HEALTH WATCH
- WR Philly Brown returned to practice after missing Thursday with a sore ankle.
- DE Wes Horton sprained his wrist during a 1-on-1 drill with OT Mike Remmers.
- DE Larry Webster spent the second half of practice with ice wrapped around the back of his leg after he pulled his right hamstring.
- DE Rakim Cox missed his second straight practice with a back injury.
- LB Thomas Davis, C Ryan Kalil and DE Charles Johnson had veteran’s days off.
TOP PLAY
You don’t often see LB Luke Kuechly beaten in coverage anymore, but he couldn’t catch up to QB Cam Newton’s best toss of the night. Newton lofted a perfect pass about 20 yards downfield that went over Kuechly and into the hands of TE Ed Dickson.
“Luke learned from right away because he knew. He looked too soon,” coach Ron Rivera said. “He should've stayed with the receiver a little bit longer and then tried to find the ball.”
PLAYER NOTES
- RB Cameron-Artis Payne had an up and down night. During goal line drills, he was stopped on all five of his carries. On one attempt, he fumbled out of bounds, which would have resulted in a touchback. Later, with the offense pinned at its goal line, Artis-Payne broke through a hole in the right side of the offensive line for a huge gain.
Excellent run from Cameron-Artis Payne. pic.twitter.com/2WufPHr8EN
— Bobby Agnese (@bobbyagnese) August 6, 2016
- RB Brandon Wegher picked up big yards on a play in the same drill. When the hole closed up on Wegher, he popped out to the right side and went on his way. He also scored three times in short-yardage situations.
- FB Mike Tolbert put a pretty good smack on S Tre Boston after Tolbert broke free on a run late in team drills.
“I had to realize that he is my teammate and a real good friend of mine,” Tolbert said, “so I didn't want hit him too bad.”
- TE Scott Simonson was left wide-open for a touchdown in 7-on-7s after a bootlegging Newton faked out the defense.
- TE Eric Wallace saw his first big NFL opportunity fall to the ground when he dropped what should have been a short touchdown pass from QB Joe Webb.
- LB Jeremy Cash made his most notable play since signing as an undrafted free agent when he intercepted a Webb pass intended for WR Damiere Byrd in 7-on-7s.
- CB Lou Young heard the ire of the offense and Rivera after he popped WR Jalen Simmons on an overthrown pass.
- S Tre Boston intercepted Newton for the second time in as many practices.
RANDOM NUGGETS
- The first-team offense went 0-for-2 in goal line drills against the first-team defense, with those previously mentioned Artis-Payne carries making up five of the six plays.
“We have to get our pad level down and we’ve got to knock them back,” Rivera said of the offensive line.
Of course, you can also look at it as the defense going 2-for-2 — without Davis and Johnson.
- Some guys coming back from injury, like WR Kelvin Benjamin, may have seen more action if not for the wet field.
Rivera joked the rain shower that passed over the stadium during the early portion of practice gave him “flashbacks” to the Panthers’ rain-soaked win over Jacksonville in 2011.
“I would've liked to have seen it be a nice night for everyone who got these tickets to be able to come out,” tight end Greg Olsen said. “But we seem to have two or three pouring rain games every year, and the reality is that the rain doesn't stop so you've got to learn to play in it.”
- He waited until the later part of practice this time, but Newton eventually treated the fans to what’s become a Fan Fest tradition. Like a conductor, he again led multiple versions of ‘the wave.’
“At this point, my fifth season with Cam, I'm not surprised by anything he does, any aspect of who he is,” fullback Mike Tolbert said. “Cam is a guy that can do pretty much anything that he wanted to do, and that's just another episode of who he is.”
A Cam Newton Fan Fest tradition pic.twitter.com/d6kRRunjjY
— Black & Blue Review (@BlackBlueReview) August 6, 2016