Simon had to play hurt. He never should have been in that game.
Another mind blowingly stupid decision by Pete that cost us the SB.
We had a guy named Burley that was tremendous at covering the small shifty and slot type receivers.
We got him (I believe) after we were torched by the Lions receivers. He did an amazing job of fixing that weakness and was tremendous for us the whole year.
However, he must have peed in Carroll's coffee or something because he was left off the SB roster. So when Lane got hurt, we had to go with an injured Simon. That killed us and the Pats were able come back in that game accordingly.
It would be the 2nd SB we lost because a DB was injured.
But regardless, the reason Simon struggled was not Simon's fault - it was Pete's because he never should have been in the damn game in the first place!