On Thursday morning, I asked both Jahlani Tavai and Lawrence Guy how much harder – or easier – it might be preparing for a team when facing them for the second time in a month. The Pats will be playing the Dolphins Sunday, wrapping up the season series already just eight weeks into the regular season.

Playing a divisional opponent always provides problems because of the familiarity, but twice in a span of six weeks is pretty rare.

Tavai: “Yes and no. There’s only so much you can do, it’s football. As a defensive player, we’ve just got to make sure we get to the ball and get after the ball. That’s what we’re going to be emphasizing, making sure we do better on our tackling and one way to do that is just make sure all 11 guys are to the ball.”

Guy: “It’s amazing when you play them twice in a month. Imagine playing them in December. It’s like 30 degrees out here, 90 there. There’s just not a lot of adjustments you do make in a short period of time. They are what they are, especially with Miami. They do what they do and they do it good. So, there ain’t no big scheme and this or that, we just need to understand like…looking back on the last couple games, what adjustments they did do and come into the game with the same mindset we did the first game. Like I said, eliminate those big plays and if we do that we can be successful.”