The Miami Dolphins will look to improve their record to 5-6 when they face the New England Patriots on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.

The Dolphins are coming off back-to-back wins against the Los Angeles Rams and Las Vegas Raiders. The Patriots are 3-8 and coming off a Week 11 home loss to the Rams.

The Dolphins are looking for a second straight season win over the Patriots after a Week 5 win at Gillette Stadium, 15-10.

Here are the five biggest storylines for this year’s Week 12 matchup.

The biggest difference in this matchup from Week 5 is at quarterback, where Tua Tagovailoa and Drake Maye have replaced Tyler “Snoop” Huntley and Jacoby Brissett. The Dolphins offense is humming with Tagovailoa back in the lineup, and that’s a big reason the quarterback is playing the best football of his career. There is no reason to believe that this fight against the Patriots cannot continue.

Maye, the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, was inserted into the starting lineup the week after the Dolphins played Gillette Stadium, and he has shown enough to get everyone in Patriots country excited about the future. Despite only allowing two sacks, the Dolphins harassed Brissett during the Week 5 matchup, but now Maye has the mobility to turn that pressure into positive gains. At the very least, this should be a tougher game for the Dolphins defense.

The Dolphins were able to pull out a win in that Week 5 game despite a late scare, but also because their running game continued to produce. It hasn’t been great the last two weeks but fullback Alec Ingold will be back in the line-up after an injury to his calf and that could make a difference and deliver another performance like we saw in Week 5.

In the Patriots offense, the player to watch (besides Maye, of course) is Hunter Henry, especially in light of the issues the Dolphins had with Brock Bowers last Sunday. Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver has promised to do whatever it takes to keep Henry under control. and that could certainly mean bringing Jalen Ramsey in if necessary.

One of the reasons the Dolphins nearly lost the Week 5 game despite keeping the Patriots offense in check was a brutal special teams performance, which included a blocked punt, a missed field goal and a failed attempt at a new field goal attempt. That they were able to survive those mistakes and still win was quite remarkable, and the Dolphins were not allowed to tempt fate again.