NFL Playoff Predictions: Why the New England Patriots Will Fall Short of a Title

The New England Patriots defense is terrible. Now that the playoffs are looming, there's no way to get around it.

Despite that fact, the New England Patriots (12-3) are once again one of the top teams in the NFL heading into the final regular season game.

The Pats currently hold the top seed in the AFC and have already received a bye in the first round of the playoffs with a win in Week 17 over the Buffalo Bills.

There is great hope for the Patriots, and as usual, anything less than a Super Bowl title will be a disappointment for the Pats and their fans.

Sadly, the might have to accept it because the Patriots aren't as great of a team as their record might show. Yes, Tom Brady is leading the top offense in the league, but that does nothing to help the defense that is the overall worst in the league. 

Read on to find out why the New England defense and more will hold back the Patriots come playoff time.

Andre Carter Done for Season

In the Patriots 41-23 beatdown of the Denver Broncos, they lost defensive end Andre Carter, one of the Patriots best players on defense the entire 2011 season.

Despite not playing in the win over the Miami Dolphins, Carter still leads the team with 10 sacks and is tied for the team lead with two forced fumbles. His 52 total tackles leave him sixth on the team.

Carter has brought a veteran leadership and presence to the Patriots this season, and his loss will be a huge blow in the playoffs.

Secondary Tackles

You never want players in your secondary to lead your team in tackles, let alone two of them. That's exactly the situation the New England Patriots are in.

Cornerbacks Kyle Arrington (pictured) and Devin McCourty are tied for second in tackles for the Patriots with 82 apiece.

While having a player in the secondary who isn't afraid to get physical and make a tackle is great, when they lead the team in tackles, it means that players have broken through both the defensive line and the linebackers. Or it just means the cornerbacks aren't playing tight enough defense and they have to bring down a receiver after a catch is made.

Safeties James Ihedigbo and Patrick Chung rank fourth and fifth on the Patriots in tackles as well.

Strength of Schedule

The Patriots are tied for the third best record in the NFL, standing at 12-3. But a large part of that is because of their weak schedule.

The Patriots came into the season tied for 15th in terms of strength of schedule, but many of the teams New England has played haven't lived up to their play in 2010.

The Pats best opponent, by far, this season was the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers won the game 25-17 because they dominated the time of possession, 39:22 to 20:38. Pittsburgh didn't even force a single turnover—they just didn't let the dominant Patriots offense on the field.

Secondary Gambles

While the New England Patriots are tied for sixth in the NFL with 19 interceptions, their secondary gambles too much. 

That is evident in the fact that they give up the most yards and yards per game in the league.

The New England secondary gambles too much and goes for the ball as much as they can, all while becoming more vulnerable to a reception—if the Patriots don't intercept the ball, it puts them out of position to make the subsequent tackle.

But another reason they give up so many yards through the air is the personnel they have in the secondary. 

Almost everyone in the New England secondary has been injured, leading to starts from backup wide receivers/return men Matthew Slater and Julian Edelman (pictured, 11). 

The rag-tag secondary in New England is only making their defensive troubles worse. Even Dan Orlovsky of the hapless Indianapolis Colts had a career-day against New England. He threw for 353 yards while completing 81.1 percent of his passes and had a passer rating of 113.2 on the day.

If that doesn't show how bad the Pats' secondary is, then I don't know what will.

4th Quarter Defense

The New England Patriots have given up 321 total points this season.

Of those, 115 have come in the fourth quarter of games.

That means that the Patriots have given up 35.8 percent of their points in the final quarter of games—a time when you want your defense to be locking down and securing wins, not letting opponents back into games.

Only in four games did the Patriots give up fewer than 25 percent of their points allowed for the game in the fourth quarter.

They have relied on their offense to win them games for far too long, and unless the defense steps up, that will come back to bite them.