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FOXBORO - The Patriots have begun their transition from a training camp mentality to one that will sustain them over the course of a 17-week regular season, and hopefully beyond.

"It's still training camp, I don't need to say that," Patriots' coach Bill Belichick said at his daily press conference, "but the rest of the week will be kind of a normal Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We travel on Saturday and play on Sunday. This is a good chance for us to transition into our regular-season routine from an organization and preparation standpoint. It will be similar to the routine we would have getting ready for a game."

There is a game at the end of this long week, Sunday night (8 p.m.; NFL Network, Ch. 4) at Raymond James Stadium against the 1-0 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Then there will be two more in short order, at home against Philadelphia on Friday and at the New Jersey Meadowlands and the defending Super Bowl-champion New York Giants, on the following Thursday.

Belichick has already started to turn the attention of his team toward the Kansas City Chiefs, who'll visit Gillette Stadium on Sept. 7 in the first game that counts. It may sound premature, given that the Patriots haven't even made a formal cut yet (the first one is due Aug. 26), but the playbook has been installed and now it's time for the players to prove they know what to do with it in circumstances that will arise in less than a month.

"On Monday and Tuesday, we worked on a lot of things that were meant for total preparation for the season and some things that have come up that we need to do a better job of," Belichick said. "There are some other things that haven't come up that we need to be sure that we're prepared for - coverages, blitzes and things like that. We're working on timing of plays that we are running, a lot of which we didn't run against Baltimore. "All those things were kind of on the hit parade," he added, "and we'll continue to work on those things about 20 percent of the time and the other 80 percent will be geared towards things that Tampa Bay does."

Lap dogs

The entire defensive unit was forced to take a punitive lap around the practice fields Tuesday after a breakdown during a drill, and at Wednesday's practice, Randy Moss, Wesley Britt and Marcus Pollard did once-arounds. Belichick said he has carried the practice with him from his days with the Bill Parcells-led Giants.

"When I became a head coach, I made it more of a team thing," he said. "I would do it for one guy if it was his mistake. Sometimes we did it with the whole defensive unit. It just gives everybody a chance to think about what happened while they are running around the field. Maybe the guys who made the mistake get some advice from guys who are running that don't feel like running."

The only problem with the punishment is that the players often get rousing ovations from the fans ringing the practice fields, which seems to defeat the purpose of singling out the players for punishment before their peers.

"I think the guys that are running don't care about the crowd cheering," Belichick said. "I think they're thinking about what just happened, why they are running and maybe trying not to run again. I think that cheering goes over their heads I hope it does anyway."

Quick kicks

The Patriots released offensive lineman Pete McMahon and signed veteran cornerback Ade Jimoh, who will wear number 43. Jimoh spent four seasons with the Washington Redskins and last year with the Chicago Bears Former Giants' quarterback Jeff Hostetler was a visitor at camp the last few days, checking in on the progress of his nephew, tight end Jonathan Stupar Speaking of tight ends, interesting to note that Benjamin Watson has been practicing a lot with the twos, while Dave Thomas works out with the presumed first-string The Patriots were reportedly considering extending the public-access period of training camp through Friday, after having announced today as the final day for practices being open to fans. For latest updates, fans should call 508-549-0001 or check patriots.com ... An Internet-published report said that the Patriots had former Denver safety and nine-time Pro Bowl participant John Lynch in for a talk Wednesday morning.