Bill Belichick says he expects Cam Newton will start New England’s final game. But the Patriots have been putting up some pretty putrid passing numbers.

With Newton struggling, the Patriots have finished with fewer than 150 passing yards in four of their last five games. And they’ve had problems putting the ball in the end zone all along.

Belichick apparently doesn’t have any confidence Jarrett Stidham would be an upgrade. Stidham in his limited time off the bench has completed only 22 of 44 passes, with 2 TDs, 3 interceptions and 4 sacks.

That team has thrown only 8 TD passes all year, putting it in position to have the lowest total by an offense in eight years.

Since the league moved to a 16-game schedule in 1978, only 26 offenses have failed to score more than 10 touchdowns on pass plays. Unless the Patriots can put up 3 TDs against the Jets on Sunday, they’ll be joining that group.

The rundown of the other 26 teams appears below, and there are some notable names on the list. The 1978 49ers and the 1985 Bills teams came the seasons before those teams added Hall of Fame quarterbacks (Joe Montana, Jim Kelly). The 2010 Panthers are there; that was the year before they got Cam Newton.

And 1998 Philadelphia and 2012 Kansas City – those teams both got Andy Reid as their head coach the next year.

LOW TOUCHDOWN PASS TOTALS
YearTeamTD
1978Chicago 7
1978Kansas City 7
1978San Francisco 9
1979Kansas City 7
1981New Orleans 8
1985Buffalo 9
1989Pittsburgh 10
1991Indianapolis 10
1991Phoenix 10
1992Seattle 9
1993Chicago 7
1993Indianapolis 10
1995Tampa Bay 5
1998Philadelphia 7
2000Cincinnati 6
2000Cleveland 9
2003Oakland 9
2004Chicago 9
2005San Francisco 8
2006Oakland 7
2007Tennessee 9
2009Oakland 10
2010Arizona 10
2010Carolina 9
2011St. Louis 9
2012Kansas City 8
2020New England8

—Ian Allan