It was last December when Theo Epstein termed 2010 a “bridge period” (he never said “bridge year”) for the Boston Red Sox.

The GM quickly backtracked from the comment, but his actions, or inaction, during last off-season and as his team gradually fell apart during the summer made those words ring more true as the season unfolded.

They will continue to echo into the winter. History will ultimately remember 2010 as a bridge year for the New England Patriots, too.

The Patriots’ bridge year shouldn’t be as dreadful as the Red Sox’s has been. It should be very entertaining, in fact. But it still could be pretty painful and frustrating.

The Pats seem to be on a Sox-like injury pace, with starters Ty Warren and Leigh Bodden and valuable reserve Brandon McGowan already missing from the thin defense.

Like the Red Sox, the Patriots play in the best division in their sport. Unlike the Red Sox, the Patriots’ bridge may still include a stop light at the playoffs. But expecting them to stay there for very long is as foolish as expecting an outfielder to run within 10 feet of Adrian Beltre.

No thanks to Ludgero Rodriguez, the Patriots still have a Super Bowl offense. Tom Brady has more weapons at his disposal than at any time in his career, and yes, that includes 2007. The tight ends put this offense over the top, and not just because of the impact Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez will have in the passing game, particularly in the red zone. The other guy, the one nobody talks about, Alge Crumpler, will help the running game with his blocking.

The Patriots probably won’t match the record-setting offensive juggernaut of 2007. They probably won’t have the ball enough. But they may have to at least come close to 2007 scoring levels to win half of their games.

As we learned in 2007, it doesn’t matter how much the offense can light up the scoreboard, defense wins championships.

It doesn’t have to be a great defense. The New Orleans Saints weren’t a great defense last year. They were, however, a very opportunistic defense, one that could pressure the quarterback and create turnovers, and do one or both at the most critical points in the game.

The Patriots did neither in the preseason, or against good offenses last season, and they certainly haven’t stopped anybody when a stop was a must since, oh, Super Bowl XXXIX.

In fact, it’s tough to think of anything the Patriots have done on defense the last couple of years besides miss assignments, tackles and countless opportunities to get off the field.

This defense’s saving grace is that it is young and it can learn. It has one of the best teachers ever to draw up a blitz in its head coach, who is reportedly taking a more active role with the unit this year.

And boy, do they have a lot to learn. The starting secondary consists of a rookie, two second-year players and a fourth-year player. With a pass rush that couldn’t get through a snow fence to sack a snowman, the defensive backs will be doing a lot of chasing this year.

With the exception of Tully Banta-Cain, the linebackers are just as young. The outside linebacker opposite Banta-Cain is Mystery Guest No. 1. My guess is Dwayne Sabb.

A lot of people are high on Jerod Mayo and rookie Brandon Spikes inside, as am I, but I’m worried we may have over-estimated both. Spikes is slow. It is said his instincts help him overcome his lack of speed. Let us hope so because I swear I saw him lose a 40-yard dash to the host on Shaq Vs.

Mayo is solid, and all signs point to him returning to his rookie form of two years ago. But does he make game-changing plays? The Patriots will need him to, badly, and I’ve yet to see him make a game-changing play in two years.

With inexperience all over the place, no pass rush, a suspect run defense, and a defensive leader who may not be a true impact player, the best hope for New England is the young players improve quickly as the season goes along and the defense becomes a bend-don’t-break unit. The best we can expect is a unit that gets tough in the red zone and creates turnovers to limit the damage, because decent offenses are going to have little trouble moving the ball this year.

Unless and until that happens, we’re in for a lot of 34-31 games, and a lot of fingernail chewing when the other team has the ball in a close game with two minutes left.

Maybe after another year or two of development, the defense won’t be making us nervous. Maybe we’ll remember 2010 as the bridge to Patriot Dynasty II.

But even if it’s a bridge to nowhere, at least there is football, and at least it’s going to be fun to watch. A year from now, we’ll realize how good we had it.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer. His e-mail is rwhitehouse@sunjournal.com.

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