999 - 2003 (5 yrs) where they played against each other in every regular season (plus one playoff game, 2W-4L record). All six of those games were away games. All six. In fact, only 3 Jets vs. Raiders games since 1996 have been in the Meadowlands.