The Patriots play at the Dolphins in Week 8 on Sunday (NE at MIA). Pats Pulpit's Bernd Buchmasser, who wrote the live stream, kickoff time and TV channel guide, describes it as the reigning AFC champions against a 1-5 Miami team at Hard Rock Stadium. Yahoo Sports also ran a how-to-watch piece, but its feed summary gives no details beyond the game being on Sunday.

ESPN's preview supplies the history. It says the Patriots are 18-43 all time in Miami, and it frames the piece as keys to a Week 8 win from Logan Ryan. ESPN describes Ryan as a former Patriots player and current TV analyst. The feed summary says he details what New England needs to improve against Miami. It doesn't list his specific points, so we aren't going to guess at them.

New England's improvement is the live question because of its recent form. The Patriots are 4-3 and second in the AFC East, 1.5 games behind the 5-1 Bills. They lost 30-24 at Chicago last Thursday, Oct. 22, which is their current one-game losing streak. Before that they beat the Jets 26-19 on Oct. 18 and the Raiders 45-17 on Oct. 11. Buchmasser notes that they have won both of their division games so far against Buffalo and New York. Our archive has the Buffalo game as a 29-26 Patriots win on Oct. 4.

Miami's record is poor, but the season has some mixed signals. The Dolphins' run differential of -59 is the second worst in the AFC, ahead of only the winless Chargers at -61. They have lost 15-10 at Minnesota and 31-24 to Cincinnati. Their one win came last Sunday, 28-25 at the Jets, and it gave them a streak of W1. New England's run differential is +17.

The Patriots' 18-43 record in Miami is a long-term figure and doesn't tell us much about this season's teams. This season's numbers favor New England, which has a better record, a positive scoring margin and a divisional win over Buffalo. A win would keep the Patriots within reach of the Bills, who host Baltimore on Sunday. A loss to a 1-5 team would leave New England a game over .500 with two losses in a row.