As it stands, Bryce Petty and the Jets are 17-point underdogs this Sunday in New Orleans. Here are the 15 largest spreads the New York Jets have faced since 1978:

Query Results Table Vegas Rk Tm Year Date Time LTime Opp Week G# Day Result OT Spread

vs. Line Over/Under Result 1 NYJ 2007 2007-12-16 1:02 1:02 @ NWE 15 14 Sun L 10-20 20.5 covered 41.0 under 2 NYJ 1992 1992-12-06 1:00 1:00 @ BUF 14 13 Sun W 24-17 17.0 covered 36.0 over 3 NYJ 2016 2016-12-24 1:00 1:00 @ NWE 16 15 Sat L 3-41 17.0 not covered 45.0 under 4 NYJ 2007 2007-11-22 4:20 3:20 @ DAL 12 11 Thu L 3-34 14.5 not covered 47.5 under 5 NYJ 2017 2017-09-17 4:05 1:05 @ OAK 2 2 Sun L 20-45 14.0 not covered 44.0 over 6 NYJ 1984 1984-11-26 9:00 9:00 @ MIA 13 13 Mon L 17-28 13.5 covered 45.0 push 7 NYJ 1989 1989-12-17 4:00 1:00 @ RAM 15 15 Sun L 14-38 13.0 not covered 43.0 over 8 NYJ 1996 1996-12-08 4:00 4:00 @ NWE 15 14 Sun L 10-34 13.0 not covered 43.5 over 9 NYJ 2005 2005-11-20 4:15 2:15 @ DEN 11 10 Sun L 0-27 13.0 not covered 41.0 under 10 NYJ 1978 1978-10-01 1:00 1:00 PIT 5 5 Sun L 17-28 12.5 covered 0.0 over 11 NYJ 1996 1996-09-15 1:00 1:00 @ MIA 3 3 Sun L 27-36 12.5 covered 39.5 over 12 NYJ 1992 1992-12-20 8:00 8:00 @ MIA 16 15 Sun L 17-19 11.5 covered 37.0 under 13 NYJ 2013 2013-09-12 8:29 8:29 @ NWE 2 2 Thu L 10-13 11.5 covered 43.0 under 14 NYJ 1987 1987-10-11 1:00 1:00 @ IND 5 4 Sun L 0-6 11.0 covered 0.0 over 15 NYJ 2009 2009-11-22 4:15 4:15 @ NWE 11 10 Sun L 14-31 11.0 not covered 45.0 push View Original Table Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com

In the last 4 NFL seasons, there have been just two games with a point spread of greater than 15 points. Both games took place when AFC East teams visited Foxboro. Just three weeks ago, the Patriots hosted the Dolphins and were 17-point favorites; New England took a 28-10 lead early in the third quarter, but wound up “only” winning 35-17. Two weeks later, the Patriots shockingly lost the rematch in Miami as 10.5-point favorites. And last year, the — Bryce Petty-led Jets — were 17-point underdogs in New England and lost 41-3.

That story again: the Jets are 17-point underdogs for the second time in as many starts for Bryce Petty. And the rest of the NFL has been a 16+ point underdog just one other time in the last four years.

The Jets, of course, once won a Super Bowl as an enormous underdog of 18 points (plus or minus a point or two depending on your source). The Jets also won as a 17-point dogs in the Dennis Byrd game against the Bills. Otherwise, the Jets history as big underdogs is what you would expect: it’s mostly losses, with a mix of covering and not covering the spread.

League-wide, teams are 5-84 when underdogs of greater than 15 points in regular season games since 1978. And, as you would suspect, it’s mostly great teams against bad teams.

But the Jets/Saints game is interesting because the Jets are 5-8, only four games behind the 9-4 Saints. The smallest gap in wins between teams in such a large game? That happened with the 1992 Colts and Bills, who played twice back when they were AFC East rivals. Indianapolis was 1-1 when they traveled to Buffalo in week 3, and was blown out 38-0 as 17-point dogs. In week 13, a 4-7 Colts team was a home underdog of 16.5 points…. and beat the 9-2 Bills. Buffalo finished 11-5, while Indianapolis won out the rest of the way, finishing 9-7.