FOXBORO — When the New England Patriots meet the New York Jets at the Meadowlands on Sunday for the 2007 season opener, it will be the 94th time the two clubs have met.

Three of those games were last season, and were coached by the same men who will be on opposing sidelines this weekend.

But Sunday marks the beginning of a new year, and the one time that there might be some surprises to contend with. Roster turnover, rookies, some new wrinkles, will come out during the game.

Once they do, they’re on tape for the coaching world to see. Until then, however, they give the game an air of mystery, even for foes as familiar as these.

Of course, given the comments New England coach Bill Belichick and Jets coach Eric Mangini made this week on the uncertainty that can come with the season-opener, maybe things won’t be so different after all.

“They’ve had a lot of time to get ready for the game, so I’m sure both teams will have some wrinkles,” Belichick said Wednesday. “They will still do a lot of what is in their basic system, there’s no doubt about that, as will we. [But] we have some things that will hopefully give them problems, and I’m sure they have some things they feel will give us problems. They’ve had plenty of time to work on them; we’ll just have to adjust to that during the game.”

Later the same day, Mangini sounded a lot like his former mentor when asked for his thoughts on the opener.

“Any time you open up, you’ve got to look at the unexpected,” said Mangini, who is beginning his second year at the helm in New York. “You’ve got to expect the unexpected and that’s something we’ve talked a lot about. It was the same situation going into Tennessee last year, where there’s been the whole offseason and the teams have had new acquisitions. They’ve had a lot of time to study things. … and with New England it’s such a game-plan-specific team that you’re going to get something unique to you.”

With just a glance at the rosters, it is easy to see that these teams aren’t the same as the ones who met on Jan. 7 at Gillette in the AFC divisional playoffs. New England added Adalius Thomas and Brandon Meriweather on defense, and Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth and Kyle Brady on offense. New York brought in running back Thomas Jones, drafted cornerback Darelle Revis, and hired New England’s former receivers coach, Brian Daboll, to tutor the quarterbacks.

At their core, both are 3-4 defensive teams — but while Mangini learned from Belichick, he has of course altered and tailored some things to his liking and his personnel. Belichick and the Pats will play without Richard Seymour, but Jarvis Green is not at all unfamiliar with the system.

Belichick is famous for his game preparation, how he is able to predict any potential situation and craft the antidote. But on Sunday, there may be something he didn’t see coming.

And that potential creates a lot of what-ifs.

“We’ve seen the Jets. We’ve seen all their stuff from last year, we’ve seen other stuff from the preseason,” he said. “You know they’re working on some new things or things that we haven’t seen, but what are they? We think we’re going to get this [play or situation], but what if we get that? It’s a little less predictable.

“Are they going to use these players? Are they going to use this set? What if when we see this, they do that? What if they do something else? There’s just a lot of variables.”

As Belichick noted, when the teams meet again later in the season — this year, that’s Game 14 — there won’t be nearly as many question marks. The chess match of anticipating and reacting will return.

“It’s hard to sit there and say [at the beginning of the season], ‘I know when this happens [this is the play that is called],’ ” Belichick said. “A lot of times you can say that by the middle of the season. It’s just harder to do that now.”

The mystery plays out for one game only. After that, the plot will probably become a little more transparent.

smanza@projo.com