The New England Patriots may no longer be the powerhouse of the AFC East, but that doesn't mean that they will be an easy matchup for any team by any chance. That is the message Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is hoping to instill upon his teammates leading up to their Sunday night Week 2 clash at Gillette Stadium.

Tagovailoa made sure to urge the Dolphins to bring their A-game and focus on the task at hand; even though the Patriots no longer have Tom Brady to terrorize opposing defenses, and they're no longer as stacked as they were in the past, the mere presence of head coach Bill Belichick, the eight-time Super Bowl champion, should keep the Dolphins on their toes heading into an all-important in-division clash.

“Coach (Bill) Belichick has been coaching in this league for way longer than I think I've been alive. So he knows exactly what he's looking at when he coaches his guys. Nothing new under the sun for that guy. So we got to come out, we got to be prepared,” Tagovailoa said during his media availability session, per Dolphins.com.

During the Patriots' season opener against recent Super Bowl runner-up Philadelphia Eagles, Bill Belichick's men showed that they were not going to be pushovers. They made it difficult for the Eagles to get any sort of consistent breathing room, with Jalen Hurts not getting into much of a rhythm for most of the night. The Eagles had to settle for a field goal on multiple occasions.

In fact, it was the Eagles' defense that propped up the team against the Patriots — a telltale sign that the Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins may also run into some difficulties against the way Belichick sets up his defense.

“Yeah, they do a lot of good things and it starts with their front, their front seven. How they're able to maneuver where guys are, they're exchanging personnels, making things look the same in that sense. … We understand that that's a physical team and they're going to make us earn everything that we can,” Tagovailoa added.

The chess match between the Dolphins and Patriots will be interesting to watch as they continue to battle for AFC East supremacy.