Assistant coach Clarke Dermody said in both their opening games the Highlanders had been points-down after the first quarter.
"It's not an ideal situation," he said.
"We showed awesome character to come back from that [against the Chiefs], but we don't want to be there against the Blues."
Dermody said they were expecting the Blues to try to overpower them as a result of their strong forward pack winning enough possession to unleash their firepower out wide.
Repeating the attacking play that overwhelmed the Chiefs in the second half would be the Highlanders' aim on Sunday.
"It's like preparing for a South African team without the South Africans in the competition.
"They're a massive pack, [they do] a lot of kicking. Our challenge is to match them up-front and not get drawn into that game.
"They want to be walking from set-piece to set-piece, so we'll try to speed the game up," he said.
Not considered for the side was prop Daniel Lienert-Brown who broke his arm against the Chiefs and who is likely to be out of action until late next month. The Highlanders have called in Namatahi Waa from Hawke's Bay as injury cover.
One of the players who will be important to the side's defensive effort in Auckland will be second five-eighths Patelesio Tomkinson.
"You look at that backline, they've got a couple of All Blacks in there, x-factor across the board.
"For us, it's just [that] we've got to do our job, defend hard, and then look forward to the challenge," he said.
Tomkinson has had issues with his tackle-technique in the past but with the changed requirements regarding tackle height, he has been working hard to eliminate his propensity for attracting yellow cards.
"A bit of a work-on has been to get that tackle height right," he said.
"We've got a good defence coach here, Shane Christie, who's put in a lot of work in the pre-season. I'm feeling comfortable now with the way I've been tracking, it's been good," he said.
That hasn't been the only area of development he has pursued.
Rather than being regarded as a tackling enforcer, he wants to develop his attacking game.
"To get ball in hand and attack the line, and use footwork and off-loads. Those were work-ons coming back from Covid [lockdown]," he said.
With the talent on the Highlanders' outsides, like hat-trick ace wing Jona Nareki at the weekend, they needed to get the opportunity to put their skills to work.
"For me, it's just trying to get the ball as quick as possible to those guys," he said.
"They've got plenty of x-factor and speed out wide, so our job as insides is to give them the ball, and let them do their thing."