By Michael Vega, Globe Staff

FOXBOROUGH --- Although the calendar clearly indicated it was still Sunday night, Bill Belichick reminded his team after its 59-24 demolition of the Indianapolis Colts to mentally fast-forward their body clocks to Wednesday night.

Given the short week of preparation for Thursday night's road game against the New York Jets on Thanksgiving, the Patriots' coach wanted his team to be prepared to deal with the mental and physical challenges of compressing a full week's worth of preparation for an NFL game into a few days.

And so Monday became Thursday. Tuesday became Friday and Wednesday became Saturday, leaving Thursday as game day.

Got it?

''Obviously, your body's a little sore,'' said linebacker Jerod Mayo, asked about the mental and physical difficulties of preparing for a Thursday night game on the heels of playing on Sunday afternoon. "But the mental aspect of trying to cram all the information in over the last couple of games about this team is very mentally taxing.''

While Tuesdays are normally a day off for players in the league, Mayo was asked if it was difficult convincing his body that it was indeed a Friday, according to Belichick's timetable.

"Not at all,'' Mayo said. "It's like Groundhog Day for me. Every day is the same.''