Tua Tagovailoa’s perfect record against the Patriots on the line as Dolphins host New England

MIAMI GARDENS Fla AP Tua Tagovailoa has never lost to the New England Patriots as the Miami Dolphins starting quarterback He s also never beaten a group coached by Mike Vrabel Tagovailoa is - in his career against the Patriots He s - against Vrabel the former Tennessee Titans coach One of those streaks will end when the Dolphins host the Patriots on Sunday Both teams are coming off Week losses The Patriots were defeated by the Las Vegas Raiders in Vrabel s first contest as New England s coach The Dolphins were embarrassed in a - rout at Indianapolis Tagovailoa is hoping the Dolphins mistake-prone performance in the season opener doesn t define their season He stressed the importance not going outside of the scheme to make plays As competitors in a way that s sort of what got you here Tagovailoa explained but now it s trusting that I can t do this by myself It s almost like golf When guys golf that s on them whether they win or lose For us if one guy makes a mistake can we make it right Sure but that s not how this league works Everyone knows their keys everyone knows what to do where to go where to be and if one of us messes up it can screw up the entire play or it can get us out of our flow and kind of where we don t want to be Tagovailoa threw two interceptions and lost a fumble on a sack against the Colts And the Patriots were watching for any formula on how to disrupt Tagovailoa s quick delivery We re certainly going to have to make them earn it Vrabel revealed and we re going to have to find avenues to get the drive stopped You either have to do what the Colts did which was turn it over or you re going to have to make a play along the way and make them earn it Pick and choose your spots to try to be aggressive It s not just Tyreek Hill They ve got a fantastic orchestrator Tua does a fantastic job of knowing where he wants to go with the ball Getting Hill involved Hill had just four catches for yards against the Colts The speedy receiver also hasn t caught a pass of more than yards since the beginning of last season That s partially because of how focused opposing teams have been on limiting Miami s deep plays but Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel noted that Hill s lack of production in the season opener wasn t all his fault He hasn t caught a -yard reception for a multitude of reasons McDaniel disclosed But this last competition there were maybe three different opportunities that the opportunity was taken away from him by his teammates lack of execution on their non-ball assignments The opportunities were there Just no one saw the throw and the catch because it didn t exist because of a teammate O-Line injuries Both starters on the right side of Miami s offensive line are dealing with injuries Right guard James Daniels was placed on injured reserve Tuesday because of a pectoral injury suffered on the first offensive drive on Sunday and right tackle Austin Jackson is dealing with a toe injury that will likely sideline him this week Kion Smith who replaced Daniels against the Colts is in line to start on Sunday and Larry Borom will likely start at right tackle Coaching update Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams will not be with the band in Miami because of a fitness issue Vrabel stated Friday that linebackers coach Zak Kuhr will be calling plays for the defense in Williams absence Vrabel didn t disclose the specifics of Williams wellness issue Kuhr handled in-person coordinator duties when Williams was dealing with a strength scare this spring that caused him to miss the start of rookie minicamp Confident Diggs This spring and summer served as a period of transition for receiver Stefon Diggs as he recovered from offseason knee surgery that limited him to just eight games with Houston last season Overall he mentioned he felt good in his Patriots debut last week hauling in six catches for yards It felt good I certainly missed the contact portion of it as far as getting into physical shape Diggs revealed I hate losing so obviously I wasn t too happy about that but at the same time I took a lot from it I came in pretty confident as far as how felt body-wise It was just more so just getting back out there