These are not your grandchildren’s 1-15 Miami Dolphins.

Bill Belichick will strongly advise his team this week to be ready for a fight. While 0-2, the Patriots head coach is already seeing big differences between this Miami team and the version that, last season, threatened to become the first 0-16 team in NFL history.

Longing for a reason to smile in Miami.

“We’re digging through the Miami stuff from last week against the Jets,” Belichick said. “After watching them, it’s a good comparison to see how they just played. They have a lot of new faces, new schemes, from what we’ve seen from them recently. They’ve added a lot of young players, bigger maybe a little bit different bit of tough, hard-nosed attitude on the team.”

Then discussion turned to Jake Long, the artistically-enhanced left tackle out of Michigan that was taken No. 1 overall by Bill Parcells and the Fish back in April.

“Jake Long a very physical left tackle,” he said. “Last week we played against (D’Brickashaw) Fegurson, who i a very athletic left tackle. I think probably when he was drafted he looked familiar, in Bill’s eyes, to a guy like Jumbo Elliot, who was in that same kind of style. It helps their running game over there. I’m sure he’ll end up being one of the top tackles in football as he develops. He’s big, tough, physical, pretty much does everything well. Along with other additions to their line, that’s probably the most improved area of their team.”

As for Parcells’ impact on the Fish: “I’m not sure exactly where everything starts and stops between Bill (Parcells), the coaches and other people in the personnel department. I’m sure he has quite a bit of influence and I’m sure he did around draft time and free agent signings. Bill’s always like big guys, physical guys, tough guys and they’ve added a lot of those players to the team and kept those who were already there.

Everyone loves Ventrone: Belichick continues to be impressed with the way Ray Ventrone handles his special teams duties: “Nobody works harder than Ray. He’s a tough, fearless guy. He’ll throw his body into any situation.”

Merry-Go-Round Thomas: That’s the way Adalius Thomas described his 2-for-1 mauling of Brett Favre and Leon Washington late in the fourth quarter on Sunday. This is the way Belichick saw it: “That was a pretty impressive play,” he said. “To throw them both down. He’s made lot of those plays here, including the interception return (for a TD) last year against San Diego.”

Understatement of the week: Bill Belichick did reach out to former offensive coordinator and Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, who took a nasty hit to his left knee in the second quarter of his team’s win over Michigan last Saturday: “I think whatever Charlie wants to say about his injury, he’s totally capable of talking about that. It was a tough hit, though.”