NFL Playoff Predictions: Why Patriots' Poor Pass Defense Won't Be an Issue

The New England Patriots have the worst pass defense in the NFL, but that won't be as big of a problem as you may think in the playoffs this season.

The best teams in the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans, all have quarterbacks who are either hurt, unproven or have poor playoff resumes.

If there was a year that the Patriots could make the Super Bowl without a good pass defense, it's this season.

If you have watched the Patriots play this season, you certainly aren't surprised they have the worst pass defense in football, but if you haven't seen any of their games, here are some stats for you.

Category	Statistic	NFL Rank
Passing Yards Allowed Per Game	297	32nd
Passing Touchdowns Allowed	21	T-18th
Yards Per Pass Attempt	8.1	29th

As you can see, Bill Belichick's defense has had an awful time stopping the pass this season, and have made average quarterbacks like Chad Henne and Rex Grossman look like All-Pro-caliber players.

So why won't the Patriots' terrible pass defense hurt them in the playoffs?

Well, they have done a decent job at getting sacks, they are doing a good job of creating turnovers and the quarterbacks they will likely face in the postseason have some issues.

New England has intercepted 18 passes this season, the most of any AFC team, and they do have guys who can make plays in the secondary on occasion such as safety Patrick Chung and cornerback Devin McCourty.

The Patriots have been opportunistic this season and have done well to force turnovers, which allows Tom Brady to score more points on offense.

Their defense also has 33 sacks this season, which isn't a terrible number—it ranks 16th in the NFL.

New England's opponents have real quarterback issues to deal with and they could allow the Patriots' poor pass defense to not be a huge factor.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has not performed well in his playoff career, and has thrown just four touchdown passes with seven interceptions in seven career postseason games. This season, he has thrown 11 picks with at least one in nine of his team's 14 games.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is certainly playoff-tested, but his injured ankle will be a concern once Pittsburgh begins the playoffs.

If the Steelers have to play on wild-card weekend, the Patriots could face a hurting Big Ben at home in the divisional round or in the AFC Championship game.

Texans starting quarterback TJ Yates is a rookie, so he obviously has never felt playoff pressure before and with his best receiver, Andre Johnson, battling injury all season, there is uncertainty on how effective he could be in the playoffs.

The Texans as a franchise have never been to the playoffs before, so this will be a brand new experience many of their players won't know how to handle.

The Patriots' pass defense is bad, that much is clear, but given the problems other AFC contenders have at quarterback, it's not hard to understand that the Pats might be able to get away with a bad defense in this year's playoffs.