If the NFL had a sense of humor, they would have scheduled this week’s Jets-Patriots matchup on Halloween.

You remember the last time these two teams met, don’t you? That was Oct. 21, 2019, the night Sam Darnold saw ghosts and put up a ghoulish 3.6 quarterback rating as Bill Belichick decided to rent space inside the Jets quarterback’s head.

Now, Darnold gets a chance to perform an exorcism. His comment that he was “seeing ghosts,” captured by NFL Films last year, surely will be a topic on the broadcast Monday night. Those comments will haunt Darnold (sorry) until he can turn things around and beat the Patriots.

Darnold has been atrocious against Belichick’s team. He has played them just twice, missing two other meetings since he joined the Jets. But his numbers are brutal. Darnold completed 45 percent (27-of-60) of his passes for 253 yards with no touchdowns and four interceptions. That is a cumulative quarterback rating of 29.4. The Jets were 0-2 in those games and lost by a combined score of 71-3.

The Patriots, who limp into MetLife Stadium on Monday night at 2-5, do not look like the team that came here on that night of horrors for Darnold more than a year ago. The most obvious difference is Tom Brady now residing in Florida. But the defense Darnold will see when he looks over center also does not resemble that crew that blitzed him last year until he was shakier than a table on two legs.

Linebacker Dont’a Hightower and safety Patrick Chung opted out. Linebackers Jamie Collins and Kyle Van Noy and safety Duron Harmon departed in free agency. New England is still formidable, with Belichick’s big brain on the sideline, but the Patriots are not the dominant force that Darnold saw last year.

The “ghosts” comment came after a heavy dose of Cover Zero blitzes that caused Darnold to be intercepted four times, first because of the pressure and then due to the perceived pressure — the ghosts.

“It is what it is,” Darnold said Friday about dealing with the fallout from his comment. “Anything you say nowadays, people are going to say different things about it. I don’t know. I was able to move on pretty fast. It was a long time ago. I think even from when that game happened until now I feel like I’ve grown a ton as a player and I’ve matured a lot.”

It is time to see that growth and maturity. Because while the “ghosts” storyline is fun and it is time for Darnold to throw his first touchdown pass against the rival Patriots, this is about more than this one game.

Darnold has eight games left to show some progress in his third season. He has eight games left to show that he can be the quarterback of the future, as general manager Joe Douglas called him this week. He has eight games to end the Trevor Lawrence talk and remind people why he was chosen No. 3 overall just two years ago.

Darnold has not shown us that in a while. He has not thrown a single touchdown pass since Sept. 27 at Indianapolis. He missed two games with a sprained shoulder in that span, but he has played in three games without throwing a touchdown pass. Of his three touchdown passes this season, two came on broken plays when he made nice throws and the third was on a screen pass Jamison Crowder turned into a long score. He has not had a nice dropback touchdown pass executed the way it was drawn up.

Darnold has not thrown two touchdown passes in a game since Dec. 12, 2019, in Baltimore and has not had a game with a QB rating of 100 or above since Nov. 24, 2019 against the Raiders.

It has been well documented that Darnold’s struggles are not all on him. Douglas shouldered blame this week for not surrounding him with enough talent this season. The Jets have failed him as an organization. That is not up for debate.

Darnold still can overcome the flawed roster around him, though. He needs to turn glimpses of greatness into games of greatness. There is no better time for him to put one of those games together than Monday night against the Patriots — and exorcise some ghosts in the process.