Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes led the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes last season, and the Chiefs capped the 2022 campaign by winning Super Bowl LVII.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa leads the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes this season.

On Sunday, the quarterbacks’ teams will square off in Frankfurt, Germany.

“It’s never easy going against Pat,” Tagovailoa said. “But I would say, and Pat would say the same, it’s not me playing against Pat, Pat playing against me. It’s our offense having to go against their defense; their offense having to go against our defense. We prepare for their defense just like any other defense, just trying to see how many times we can score, get the ball into the end zone. At the end of the day what we’re trying to do is try to score one more point than the other team and try to get a win.”

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For Tagovailoa to enjoy the same type of season that Mahomes did in 2022 requires more than duplicating the big passing numbers. Miami also needs the NFL championship, and this season is the 50th anniversary of the Dolphins’ most recent Super Bowl victory.

At 6-2, Miami has established itself as a contender, matching the record of the AFC’s other division leaders – the Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars. But none of the teams beaten by the Dolphins so far in 2023 have a winning record at this time. The Miami opponents who do – the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles – limited the Dolphins to their two lowest point outputs of the season.

“Any opportunity for us to play a team that has been to the Super Bowl within the last couple years or the last year and has won it, I think that’s always a great challenge,” Tagovailoa said. “For our team to have this opportunity to go against a Pat Mahomes team, it’ll be fun and it’ll give us a chance to see where we’re at going to this bye week as a team.”

Tagovailoa carries an NFL-record streak of 11 consecutive victories against Super Bowl-winning coaches as a starting quarterback. During the streak, the former Alabama All-American and the Dolphins have beaten Bill Belichick six times, Sean Payton twice and Jon Gruden, John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin once apiece.

The streak began after a 33-27 loss to coach Andy Reid and the Chiefs on Dec. 13, 2020. Tagovailoa lost in his only previous matchup against Kansas City even though he completed 28-of-48 passes for 316 yards with two touchdowns and one interception and ran for 24 yards on one touchdown on six carries.

Mahomes completed 24-of-36 passes for 393 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions in that game.

“I think there’s a lot of things that are different,” Tagovailoa said of his rookie year matchup against Mahomes and the Chiefs, “one being the offensive system that I’m playing in now compared to the offensive system that I had then, then the supporting cast that I have, and really there’s just a lot of things that are different. We’ll see what goes down this Sunday.”

The Dolphins and Chiefs square off at 8:30 a.m. CST Sunday at Deutsche Bank Park in the NFL’s first game in Frankfurt. NFL Network will televise the game.

“Football has opened up a lot of avenues for me,” Tagovailoa said. “Obviously in America, the status that it gives you, and that it allows you to do things that others aren’t fortunate to do. The money that we make, it puts into perspective a lot of things that maybe normal, hard-working people don’t necessarily make. For us to be able to come out here and travel as a team, it gives you that opportunity as well, not just in the States of traveling, but coming outside the States, going to other countries and really expressing what Americans love with American football and trying to share that with the world and things like that. Football has done a really great job in helping not just me, but a lot of our guys have an experience like this.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.