We know there are plenty of questions surrounding this Patriots team (the worst great team in history?) as they get ready to try to win a playoff game for the first time during the Obama administration. 

How will this defense -- having allowed the most passing yards ever in a season by an NFL team -- perform against an elite quarterback? If this team can fall behind 21-0 against the Dolphins and Bills is it fair to wonder what will happen against a Ben Roethlisberger (and that defense) or even a Joe Flacco (and that defense)? Will Logan Mankins be healthy? Could Chad Ochocinco maybe be the X-factor? Has Stevan Ridley passed BenJarvus Green-Ellis on the depth chart? And here's the one you'll likely hear the most over the next two weeks, and every argument will come back to this: If they get there, can this team win a Super Bowl with this defense against guys like Aaron Rodgers (or Matt Flynn) and Drew Brees?

All fair questions, and all complete unknowns right now. 

But there is one debate that, for me, will be off the table if the Patriots find a way to win three games in this postseason.

That's the title of Greatest Quarterback of All Time. It will belong, and it might already, to Tom Brady.

Brady threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns in Sunday's 49-21 rout of the Bills (not sure if it's a comment on Brady's greatness or the NFL in 2012 that you don't think twice about a 338-yard, three-touchdown game, I'm still in semi-shock that we live in a world where Matthew Stafford can have a quiet 5,000-yard season). Brady finished the year with 5,235 passing yards.

The 5,235 yards won't be a record, of course, as Drew Brees threw for 5,476. But that really doesn't matter for Brady on a historical level. He isn't chasing single-season marks. His competition isn't Brees or Rodgers or even Peyton Manning (I wrote a column about 16 months ago suggesting Manning was a better quarterback than Brady. I'm not sure I was wrong at the time, but you'd have to be a moron to try to make that case after what has happened with these two guys the last two years. Actually, I am a moron and I won't even give it a shot). No, Brady's competition is Joe Montana. And what Brady has done over the last two regular seasons -- a combined 9,135 passing yards and 75 touchdowns against 16 interceptions -- removes any question that his non-playoff resume isn't weighty enough for a season at the table. We have just witnessed two of the, what, 15 or 20 best seasons by a quarterback in history (and let's not forget that Brady has 2007, maybe the greatest ever)? He now has the September-January bona fides.

But now it really does begin. Playoff success, and only playoff success, is where Brady can cement GOAT status (or, I suppose, goat status). The last two years have been a hit on Brady (about a year ago I felt the same away about this subject) but Montana had lousy postseason losses (the Giants, was benched in a 1987 loss to Vikings) at home as well. People forget that as time passes, only the good stuff makes it through -- the catch by Dwight Clark, the drive against the Bengals. 

And, sure, I get that where Tom Brady stands among other QBs from a historical standpoint probably doesn't rank high inside the Patriots locker room right now (including Brady). Much more important goals are in front of them.

But it's hard to avoid, isn't it? Four Super Bowls puts him with Terry Bradshaw (great, but nobody puts him in the class, the Steelers did it with defense first, plus a Hall of Fame back in Franco Harris) and Montana. That's it. And as great as Joe Montana was, he always had talent around him, including a receiver that plenty of folks think is the best player in NFL history (in a system in which the next guy -- Steve Young -- put up better numbers and won a Super Bowl). Other than Tom Brady, how many slam-dunk Hall of Famers are on the 2011 Patriots? That would be none (though Wilfork has a shot and Rob Gronkowski is off to one of the best starts in history at any position). Let's be fair: Does anyone think Joe Montana or John Elway or Bart Starr or Peyton Manning or Johnny Unitas goes 27-5 over a two-year stretch with this defense and a banged-up offensive line?

Brady has won in crappy weather and in domes. He's won with Antowain Smith and Laurence Maroney. He's won with great defenses and with whatever it is we have been watching all year long. He's won with Reche Caldwell, Jabar Gaffney, Ben Watson and Doug Gabriel and he's won with Randy Moss and Welker. He's won at least 13 games in five seasons -- the other AFC East teams have a combined total of four 13-win seasons. He's the reason Josh McDaniels and Charlie Weis and now Bill O'Brien have landed head coaching jobs. It's boring and you've read it a million times but it also has the wonderful advantage of being true: Tom Brady is reason No. 1 for the success of the New England Patriots. When he retires, Bill Belichick -- a great, great coach -- loses football IQ points. Brady's not a system quarterback, he is the system.

And he'll have to be at his very best for this team to win the Super Bowl this year. Think over 1,000 passing yards and 10 TDs in the three games. I don't care if you have you alternate seven different pairs of Danny Woodhead pajamas and watch "Three Games to Glory" every night while drinking hot chocolate from a Patriots mug -- there is no way anyone can believe that this defense will play well for three games against top competition. 

It will take Brady playing the best football of his career for this team to win its last game, plain and simple.

And if he manages to pull it off, we can move on to the next debate.

Because Tom Brady will be the greatest quarterback in NFL history.

No question about it.