There’s a misconception that Patriots coach Bill Belichick never says anything. Often, he says plenty.
There’s also a misconception that Belichick is perpetually miserable. Sometimes, he’s happy.
On Thursday night, after beating the Dolphins 36-7, Belichick was happy.
“I thought it was a great job by the staff and the players this week,” Belichick told reporters at the outset of his post-game press conference. “Two games in five days, two division games, I know it’s tough, but I thought the staff really did a good job of grinding this one out, trying to get ahead on Miami as we closed out the Jets week, knowing how quick this would be on top of us.
“The players came back Monday after a good win against the Jets and dug right in on the Dolphins. We had a really good week. It was an intense week. It was a tough week mentally. But they really pushed themselves. I thought our preparation was good and they played hard tonight.
“I thought there were a lot of good things out there. Obviously, we left some plays that could have been better, but they did a real good job. Players, coaching staff did a great job tonight and it was a good win. We got contributions from everybody, turnovers on defense, had good production on offense and more balance in the running game and the passing game. And we played against a good front – those guys are good. We competed and blocked them. We did a pretty good job on special teams with our coverage. [Jarvis] Landry split us one kickoff return, but we had some good field position plays in the first half that really pinned them back and helped us out. Still a lot of things we need to work on, but there are a lot of positive things out there, too. The players did a good job tonight.”
The players have done a great job this season, running their record to 7-0 exactly seven weeks after beating the Steelers to start the year. It’s the team’s best start since going 16-0 in 2007, and it leaves them nine games away from repeating that task, with nine days until their next game, a visit from Washington.
The last time Washington came to Gillette Stadium was in 2007. The final score was 52-7.
