07/04 — As a companion piece to Wednesday's Miami story that kicked off this Radar series on the AFC East, the Fourth of July brings us appropriately to the Patriots.

Just as it's not hard to find downward trends on a 1-15 team, it's easy to rave about everything on a team such as New England, which went 16-0 in the regular season and to their fourth Super Bowl appearance in seven years, where they lost to the Giants.

But let's just revisit the point machine that the Pats were last regular season. Tom Brady threw for an NFL-record 50 touchdown passes, Randy Moss caught a league-record 23 — and both set their records on the same 65-yard go-route TD in the 16th win against the Giants at the Meadowlands. They also set the league season records for touchdowns (75) and points (589).

Let's examine that last mark again briefly. It says a lot that the Patriots broke the NFL point record, but how about in terms of points per game? Well, their 36.8 average was the second-best in NFL annals, behind the 1950 L.A. Rams of QB Bob Waterfield, FB Dick Hoerner, HB Vitamin Smith and end Crazylegs Hirsch.

Teams only played 12 games in those days, so the Rams' 466 points may seem tame, but their 38.8 points per game set the mark that hasn't been equaled since.

But the Rams' ending may sound familiar. They, like the Patriots 37 years later, lost a close game for the NFL title, by 30-28 to the Cleveland Browns.

Here are the four teams in NFL history that averaged 35 points — five touchdowns, for those of you working your way up to the seven-times tables — plus the 1998 Vikings, whose total points mark the Patriots broke:

A cautionary note for the Pats, though. Ten other teams in league history cleared the 500-point hurdle in a season, but only two of them — the Mike Martz Rams of 2000 and 2001 — scored 500-plus the next season. Even including those St. Louis juggernauts, the 500-point teams on average scored 19.4 percent fewer points the following season.

That would make the 2008 Patriots mere demigods with a 474-point season.

And an optimistic reminder for the followers of the Green & White: In New England's regular season, the defense that taxed their offense the most was the Jets at snowy, sleety Gillette Stadium in Week 15, when the Pats scored 20 points and one offensive TD after a 3-yard drive.

That's no guarantee of anything for the Jets when they play the Patriots in their home opener or back up at Gillette on an NFL Network Thursday night. Just an independent thought to carry us through Independence Day.

These AFC East Radar entries will run twice a week up through the week that the Jets' full squad begins practicing July 24. This is the schedule:

Week of July 1 — Miami down, New England Up

Week of July 7 — Buffalo Up, Jets Down

Week of July 14 — Miami Up, Buffalo Down

Week of July 21 — New England Down, Jets Up