NFL

History suggests it will be hard for Jets to Capitol-ize vs. NFC East

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LANDOVER, Md. — Rex Ryan has taken great pleasure across his first two-plus years in charge of the Jets in trying to distance himself from the ghosts that have haunted the franchise so often in the past.

For decades, the Jets were saddled with a reputation for being awful season closers, patsies in December and January. Yet, in each of his two full years they have been the exact opposite, closing with a rush in 2009, winning three of their final four last year, winning four road playoff games.

The Jets had never won a game in the city of Pittsburgh, ever. They won a must-have game there last December, and tried to duplicate that with a miracle comeback in the AFC Championship game a month later.

Anyone who even thinks about the hoary old slogan “Same Old Jets” at the Jets’ headquarters in Florham Park gets glared back to the curb.

Ryan may have fallen short of his Super Bowl promises so far, but he has done a masterful job in a short time of altering the culture around the Jets, and that only arrives by accomplishing things that have never been done before. Awaiting him now are two more fresh challenges, both of them inexorably intertwined:

1. The Jets have never — as in ever — made the playoffs three years in a row. They’ve gone back-to-back plenty — 1968-69; 1981-82; 1985-86; 2001-02; 2009-10 — but have never pulled off a hat trick. That modest goal is within sight now But that brings us to this:

2. To qualify for playoffs for a third year in a row, the Jets have to play three of their final five games against the NFC East,

And that, history tells us, is a chore.

In the next 14 days alone the Jets will play road games at Washington and at Philadelphia. They have played the Redskins and the Eagles 17 times since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. And let’s lead with the good news: The Jets have not been completely shut out by two of the Giants’ most bitter divisional rivals.

They have won once.

Yes, once. And even that comes with an asterisk — a sloppy, soggy, 3-0 blight on the sport back in 1993, Bruce Coslet’s last year, when the Jets beat the Redskins then never won another game, which probably tells you how much God enjoyed that one.

Other than that?

It’s 0-8 against the Redskins since their first encounter in 1972, a 35-17 pounding at Shea Stadium. The Jets were 0-2 against the Redskins at Shea, 0-2 at the first Meadowlands, were a sparkling 1-3 against them at old RFK Stadium and are 0-1 — and counting — at FedEx Field,

And should we even mention the Eagles, who may be a dead team walking, and may be even deader in two weeks, but who are also 8-0 all-time against the Jets since eking out a 24-23 win late in the 1973 season. Since then have outscored the Jets 178-112 in seven meetings .

You throw in their 4-7 all-time mark against the Giants, and their 3-7 all-time record against the Cowboys (which does include a win in the season opener but also includes losses of 52-10, 30-7 and 34-3), and what do you have?

You have a reality when having the Bills, Dolphins and Patriots as your division mates doesn’t seem so daunting all of a sudden.

“We love to hear about all that history stuff,” Ryan said. “We love to hear about what the Jets haven’t done in the past, and who the Jets haven’t beaten, and what the Jets have never been able to do. Keep giving us those kinds of challenges, because that’s when we’re at our best, when we try to knock them all down.”

That was Ryan in the aftermath of last year’s 22-17 win in Pittsburgh, their first Steel City win after seven losses in seven trips going back to 1970. Ryan is the Jets’ first coach since Weeb Ewbank not to get strangled by “that history stuff.” That’s good. Because he’ll need to tame a little more old history the next few weeks if he wants to start writing some new chapters.

michael.vaccaro@nypost.com