NFL Predictions Week 5: New England Patriots Will Miss the Playoffs

The New England Patriots are off to a 3-1 record this season and have outscored opponents by a 135-98 margin.

Many fans will argue that the team should be entering this week's AFC East rivalry game with the New York Jets with an unblemished record, failing to hold onto a 21-0 second quarter lead against the Buffalo Bills in a 34-31 road loss in Week 3.

Quarterback Tom Brady is leading a super-charged offense that is amassing 507.5 yards per game while putting up an average of 33.8 points a contest.

That's not the problem.

It's the other side of the ball, and NFL history that is squarely against them at this point.

Going all the way back to the 1970 season, as it was as far as I could go statistically, no team in the NFL has ever gone to the playoffs with the league's worst defense in terms of total yards allowed.

Taking it one step further, none of those teams tallied a winning record, with only five finishing the regular season with a .500 mark.

New England is definitely a different breed, but those teams posted a combined 172-453-3 record over that 41-year span.

The Patriots are currently allowing 477.5 yards a game, which is 51.7 more than the Chicago Bears that rank 31st in the category.

Don't be surprised if Brady and Co. are watching the NFL postseason from home if head coach Bill Belichick, a "Defensive Guru," isn't able to get the team out of the cellar in this very important category.