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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- When Bill Parcells was the head coach in New England, he would hang mousetraps in the locker room leading up to potential "trap" games. Bill Belichick doesn't do anything overtly as visual, but the coach does go on the attack when he thinks his team might be set up for a trap or letdown week.
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And that's exactly what he did during his big Wednesday press conference with the Patriots (1-0) flying high from the opening night upset win in Arizona and returning to Gillette Stadium to open up a three-game homestand against the Miami Dolphins.
Rather than a mousetrap, Belichick's tool was a history lesson pointing toward what happened the last time the teams met, a 20-10 Patriots loss in last year's regular season finale in Miami.
"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," Belichick 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. I hope we can be more competitive against them than the last time that we played them."
Translation: stop reading your press clippings and feeling good about yourself, and get back to work.
While the Patriots enjoyed a two-point win on opening night thanks to Arizona missing a potential game-winning field goal, Miami suffered a 12-10, hard-fought defeat in Seattle.
Like so many games on opening weekend -- and so many NFL games in general -- the two AFC East foes were a couple plays away very different fates and records heading into a key Week 2 battle.
Belichick was then lobbed up a question about it being difficult to focus this week after the emotional road win on Sunday night.
"Pretty easy; all you've got to do is turn on our game against Miami last year," Belichick said, returning to his theme of the week. "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."
The message clearly made to the guy it might most be intended for. Fill-in New England quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was impressive in is first career start, notching a 106 passer rating on the way to the road upset victory.
Garoppolo faced the challenge of the unknowns heading into his first start. Now, his first home start comes with a new challenge -- expectations.
The Patriots are a heavy favorite at home and both of Boston's major papers ran columns this week saying that New England should expect to finish Tom Brady's month-long Deflategate suspension with a 4-0 record.
"(Last) Sunday's over with," Garoppolo said before describing how he avoids getting to high or low as a player. "We're already into the Dolphins. We've been into the Dolphins for the last couple of days now, so it's a new challenge and it's a new week. That's the season for you.
"I think the atmosphere in the building -- the coaching staff does a good job of keeping us level-headed, so it's just a never too high, never too low kind of thing. It's just on to the next week. It's a long season so you just have to keep moving on."
Moving on means Garoppolo faces the figurative challenge of the increased expectations and the literal challenge of a Miami defensive front led by Ndamukong Suh and Cameron Wake that will be looking to blow through New England's make-shift offensive line and beat up on the young quarterback.
"That front seven, they're very talented," Garropolo said. "As good of a front as we'll see. We have to do a good job of handling them and we'll go from there."
He's taking each challenge one step at a time in short span as the New England starter. Just like Belichick is working to get his team to take each week one step at a time.
Last week was great, but that good will could be long forgotten by Sunday afternoon at 4 if New England can't take care of its business at home.
"We're playing Miami this week, so it'll be a whole new challenge, whole different team," Belichick said. "Everything's different. We're going to have to do a good job against Miami. It doesn't matter what we did some other week, some other game. It doesn't matter."
--QB Tom Brady is three weeks from returning from his four-game Deflategate suspension, but some have already started to wonder what the future holds for the quarterback position in New England given Jimmy Garoppolo's impressive first start.
Hard as it may be to believe, Bill Belichick was asked in is Wednesday press conference how many calls he'd already taken from teams asking about possible trades for either Brady or Garoppolo.
"Yeah, we're really just focused on getting ready for Miami," Belichick said. "That's what we've been working on. That's what we plan on working on all week."
One of the subjects of the premature trade talk, the guy who will go back to being New England's backup after Week 4, was asked if it will be harder to accept that role given the early success and joy he's encountered as a starter.
"I don't know. We'll cross that when we get there, I guess," Garroppolo said. "For now, it is what it is."
NOTES: DB Mike Hilton was released from the Patriots practice squad on Wednesday, barely a week after the rookie free agent signed with the unit. ... WR DeAndrew White, a 2015 former undrafted free agent who previously spent time with the San Frandisci 49ers, joined the Patriots practice squad on Wednesday. ... LB Dont'a Hightower (knee) did not practice on Wednesday, New England's first day of preparation for the Dolphins. Hightower had the knee injury looked at early in the opening night win but finished the game playing 58 of a possible 61 snaps on defense, although he notched only a single tackle. ... CB Malcolm Butler (ankle) was limited in practice due to the injury apparently suffered in the opener in Arizona. ... RT Marcus Cannon (knee) was limited in practice on Wednesday due to the injury suffered in the opener, although he was able to play every snap on offense against the Cardinals. ... RG Jonathan Cooper (foot) remains limited in practice after failing to make the trip to Arizona with his team. The veteran missed all but two days of training camp practice to the injury, sustained in the first day of padded action on July 30. ... DE Trey Flowers (shoulder) was limited in practice and wore a red, non-contact jersey for the Wednesday workout. ... TE Rob Gronkowski (hamstring) remains limited in practice for the second straight week, the All-Pro missed the opener due to the injury, failing to even make the trip to Arizona. ... G Shaq Mason (hand) continues to be limited in practice, although he did play some rotational snaps in the opener while wearing a cast/heavy tape job on the broke right hand. ... LB Shea McClellin (shoulder) continues to be limited in practice although he did play a reserve role in Arizona on opening night. ... LT Nate Solder (hamstring) remains limited in practice due to the injury suffered in the preseason finale. The veteran missed the opener against the Cardinals and didn't even make the trip to Arizona. ... WR Chris Hogan (shoulder) was a full participant in practice, as he was all last week leading to an impressive New England debut that included three catches for 67 yards against the Cardinals, including a 37-yard touchdown.
