More good times are in store for Randy Moss and the Patriots’ offense.

The Journal / Bob Breidenbach

So, you’re happy that the Patriots have signed Randy Moss to a three-year contract. You’re delighted, thrilled — ecstatic, even.

Well, you should be.

The guy set an NFL record last year with 23 touchdown receptions, providing a deep threat that opened up New England’s offense to the point where the Patriots set an NFL record by racking up 589 points.

With Moss slashing through and past overmatched defensive backs, the Pats averaged 36.8 points per game while winning the AFC championship for the fourth time in seven years, and scored 31 or more points in 12 of their 16 regular-season games.

All of which is well and good. Or well and very, very good, we certainly could say.

But the return of Moss, along with the signing Tuesday of Jabar Gaffney, does not guarantee that all is well for the Patriots, even though they were a mere 2:42 away from a perfect season when their championship dreams died in the desert.

While New England’s high-powered offense scored a disappointing 14 points against the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, that should have been enough to win, since the final seven came on a six–yard pass from Tom Brady to Moss that gave New England a 14-10 lead with 2:42 left to play.

And, when little-known Ray Ventrone dropped kickoff returner Domenik Hixon on the N.Y. 17, the Pats were almost perfectly positioned to put the finishing touches on what would have been a perfect, 19-0 record and their fourth NFL title in seven seasons.

Except the defense couldn’t close the deal.

Again.

What happened in the final minutes of Super Bowl XLII was defensive déjà vu all over again, bringing to mind the Patriots’ defensive meltdown in the AFC Championship Game at Indianapolis the year before, when the Colts, trailing 34-31, and 80 yards away from the end zone with just 2:17 left in the game, drove the distance to win, 38-34, completing a record-setting comeback.

It took Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning just five plays to get his team into the end zone, capping a 32-point second half — more points than the Patriots had allowed in an entire game all season — with an extremely clutch, and highly efficient, game-winning drive.

Late in the second quarter, the Patriots had led, 21-3. Never before, in either an NFC or AFC championship game, had a team come from 18 points behind to win.

But the New England defense couldn’t hold that lead, just as it was unable to keep Peyton’s little brother, Eli, and the Giants in check with the game on the line in Super Bowl XLII.

Unlike Peyton’s Colts, who needed only a field goal to tie the score, Eli and the Giants had to get to the end zone. They either scored a touchdown, or they’d lose.

It took a missed interception opportunity by Pats cornerback Asante Samuel — who just signed a $57 million, free-agent deal with the Eagles — and a miracle catch by wide receiver David Tyree, who hauled in a 32-yard, third-down pass from Manning by holding the ball atop his helmet while falling to the ground, but the Giants pulled it off.

It also helped that, just before throwing that pass to Tyree, Manning scrambled away from several would-be tacklers, most notably Jarvis Green, who should have wrapped him up and brought him down.

Defense, as the old adage goes, apparently really does win championships. It has been defensive weakness at the most critical time that has cost the Patriots dearly in the playoffs the past two years. That has to be particularly galling to Pats coach Bill Belichick, who has built a reputation as a defensive genius.

And so, while it is gratifying, and encouraging, that New England’s high-powered offense will be returning virtually intact in 2008, it is dismaying that the Patriots’ suspect defense is, a week into free agency, weaker than it was in the final minutes against the Giants.

While the line is solid — Richard Seymour, Vince Wilfork, and Ty Warren all are former first-round picks, and Green, despite letting Manning slip from his grasp, can be counted on as an effective pass rusher — the linebacking corps is ancient and the secondary is highly suspect.

There was no way the salary cap-savvy Pats should have paid Samuel the kind of money the Eagles shelled out. Still, it’s not easy to replace a ball-hawking cornerback of his caliber.

Philly’s money was, however, better spent than that of the Saints, who gave oft-injured, nickel-back Randall Gay a four-year deal worth more than $17 million.

But his departure left New England with a defensive backfield consisting of Ellis Hobbs, who was burned by the Giants’ Plaxico Burress for the last-minute touchdown in the Super Bowl; 35-year-old Rodney Harrison; Brandon “Bad Hands” Meriweather, who was a disappointment as a first-round pick last season; free safety James Sanders; his backup, Eugene Wilson — a free agent who’s shopping his services; and the just-signed Jason Webster, who has bounced from San Francisco, to Atlanta, to Buffalo, where he spent nearly all of last season on injured reserve with a broken arm, along with “Tank” Williams who reported signed with New England yesterday after starting two games last season with the Vikings.

The decision to cut sack specialist Rosevelt Colvin was sound financially, but further depleted an already thin linebacking corps where the youngest starter is 31-year-old (in August) Adalius Thomas. Mike Vrabel will be 33 this summer and Tedy Bruschi, who recently announced he’ll be returning for his 13th season in New England, will be 35. Behind them on the depth chart are only guys who’ll give Belichick gray hair.

It isn’t the offense that has cost the Patriots titles the past two seasons, it’s the defense.

While signing Moss, and Gaffney, too, is cause for celebration, the defensive situation remains cause for concern.

jdonalds@projo.com