Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin has admitted that it would be huge for him and his players if they could beat divisional rivals New England Patriots on Sunday.

Philbin said that wins against rivals do not mean more over the stretch of a season, but a victory would provide extra motivation for his players.

"It's obviously important, we have three division games to finish the year, New England being one of them," he told the Patriots' official website. "In the end, it's always good to beat New England they are the division leaders, that's always important to us.

"To say it's worth more or weighs more, I think that'd be wrong. As soon as we win this game, if we do win this game, pull this out, which we do plan on doing that we have to turn our focus right away to Buffalo and move on.

"It's not really a big celebratory situation and obviously when you play a great football team, a good football team at that matter it's a good time to test your team. It's a good time to test yourselves, the one on one match ups put it all to the test, the team as a whole and see where you are after all this work you've put in come the middle of December, so it's a great opportunity like I said."

The Dolphins are currently second in the AFC East, behind the Patriots.