Ron Rivera kept a healthy Luke Kuechly on the sideline for three weeks, but Carolina’s coach is apparently more willing to throw caution to the wind when it comes to the Panthers’ star quarterback.
Granted, concussions are much more serious than sore shoulders, but it’s worth noting Rivera wouldn’t pull Cam Newton in a mostly meaningless game even after he aggravated his shoulder in the second quarter.
“I thought Cam Newton was about as courageous as it gets. He didn’t want to come out and he tried to make some throws we thought he shouldn’t have, but that’s him,” Rivera said.
“There was a point where we talked about putting Joe Webb in. (Newton) wanted to compete and he wanted to win the football game. I’m not going to take that away from him.
“He’s been trying to gut through it, fight through it, and it’s sore. Every time he throws a ball it creates trauma. It’s just the muscle being sore and all that stuff. As he said, the sabbatical is what’s going to help him.”
Rivera also indicated shoulder surgery won’t be on Newton’s offseason agenda. So what will help him heal up?
“Rest, a lot of rest,” Newton said. “I think me and football have a love-hate relationship and we’re not on good terms right now. I’m just going to leave her alone for a while and just try to be as regular as possible right now.”
Newton, like most of his teammates, now head into an offseason that will last a month and a half longer than this past one. But before he walked off the podium for the final time in what’s been the most disappointing year of his career, Newton clarified:
“That was a joke by the way. I don’t want to see on The Charlotte Observer: ‘Cam loves, now he hates football. He may not come back next year.’
“Listen, I just want to get away from football just like every person by default. We’re not going to the playoffs, so we just have to make the most of our opportunity right now. Like I say, I am just going to get 100 percent and miss it again.”
When kicker Graham Gano went wide right on a 45-yard field goal in the first quarter, his made/attempts stats in Carolina took on a familiar look:
Gano then missed a 58-yard attempt before he nailed a 54-yarder that gave the Panthers a 10-7 lead. But his final kick, a miss from just 36 yards away midway through the fourth quarter, was inexcusable.
“A little disappointed,” Rivera said when asked about Gano’s day. “We had some opportunities to put some points on the board and we didn’t do it. At the end of the day, we all have jobs to do and we have to do our job.”
Gano will head into the final season of a four-year, $12.4 million contract in 2017, but after a year that started and ended with missed kicks, a roster spot may not be guaranteed.
“We’re going to compete at all positions,” Rivera said. “We will certainly compete at all positions.”
To put it bluntly, the Panthers were dreadful in the fourth quarter this season.
The defense allowed a league-high and franchise-record 161 points in the period, 56 more than they gave up last year when opponents often scored points in garbage time.
Of their 16 games in 2016, the Panthers allowed double digits in the fourth quarter 10 times and posted just one shutout (Chargers). On Sunday, the undermanned unit did a solid job until receiver Mike Evans grabbed a 10-yard touchdown with 3:13 to go.
“The biggest takeaway from this season is we have to do a better job of executing in the fourth quarter,” linebacker Thomas Davis said. “That’s essentially what our season has come down to. If we make a few plays here and there in the fourth quarter we have much different season.”
The offense didn’t help much, of course.
The Panthers totaled just nine fourth-quarter touchdowns and were shutout six times. Newton had no late comebacks and threw only four touchdowns in the final period. His five-yard strike to wideout Kelvin Benjamin late in Sunday’s loss was just the Panthers’ second fourth-quarter touchdown in their final 10 games.
That’s 2010 bad.
After defensive end Mario Addison sacked Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston late in the third quarter, the FOX broadcast cut to a shot of players shoving. They never showed what led to that, though, which is strange considering the Bucs replayed it twice on their big scoreboards.
What you didn’t see at home was a big hit Davis laid on receiver Russell Shepard. Not surprisingly, the folks wearing red in the Raymond James Stadium stands weren’t pleased.
“First of all, I think that’s bush league to show that play up on the screen,” Rivera said. “What are we trying to incite? Just don’t do that. That’s got no place in the NFL as far as I’m concerned.
“(Davis) did something that the guy scrambles around and we saw Jameis (Winston) break through so at that point you can eliminate receivers. I wish it didn’t happen, but that’s part of the game. I really do mean that. I don’t think you put that type of play up on the screen. I don’t think that’s right.”
Rivera’s referring to a rule that says defenders can make contact with receivers if the quarterback leaves the pocket, which Winston did.
“My job was to go back and connect to the receiver,” Davis said. “It wasn’t even a hard hit, a malicious hit. It wasn’t helmet to helmet.
“I got underneath his pads and I talked to him after the game. We talked it out and he understood what I saw. He saw kind of the same thing that I saw. He saw the quarterback look at him. At the end of the day, it wasn’t a dirty play.”
If Sunday was truly Steve Smith’s final game, he’s at least going out on his own terms.
The former Panthers wideout caught just three passes for 34 yards in the Ravens’ 27-10 loss to the Bengals, and afterward, Smith fought hard to fight back the tears:
Steve Smith Sr. tells CBS “that’s it” after Ravens final game of the season. pic.twitter.com/EeCg8iHY9j
— NFLonCBS (@NFLonCBS) January 1, 2017
Farewell, 89 pic.twitter.com/fWSiWG515b
— Black & Blue Review (@BlackBlueReview) January 1, 2017