With two games left in the regular season and the playoffs looming just over the horizon, quarterback Tom Brady confessed Wednesday that the Patriots still are searching for an offensive identity.

“We’re still trying to find the combinations of things,” Brady said when asked about this year’s offensive identity. “We’re a pretty balanced team, I think. We try to run it; we try to throw it. Last week we ran it more than we threw it. Other weeks we’ve thrown it.”

If you are an opposing defensive coordinator, the 2009 Patriots offense has been tough to pin down. Overall, the Pats have run the ball 411 times (eighth-most in the league) and attempted 528 passes (third-most in the league). Throughout certain stretches, as Brady has struggled to find his form after a year away from the game, they’ve relied on the run, with three games of 150 or more yards on the ground. They’ve also come back to the pass, as Brady has tossed for 300-plus yards five times this season.

A key reason for the occasional identity shift lies in game-planning. When you’re facing two of the worst run defenses in the league as the Patriots have done over the last two weeks (Carolina and Buffalo), you would be foolish not to exploit those kinds of matchups. New England did just that, rushing for a combined 294 yards in the two games, its highest two-game total of the season.

But at the same time, the Patriots have been without some key skill position players at several points during the season. At wide receiver, Wes Welker (knee) missed a pair of games because of injury earlier this season, while Julian Edelman (forearm) has been inactive for five games and Sam Aiken (shoulder) has missed two. At running back, Fred Taylor (ankle) hasn’t played since Oct. 4 because of injury, while Sammy Morris (knee) was sidelined for four weeks earlier in the season.

The injuries have forced the New England offense to adapt.

“It changes over the course of the season,” Brady said of the shift in offensive identity. “Sometimes your things are working well and then they don’t work so well for a couple weeks and then you’ve got to find other ways. Or sometimes you’re a certain way and then you lose a player to injury and then you’ve got to be another way.

“I remember in ’07 we were a very balanced team for half the season and then we had some injuries at tight end and then we became this three-wide receiver, four-wide receiver offense that could have limited us in some ways. But that’s just part of what happens over the course of a season.”

Of course, that sort of slightly amorphous approach on offense can produce dividends. You can keep the opposition on its toes when it comes to game-planning.

“They’re winning in different ways,” Jacksonville cornerback Rashean Mathis told reporters this week. “They’re finding ways to win without blowing teams out.”

While the Patriots have yet to find a true offensive identity — even after five months of work and almost 1,000 plays from scrimmage over the course of 14 regular-season games — in the end, it’s hard to argue with the results. They’re second in the league in total yards this season with 5,576 and average yards per game with 398.3 (behind only New Orleans).

In addition, they’re in the top 10 in the league in passing yards and average passing yards per game, and despite missing Taylor and Morris for a sizable portion of the season, they are still in the top half of the league in rushing yards.

And despite their second-half struggles away from Foxboro (in their seven road games this season, the Pats have been outscored 89-41 combined in the third and fourth quarters), they remain one of the highest scoring teams in the NFL — the Patriots are currently third in the AFC in total points with 365, trailing only Indianapolis and San Diego.

That’s the kind of identity that’s OK with Belichick.

“We’re one of the highest-scoring teams in the league, which I like that identity. If it’s 40 runs, it’s 40 runs. If it’s 50 passes, it’s 50 passes,” Belichick said.

“If we’re scoring points and winning games, then that’s the identity I want to have.”