Report: Bill Belichick Impressed With Linebacker In Patriots Debut

The New England Patriots broke the spell, and won the game against the Miami Dolphins. The Patriots played in synergy, and head coach Bill Belichick was impressed by their game, especially the one of linebacker John Simon.

Josh Gordon and Sony Michel put up points for the team, and linebacker Simon was definitely a great surprise. Simon joined the Patriots last week and built a strong chemistry with the team. The linebacker played in 41-percent of the Patriots’ defensive snaps and totaled five tackles and a sack.

“Well, I thought John played hard and he gave us a good effort on defense and in the kicking game. There’s certainly a lot of things that we didn’t get a chance to fully cover with him and rep, but we got some things done to get done what we could do and I’m sure that will be better going forward. But, he had some opportunities that came up and he was aggressive and able to make some plays for us, and it’s great to have that kind of contribution, especially as you said, from somebody with so little time here,” Belichick said in Monday’s conference call.

“But, John’s a smart player. He’s got quite a bit of experience and has some experience in a similar system when he played in Houston, so some of the terminology and some of the fundamentals that we use are things similar to what they teach at Houston. So, that probably benefited him a little bit. But, he worked hard in practice and worked hard to get the calls and the communication and his assignments down and certainly was able to step in there and contribute and make some good contributions for us yesterday,” the head coach added.

The Patriots were able to hold the Dolphins to just 172 yards of offense.