The Patriots would claim otherwise, of course, but the temptation is always strong after winning a championship to take the ``blind 'em with the bling'' approach to preseason games.

After all, preseason games don't mean anything -- and there's always those shiny, $20,000 Super Bowl XXXVIII championship rings to admire when all else fails.

To a man, the Patriots will undoubtedly claim that they took nothing for granted in their preparation for Saturday night's 31-3 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. But if that's truly the case, then there's genuine reason for concern today in Patriot Nation.

It might just be better for them to openly admit that they were spectacularly unprepared for the offensive onslaught of the Bengals, who raced to a 21-0 lead in the game with relative ease.

To their credit, there have been no excuses voiced by any of the Patriots since their first preseason defeat since 2001. Also to their credit, there has been very little downplaying of the defeat in the ``it's only preseason, it doesn't mean anything'' vein. Of course it's only preseason, but there was meaning -- and none it was any good.

Clearly showing his weariness at having to answer questions that haven't been asked about his team in almost a year, Patriots' coach Bill Belichick made it clear Tuesday that he has spent little time since Saturday night looking for positives in the films of the Calamity in Cincinnati. ``When you're behind 28-3, I think you're concerned about everything,'' he said. ``There wasn't really anything in the game that looked good.

``We couldn't move the ball, we couldn't stop them, we couldn't return it, we couldn't catch it, we gave up a long punt return, we had two kickoff returns that ended up inside the 10-yard line,'' he said. ``So if you're asking me if there is any aspect of the game that I'm happy with, the answer is no.

``If you're asking me if I think every game is going to be like that and we're going to get beaten 60-0 every week, I hope not,'' he added. ``But we'll find out where we are. Am I concerned about it? After watching that, I can't imagine how you could not be concerned about it.''

Belichick has already added himself to the list to those culpable for the loss, but you have to wonder how he could have been so wrong about the preparation level of his team. One possible answer may be arrogance -- the likelihood that five years into his ``program,'' and with two Super Bowl championships to his credit, he is starting to believe the sycophantic national media when it calls him the man with all the answers.

Or more likely, he just made a mistake about how to prepare the defending champions for another season.

For instance, in consultation with his coaches, Belichick has altered his plan for training camp in each year of his coaching tenure to fit the needs he has perceived for study time, practice time and rest time. This year, however, the emphasis has been heavier on the rest time than at any other time in recent memory.

There were precious few double-session workout days in this year's three-week-long ``training camp'' portion of the preseason, and the time between them was increased from the traditional four hours to seven. Almost always, the second session was conducted without pads and with little in the way of contact.

That's a far cry from the grueling stretches of 9-11 a.m. and 3-5 p.m. workouts that used to be the staple of NFL training camps -- and players who had most recently been elsewhere welcomed the difference.

``It's totally different than anything I've ever been a part of,'' defensive tackle Keith Traylor, most recently of the Chicago Bears, said a couple of weeks into camp. ``It's not bad at all ... I'm actually well rested. You wouldn't believe it by the way we move around, but there's a lot of down time, too. As long as you're working when it's time to work, (Belichick) gives you a lot of leeway.'' That should have raised a red flag when it came up the first time. But most who heard it had placed their trust so deeply in the philosophy of Coach Two Rings, they believed it would be heresy to question him.

Midway through the preseason, even Belichick is wondering if he has conducted his camp properly.

For one thing, he openly questioned whether his team had a sufficient grasp of fundamentals.

``Maybe there were times that we had some fundamental things look better so we would move on to something else,'' he said, ``but at this point, I don't think we can move past some very basic fundamental things because we can't handle those.

``You have to walk before you can run,'' he added, ``and right now, we're crawling.''

But it's also possible that by conducting a player-friendly camp, in which veterans were occasionally given surprise days off even when they didn't feel the need for them, Belichick fell prey to something he has frequently claimed to be on guard against.

He has often said that no one else in the NFL cares what his Patriots did last year and that they should be prepared for the best efforts their opponents can muster -- but then he left his team woefully unprepared for such an effort Saturday night. Clearly, the Cincinnati Bengals went into the game believing they had more to prove than the defending world's champs, but as it turned out, exactly the opposite was true.

With two championships in three years, and the lessons learned from their failure to make the playoffs in 2002 after the first of those titles, these Patriots and their coach shouldn't have needed a wake-up call. But Saturday's loss proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a team that doesn't heed the lessons of history runs the risk of repeating it.

Fortunately for all parties concerned, this one didn't count. But were the Patriots paying attention?

``Well, I would hope that game got somebody's attention,'' Belichick said. ``We'll find out.''

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com