Reserve Your Patriots Playoff Tickets Now.

They have a defense that practically gift-wraps opponents' big plays. Their offense prominently features Patrick Pass and Amos Zereoue in the backfield. Their list of injured players looks like a Pro Bowl roster. And they were shellacked in their last game. The defending World Champion Patriots must be in trouble.

Hardly.

Prior to the start of this season, the universally accepted opinion was that the Patriots had the toughest early season schedule in the NFL. With four away games against teams that went a combined 43-21 in 2004, only the most optimistic of Patriots' fans could look at the team's first six games and expect a perfect start. Sure, 3-3 wasn't what most fans wanted but considering the litany of injury issues, as well as the quality of the opponents, entering the bye week at .500 is hardly a disaster.

In fact, not only are the Patriots a lock to make the playoffs but they should wrap up the division title by Week 14, giving the banged-up World Champions some much needed rest in the closing weeks of the season.

You don't believe me. You think that those big plays the defense keeps giving up are a sign of problems to big to fix. You think that the injuries are too pervasive and affecting too many key players. You think that the loss of Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis is affecting the Patriots' play-calling. You think that Tedy Bruschi's comeback is not only a ridiculously, irresponsible decision by a worn-down player but will also be a major distraction for his teammates. You think that teams like the Broncos, Chargers, Bengals and Colts are finally ready to knock the defending champs off the pedestal.

Quite frankly, you don't know what you're talking about and I'm going to give you four simple reasons that the Patriots will not only make the playoffs, but will be one of the teams realistically battling for the Lombardi Trophy.

1. Their Schedule. Sure, Paul Tagliabue went out of his way to make sure that the Patriots didn't romp through this season- no doubt at the behest of the Colts' management who ran out of actual on-the-field complaints to make about the Pats- and he got his wish. The Pats' 3-3 start is their worst mark through their first six games since 2002, the year after their first Super Bowl championship, and the last time the Patriots missed the playoffs. 2002 was a season much like this one- lots of expectations for the defending World Champions, lots of question marks because of new personnel and eventually loads of injuries to key players with one major exception: this Patriots' team is infinitely deeper than the 2002 version.

And unfortunately for Tagliabue, there are only so many playoff-caliber teams you can load up on another team's schedule. Looking ahead to the Patriots' last ten games, one word comes to mind: domination.

The Patriots' opponents over the final ten weeks are a motley collection of emergency quarterbacks, skittish head coaches and dismal defenses. Obviously, the Patriots have their annual showdown with the Colts; a time when the entire football world collectively develops Alzheimer's and forgets that the Patriots own the Colts.

Besides the Colts, the Pats' next toughest opponents is….their practice squad. Buffalo has Kelly Holcomb, who makes Kurt Warner look durable, at quarterback. Tampa Bay had the immortal Brian Griese at quarterback but he could be out for the rest of the season with a knee injury which would usher in the Chris Simms era. Simms is to decision-making as Saudi Arabia is to women's rights.

The Jets have Vinny Testaverde at quarterback. I don't even have a joke here. Testaverde's just your average immobile 42-year old, was-sitting-on-his-couch-a-few-weeks-ago, starting NFL quarterback. Miami has Gus Frerotte who is like Testaverde, except without the arm strength. New Orleans has Aaron Brooks under center and is missing star running back Deuce McAllister. If Simms is to decision-making as Saudi Arabia is to women's rights, then Aaron Brooks is to decision-making as Saudi Arabia is to a bunch of naked women drinking margaritas and decorating a Christmas tree. They simply don't go together. At all. Ever.

Who's left? Kansas City. The game will be hyped because of KC's offensive firepower but the Chiefs' receivers are small and skittish, its defense is suspect and skittish and its coach is skittish and cries a lot.

In a worse case scenario, the Patriots go 7-3 down the stretch, finish the season at 10-6 and walk away with the AFC East. Perfectly realistically best case scenario- Pats run the table and end the regular season at 13-3, securing a first round bye and possibly home field advantage.

2. Their Division Rivals' Schedules. Sure, I'm optimistic that the Pats can be close to the top of the AFC conference standings by the end of the season, but the conference standings are not a major concern. All that really matters is that the Pats win the AFC East and get into the playoffs. No Pats' fan is screaming to play in Indianapolis but I doubt that there are many Pats' fans out there who are especially worried about the prospect either.

So, it comes down to the Patriots' division rivals, the mediocre Bills, subpar Jets or middling Dolphins and one very easy question: Who in their right mind can think that one of those suckriffic teams is going to keep the Pats from winning the East?

And the Pats will have help because their AFC East rivals have decidedly more difficult schedules down the stretch.

The Bills, who most people view as the most likely challenger to the Patriots for the division title, face New England (twice), San Diego, Carolina, Denver and Cincinnati down the stretch. Yikes.

The Jets have to deal with New England (twice), Atlanta, San Diego, Carolina and Denver. I'm sure those defenses will go easy on Vinny T.

The Dolphins actually have a decent schedule but Miami, for all of Nick Saban's mini-Belichick tendencies, is a very flawed team. They'll struggle to deal away at Kansas City, away at Oakland, away at San Diego and home against Atlanta and the Pats. Oh, and the Dolphins have to play on New Year's Day in Foxboro. I'm guessing that the field conditions will be a little brisk.

3. The Return of Tedy Bruschi. To hear the talking heads of the NFL media world talk about Tedy Bruschi's return, you would have thought that a stroke was roughly the medical equivalent of a combination of the Ebola Virus, progeria, the killer bird flu, stepping on a landmine and getting hit by a Japanese bullet train.

The fact is that when the stroke was first diagnosed, most experts said that it would be about a year before Bruschi could begin playing again. It's been eight months and by the time he takes the field in a real game, it could be closer to nine months. Aren't professional athletes, arguably the fittest people on the planet, supposed to come back from medical problems sooner than the rest of us? Me- I have too many $1.50 Bud Lights at Sissy K's and I need to be moved into a protective plastic bubble for 72-hours but a professional football player is a different story altogether.

Every time an ACL is torn, a shoulder is separated or a neck is broken in the NFL, the initial reports are dire, as they should be. That's the way medicine works. If on his way out of town Keith Foulke runs you over in his WEEI pick-up truck, the doctors aren't going to tell you to suck it up, forget your crushed pelvis and start jogging immediately. That medical insight is based on a revolutionary concept called "Erring on the Side of Caution."

Which Bruschi did. He didn't leave Mass General and charge into a tackling dummy. For months, no one saw him.

But now Bruschi's back, he's been medically cleared to play by doctors who aren't about to become the next Gilbert Mudge and he should have a major impact on the Patriots.

The play of the Patriots' linebackers has been a major problem and the real reason that so many teams are hitting for big plays. Without a consistent run-stopping presence at linebacker, opponents are forcing the Pats' safeties to play closer to the line of scrimmage. With the safeties up, New England's beat-up secondary is getting picked apart in single coverage. Plus, without a run-stopping linebacker, Belichick is forced to reel in his blitzes because he can't trust that Monty Biesel or Chad Brown is going to be ready to clamp down on any cut-back runs.

Bruschi changes all that the minute he steps onto the field.

4. Health of Key Players. Did anyone else notice that the Patriots fielded a defense without 2004's three best players and an offense without its 1500-yard back and still almost beat a fired-up Broncos team?

Belichick simply isn't going to acknowledge the severity of the Patriots' injuries. And he shouldn't. No quality NFL coach makes excuses because once you start making excuses for your players' on-the-field performance, you end up with a bunch of players who think that off-day floating orgies are a solid idea.

But obviously injuries to key Patriots have taken a major toll. Looking at Scouts, Inc. ranking of the Top 10 Patriots' players, four (Richard Seymour, Rodney Harrison, Bruschi, Corey Dillon) didn't play against the Broncos. But the Pats still made a game of it and it's hard to imagine that any other top NFL team would have fared as well. By comparison, imagine the Colts without Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeney and Tarik Glenn. Peyton Manning would be having seizures trying to audiblize plays without his running back and stud wideout.

A two week break should get several key Patriots back on the field. Seymour and Dillon should be back. The secondary should get a lift with the return of Tyrone Poole and Gus Scott. Troy Brown will be healthy. Kevin Faulk will be closer to returning and sooner or later, Matt Light will be itching to get back on the field.

With a roster stocked with playoff-tested veterans and younger players with significant game experience, the Patriots should roll into the playoffs exactly where they left off last season- as the best team in the National Football League.

Jamie Chisholm