FOXBORO — Patriots coach Bill Belichick says he began enforcing “penalty laps” during his time as the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator and continues to make players run a lap in practice whenever he feels it is necessary to get a point across.

Such was the case toward the end of Tuesday’s practice when the entire defensive unit was sent off on a jaunt around the field.

Yesterday, Marcus Pollard, Mike Vrabel, Randy Moss and Wesley Britt each did a lap for either a false start or jumping offside.

“It just gives everybody a chance to think about what happened while they’re running around the field,” Belichick said, flashing a rare smile. “The guys who made the mistake maybe get some advice from the guys who are running that don’t feel like running.”

Asked whether he addressed the defensive corps at the end of Tuesday’s lap, Belichick said: “Oh, I definitely said something to them. It’s not what we’re looking for and the more those things happen, then the laps just keep accumulating,” he said. “One [lap] today, two tomorrow, four the next day. Eventually, we’ll get the message.”

Defensive line coach Pepper Johnson and linebackers coach Matt Patricia accompanied the defense on their disciplinary run, and Belichick was asked whether he personally had ever joined in on the penalty lap.

“It would depend on what it was,” he said. “If it’s a coaching mistake, yeah. But if it was something that was covered that the team should have known what to do and they didn’t do it, then no. That’s their responsibility.”

Let’s get real

Given the Patriots’ upcoming preseason game against Tampa Bay, Belichick says that the team’s routine this week will be similar to what it will follow during the regular season.

“It’s kind of a good chance for us to transition a little bit into our regular-season routine from an organizational standpoint and for the players, from a preparation standpoint, kind of the routine that they would have getting ready for a game,” he said. “Our next two games are back-to-back, they’re on real short weeks, so we really don’t have an opportunity to do that.”

The Patriots also played Tampa last preseason, falling to the Buccaneers, 13-10, on Aug. 10, 2007, at Raymond James Stadium.

“I’m excited about playing Tampa,” Belichick said yesterday. “I think it’s a good opportunity for us for a lot of reasons . . . . Just the quality of the team. Had a good preseason game with them last year. The scheme that they use. Going down to warm weather, give our conditioning levels a little bit of a challenge against a good football team that does a lot of things well.”

Gutierrez banged up

Second-year quarterback Matt Gutierrez, who has not practiced since last Thursday’s game against Baltimore, was not with the team during yesterday’s session. However, he was on the stadium field at noon throwing passes of varying distances for at least an hour.

“He’s day-to-day,” said Belichick, who added that Gutierrez got “a little bruise” when asked whether the QB had gotten hurt against Baltimore. “I’m sure he’ll be back out there soon. He’s a tough kid and he’s working very hard to try to be ready to go, so I don’t think it will be too long. But I don’t know whether it will be today or not.”

Come one, come all

Both today’s practice, slated for 2:30 p.m., and tomorrow’s practice session, set for noon, will be open to the public. Tomorrow’s session was originally closed to the public.

cthorn@projo.com