The offensive line is a mess. The running backs are invisible.

Yet the New England Patriots remain the NFL’s best team. They are 6-0 entering Thursday night’s AFC East game with the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium.

And one player stands tallest: quarterback Tom Brady.

At 38, Brady is having perhaps his finest season. He has completed 68.9 percent of his passes for 2,054 yards, 16 touchdowns and one interception. He’s doing this even though every defense knows what’s coming.

And he’s at his best when it matters most.

In Sunday’s 30-23 victory over the New York Jets, Brady threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to rally the Patriots from a 20-16 deficit. He completed 14 of 17 passes for 150 yards in the quarter.

The Dolphins, who have won two straight since Dan Campbell took over as coach, know they will have their hands full.

“He’s playing at a high level,” said Campbell. “He’s been playing at a high level for a number of years now and, you know, offensively they’re doing everything right. You talk about being efficient, moving the chains, not turning the ball over, finding mismatches … I mean they’re potent and with (Brady) behind center, he makes it tough, challenging.”

Asked if his team would try to disguise defenses against Brady, Campbell said, “He’s going to figure out most of it, if not all of it, but at least you’re making a try. You’ve just got to have enough of that stuff in there to where at least you make him think a little bit, but what else are you going to do? If you look at all the things teams have done to him, it doesn’t work.

“You can say part of it works,” continued Campbell. “But it’s hard and that’s why Tom Brady is Tom Brady.”

Wide receiver Danny Amendola is confident Brady will always get the Pats into the right play.

“Just the operation of the offense and how he can get us in and out of plays, the total machine he creates on offense, he’s really good at it,” said Amendola.

After an offseason in which Brady was stuck in the hot lights of Deflategate, he appears more focused than ever. And more of the offense is falling on him.

The offensive line started the season without two starters – center Bryan Stork is still out and guard Ryan Wendell only returned last week – then lost left tackle Nate Solder for the season in a 30-6 win at Dallas on Oct. 11. Solder’s replacement, Marcus Cannon, injured a toe early in the next game. Cannon missed the Jets game, as did rookie guard Shaq Mason, who had assumed a starting position.

The offensive line against the Jets included left tackle Sebastian Vollmer (who normally starts on the right), left guard Josh Kline (an undrafted free agent), center Dave Andrews (an undrafted rookie free agent), rookie left guard Tre’ Jackson and second-year left tackle Cam Fleming (who was on the practice squad two weeks ago).

Compound that with the ineffectiveness of the running game – the Patriots average only 83.7 rushing yards a game, ranked 31st among the 32 NFL teams – and you can see why Brady has shouldered much of the offense.

Last week, for example, Brady threw the ball 54 times; the Patriots only ran the ball nine times – and four were scrambles by Brady, who led the team with 15 rushing yards.

For the season, Brady has thrown 251 passes; the Patriots have run the ball 128 times, including four kneel-downs by backup Jimmy Garoppolo.

Coach Bill Belichick knows what’s going to be effective. As he said Wednesday, “My goal each week is to win. It’s not about balance. It’s not about stats. It’s not about anything except trying to win.”

And right now the best way to do that is on the right arm of Tom Brady.

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