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[accordion][accordion_item title=”Panthers Coach Ron Rivera”]RE: Thoughts on tonight’s performance

“I think there were a lot of good things that went on out there. I talked about doing certain things and being consistent. We were pretty consistent for the most part. We put ourselves in position; now we just have to capitalize. That is probably the biggest disappointment more than anything else. Third down was very good as an offense, very good as a defense on plays like that. We came out in the second half, drove the ball down and punched it in to score a touchdown. I’m really happy about what we did right there. Then the defense came out, held them, got the ball back and forced the punt. We did the things that we needed to do. We did the things I wanted to see us do. The disappointment obviously is we had some opportunities. We dropped a couple of interceptions we should have had. We dropped a couple of passes we should have had. We missed on a fourth down situation. But again, a lot of things we did I was really proud of. I think we are getting better. We are heading in the right direction, and I’m fired up about that.”

RE: Corey Brown’s struggles

“The biggest thing more so than anything else is Corey Brown has to stop putting the pressure on him to replace Kelvin Benjamin. To replace Kelvin is going to be a unit job, not a one man job. I tell these guys I need one guy making one play. I don’t need one guy trying to make a lot of plays. That’s the bottom line. Corey has to stop thinking that it has to be him to do it because that’s what happened. He wanted to stay in the third quarter, wanted to stay in the fourth quarter and give him a couple chances to make a couple plays. That’s what I told him. I said, ‘Corey stop thinking you have to and start wanting to.’ I put my arm around him and told him you have all the time in the world, you have all the ability in the world, you show it. Now go out there and do it because you want to do it, not that you have to.”

RE: Brown’s touchdown drops over last two games

“It’s not concerning. I think the truth of the matter is he is putting too much pressure on himself, at least in my opinion. He has opportunities. He will capitalize on those opportunities. We believe in him. We believe in who he is. Sure, he has made a couple of mistakes but that is a part of football too. Now how he handles it, how he bounces back, that is going to tell us what kind of football player he really is. We will find out. We have a whole other week to get ready. I’ll expect him to pick it up. I’ll expect him to do what he needs to do.”

RE: If there is anyone besides Corey Brown that he wants to go with

“No, we are sticking with Corey. Guys, this is what the preseason is for. Again, as we go through it, we will watch it and study and see. How he handles the situation will tell us a lot about who he is as a football player. Again, it is about making plays and taking advantage of opportunities. Again, I believe he has what it takes and that he is going to go out and correct these things and make these plays.”

RE: How Cam Newton improved over last week

“I was very pleased with his whole command of what we did. Again, this was our third game; this was the game you game plan for and look forward to. We had a little bit more in as far as what we were going to do offensively. We were put in a really good position. I thought he had good rhythm early on. A couple times we drove the ball down and, unfortunately, had to kick field goals. I thought we came out with the jets rolling at the second half. I thought he handled it very well. He took the team down and scored. That’s what we need to do. We need to have that kind of energy when he comes out on the football field and I thought he did that.”

RE: If the defense played well tonight

“Yes, I think they did. The two-minute drive, there were a couple things that they did. They made a couple plays. Tom Brady is who he is because he is a great football player because he makes plays. We did have a couple times that Tom Brady took advantage of it. Fortunately, Thomas Davis was there step for step and missed the ball. It went right through his hands, and we will work on that with TD.”

RE: If he thinks the defensive backs should have had more picks

“Yes, they should have. They should have had more, at least four maybe five. But again, they put themselves in position. They put themselves in position to make plays and that’s always a good thing. It’s always tough when you do things, and you do things the right way, but again you have to finish the play. These are guys who made tremendous plays last season and we expect them to make tremendous plays this season. I thought Josh Norman did a nice job on the break reading the quarterback. I thought Bene Benwikere made a nice play as well.”

RE: Brian Folkerts’ play 

“I thought he played pretty well, all things considered. It’s his first start ever and I thought he handled it very nicely. I think he handled the line calls for the most part. They did a couple things he probably wasn’t ready for, but I think he handled those things pretty well. Again, he is a young guy. He has a long way to go, but he is a good player.”

RE: Devin Funchess and Charles Johnson

“They are very close. In fact, they came out and ran before the game and of course they tell you that if they had to they could play. I say, yeah, ok right. It was good to see them out there working, running the way that they did. It’s one of those things that once we get to Sunday’s practice we are going to add on a few more guys. We will have Charles Johnson out there. We will have Kawann Short out there. We will have Devin Funchess out there. So I’m excited about that.”[/accordion_item][accordion_item title=”Panthers QB Cam Newton”]RE: On going over to Corey Brown after a drop and what he said to him

“Just personal. There is no need to publicize something that is already understood. As an offense, we just have to be better after having the performance that we had today. At times it was exciting to see and now looking back, it is just frustrating that at halftime the defense had played their tails off and only ended up with six points. The scoreboard did not tell the outlook of the game but perception is a reality. From afar, looking at the score you would think that we had a game that we were struggling in. With the defense playing like they did, we have to find a way to put more points up on the board.”

RE: On whether or not he thought Corey was pressing a bit

“I don’t want to make this about Corey. We lost a football game that we should’ve won and Philly knows what he has to do. My confidence is not altered by any means. We are going to need guys to step up from Jerricho Cotchery, Greg Olsen, Philly, Brenton Bersin and those guys. Everybody has to make a conscious effort to play better including myself and we will.”

RE: On whether or not he is confident in the weapons around him helping them go to the next level

“I don’t have any choice. The answers are in the locker room. It is not up to me. I have full confidence in the personnel, I’ve got full confidence in myself that we will have a great week of practice, get back on track and know that we have to keep this winning attitude. We have to find ways to win and today we found ways to lose.”

RE: On what he liked about what they did tonight offensively

“We moved the ball. We did move the ball but when the defense goes out there and gets turnovers, we cannot let those opportunities go in vain and we did that today. We had what we wanted and played a great team in the third preseason game. They are the defending champs and we just let those guys get away. It is nothing to take against what they did. They are a great team and we understand that, but we are a great team too. We have aspirations to be even better but with the performance that some of us showed at times is not good enough. I am speaking not necessarily to a specific group. I am speaking as a whole I have to be better. Defensively, they have to be better. Special teams has to be better as a whole. As the Panthers we have to be better.”

RE: On whether or not he feels better about the first team offense in comparison to six days ago against Miami

“It is about the same. We have a lot of things that were answered but also uncertainty with getting guys going.”

RE: On running the no huddle

“It is just setting the tempo to the defense. It is really applying pressure to the defense and forcing those guys to give us the look that we want. We don’t want to break the huddle at seventeen seconds because then there is not much that we can do. For me to be able to see what those guys are doing, it is up to me to see what I can see and get the offense into the right play.”

RE: On how the scheme has helped him

“The more that you see, the better off you will be. Like I have said, it is not anything worth panicking about when we are in that type of tempo. It is tempo just enough for us to play fast and have the defense hesitate somewhat. We feel like we are pretty up to par in our endurance and we have to stay that way. When we get in that red zone we have to find a way to cut it into overdrive and score points.”[/accordion_item][accordion_item title=”Panthers WR Corey Brown”]RE: Multiple dropped passes

“Not what I’m used to doing. Not what I normally do so I’ve just got to get back to the drawing board, do what I normally do.”

RE: Is it becoming a mental thing with you?

“No, not at all. That’s why I wanted to play so long tonight. I just wanted to keep going, getting back into to – just get back into catching with the hands. It’s just me body catching, not with the hands. It’s just not what I’m used to.”

RE: Are you in a slump?

“No, but it’s something I know I’m going to overcome. I’m going to come back this week and I’m going to work like I’ve worked every other week. It’s good when you’ve got people on your side. Everybody here knows, they see me every day and I know I’m going to be fine. I’m going to relax and start playing like myself again, just trusting my hands and stop using my body.”

RE: How you felt when you made the catch

“Shoot, finally. You get to a point where you’re like, you can’t buy – especially on an easy five yard out like I had tonight. Basically, the whole time just saying relax and catch it with your hands.”

RE: Support from your teammates and coach tonight

“I said it earlier. They see me every day. You guys come to practices and see me. They know that this isn’t me. This has never been me and it’s not going to continue. I’m going to come and practice and continue to do better.”[/accordion_item][accordion_item title=”Panthers TE Greg Olsen”]RE: Overall game performance and touchdown drive in second half

“It was good. It was our first drive coming out of halftime. That’s always a good thing, the third preseason game coming out of halftime, having that kind of drive and getting that kind of experience under your belt. We really benefitted from a couple of their penalties. We moved the ball then we were able to convert a couple of short yardage situations, so that was good. Then we had the nice touchdown to Mike (Tolbert). We probably could have, should have had at least one if not two touchdown drives there in the first half, so that was disappointing. I think maybe we took a step forward.”[/accordion_item][accordion_item title=”Panthers CB Josh Norman”]RE: What happened on the dropped interception

“Oh my gosh. I was out of there. Before he even threw the ball when his arm was releasing it, I was there. And it felt like eternity for that ball to get there. Then it dived on me and I tried to breadbasket it and as soon as I tried to get up my feet got tangled and the ball hit my feet. Bene almost picked it up. It was bad. It was bad all the way around. The worst part about it was it was so simple. But you know what, that’s where that extra repetition comes in. It just doesn’t stop. Catch one thousand balls this week, we’re going to have to amp it up to five thousand next week. I’m going to be out there until my hands turn to blisters.”

RE: Thoughts going through his mind while the ball was coming

“It was just like slow motion. I was too energetic too. I have to calm down.”[/accordion_item][accordion_item title=”Patriots Coach Bill Belichick”]RE: New England’s slow offensive start

“Obviously couldn’t do anything in the first half, couldn’t run, couldn’t throw.

RE: How do you feel Brady did tonight?

“Certainly didn’t do too much offensively.”

RE: Tom Brady

“I think this game, at the end of the day, I don’t think this game had much to do with the next one. They are all different.”

RE: Did you feel like you got pressure on Cam Newton?

“At times.”[/accordion_item][/accordion][vc_raw_html]

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