FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Some things never change.

When things are going too good for the New England Patriots, someone has to reel them back in. And that person, about 110 percent of the time, is Bill Belichick.

So it was Wednesday. With all of Patriots Nation still celebrating an improbable 23-21 victory at Arizona on Sunday night, the head coach sent a not-so-subtle reminder that this team still has a lot of work to do.

Asked how he could get his players to focus on Sunday’s home opener against the 0-1 Miami Dolphins, Belichick replied:

“Pretty easy. All you’ve got to do is turn on our game against Miami last year. It’s sickening. Yeah, it doesn’t take long at all. I don’t know if you had a chance to see that or not. It wasn’t very good; bad coaching, bad playing, just bad period.”

He was referring to a 20-10 Dolphins victory over the Patriots on Jan. 4 in Miami, the final game of the regular season. Fans might have forgotten it but Belichick obviously hasn’t. After all, had the Patriots won that game, they would have hosted the AFC championship game instead of traveling to Denver, where they never win.

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No, the Patriots didn’t play that well against the Dolphins last time out. Tom Brady threw for only 134 yards. The team rushed for only 70. Ryan Tannehill, meanwhile, threw for 350 yards and two touchdowns for Miami.

The Patriots were lethargic and played as if the game didn’t matter.

Yes, this is a new season, with new faces dotting both team’s rosters (and on the sidelines in Miami, where Adam Gase is the new head coach). And of course there’s the matter of the Patriots’ quarterback, where Jimmy Garoppolo makes his first home start in place of the suspended Brady.

But Belichick is making sure his players know how bad it was down in Miami last season.

“There are some new faces down there but I’d say the thing that’s most etched in my mind, and I’m sure our team’s, is the last time we went down there it was a pretty rough day for us,” he said. “Other than James White breaking a tackle we barely had 100 yards of offense, couldn’t play defense, couldn’t really do anything. It’s a good football team. They’ve added some significant players from the last time we played them.”

Some fans might snicker. The Dolphins, after all, have lost their last seven games at Gillette Stadium. And they didn’t exactly inspire confidence in a 12-10 loss at Seattle on Sunday. Yeah, they obviously played well defensively, but where was the offense?

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But it is Belichick’s job to prepare his players physically and mentally, something he obviously does well given the Patriots’ run of success. They have won the AFC East seven consecutive years and played in five consecutive AFC championship games.

“No one’s better at turning the page and getting ready for the next game than Bill,” said safety Devin McCourty. “And I think that’s a good thing about this team. We take after him and understand, once he turns the page that’s all he’s talking about. All we’ve talked about is Miami.”

McCourty said they got Belichick’s “just in case you forgot” reminder about last year’s game pretty quickly after the Arizona victory. “We got it this morning,” he said. “We got it late Monday afternoon when we got in.”

Matthew Slater, the Patriots’ special teams ace, said the Patriots who played in that beatdown in Miami really didn’t need much reminding.

“I think all of us who were here last year are very disappointed with the way we went down there and performed with a lot at stake for our football team,” he said. “Obviously we didn’t show up and they outplayed us, flat-out outplayed us. Definitely that’s something we have not forgotten.

“We know this football team knows us well. It’s going to be a tough game but we’ve got to show up. We’ve got to play better than last year.”

And to do that the Patriots have to forget about what happened last week. As hard as that may seem, Slater said players have to learn to move on to the next week.

“I think it can be (hard to do) but I think Coach Belichick and his staff do a great job of focusing us in week to week,” said Slater. “And I think we have enough veterans on this team that understand that game is as far gone as if it was five years ago.”

Yep, they’re on to Miami.


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