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FOXBORO - The realization is starting to dawn upon them. The rehearsals are over. It's time for the real thing.

"It's time to get out there and play some ball," Patriots' running back LaMont Jordan said Wednesday as the team headed down the home stretch of preparation for Sunday's regular-season opener at home against the Kansas City Chiefs (1 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12). "I get nervous before practice, so I just can wait to get out there. It's an opportunity, and I'm excited about coming to a team that has a reputation for winning, and I just want to do my part."

There's been a lot of talk in the wake of a winless preseason that the Patriots need to flip a switch and stoke up their performance a notch. They seem to have done that at least in one way, their general disdain for speaking about the past, which was plainly evident in their responses to reporters' questions Wednesday.

"The preseason is over, and we're talking about Kansas City," linebacker Adalius Thomas said. "You people want to talk about the preseason, and the preseason is done. It's over with. We've moved on and we're getting ready for Kansas City. I don't think it's fair to Kansas City to sit here and talk about preseason."

Thomas' concern for the Chiefs notwithstanding, safety Brandon Meriweather said he's been ready for the regular season to start for a long time. "I take every game seriously, so I'm not saying it's just preseason or anything like that," the second-year veteran said. "I'm preparing like I've prepared for every other game."

Meriweather said he didn't believe he was qualified to dispense advice to the Patriots' rookies about how to handle the start of their NFL careers.

"I don't think I'm the right one to be doing that," he said, smiling. "I leave that to Hot Rod (Rodney Harrison). Of course, if they ask me something, I'd try to lead them in the right direction, but I'll leave that up to the veterans.

What it means

One of the things that members of the Patriots repeatedly say about playing for Bill Belichick is that he finds ways to put them into positions where they can succeed.

Wednesday, at his mid-week press conference, Belichick was asked to define what that means.

"Well, I think the coach's job is to give the players a chance," he said. "There's nothing worse than watching a play on film and feeling like the players did what we asked them to do, but we really just don't have a chance on this play. Whatever the deal is, they have something called that we just can't handle very well.

"You certainly don't want to put your players in that position where there's not much they can do," he said. "You want to put them in a position where they at least have a chance, as we say, to have a fair fight. You don't want to run plays where they've got one more guy than you can block, or to defend plays where you're just outleveraged, and you don't have any chance to defend what they're trying to run. You want a fair fight, you want to give the players a chance to be in a position where they can match up evenly with your opponent, or maybe in some cases, gain a little bit of an advantage.

"In the end," he continued, "you try to stay out of those situations where you just don't have a chance. That's the coach's job, to prevent that situation from happening. That covers a lot of ground, but in general terms, that's a bad feeling when you're looking at one of those plays and you just don't have a chance."

Quick kicks Meriweather, who has been nursing a sore leg, returned to practice Wednesday. Those not in attendance were Sam Aiken, Dan Connolly, Benjamin Watson, Le Kevin Smith and Kevin Faulk, the latter of whom is serving a one-game suspension as ordered by the NFL The first four were all listed on the first injury report of the season as not participating in practice with knee injuries, while Russ Hochstein (groin) participated on a limited basis, and Tom Brady (right shoulder and foot) participated fully ...

How dominant have the Patriots been over the past 10 years? They've won more Super Bowls, three, than the nearest competitors (seven teams with one apiece), they've tied Indianapolis for most divisional titles (six), they lead the Colts in most overall wins (122-112) and most regular-season wins (108-105), they lead in playoff victories with 14 (Philadelphia has eight), they lead in regular-season home wins over Denver and Indianapolis (59 to 57) and regular-season road wins over the Colts (49-48), they're tied with the Packers for most regular-season wins in December and January (34) and they lead in turnover differential in the regular season over Jacksonville (plus-59 to plus 55).