With each passing week and every Panthers’ win, more folks are starting to notice Cam Newton is a pretty good quarterback.
A day after Carolina held off Green Bay to take control of the NFC, fans starving for national respect finally got their wish. Some Panthers may still try to play the ‘no one respects us’ card, but that’s no longer true about their quarterback. At least, for now.
According to Vinnie Iyer of Sporting News, beating reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers “was a reminder that Newton has a higher ceiling.”
Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman may have gone a step further, calling Newton “the most dominant all-around weapon in the NFL.” If you’re a Panthers fan and that doesn’t give you goosebumps, you may need to check your pulse.
But as good as Newton was Sunday, he still left points on the field.
“He had a couple of passes that could have been big-time plays,” coach Ron Rivera said. “He overthrew Greg [Olsen]. He threw a little bit wide on [Jerricho Cotchery] and threw a slant just a little bit behind Teddy [Ginn]. If he hits those three, who knows what could have happened.”
And that’s the scary part if you’re any of the league’s opposing defensive coaches. If Newton is “the most dominant all-around weapon in the NFL,” the space between him and his sky-high ceiling is only made up of consistency and accuracy.
“I agree,” Rivera said. “He made some good decisions to run the ball. He slid when he had to. He dumped the ball off when he was scrambling around and a couple of big plays came out of it.
“His growth potential is still there. He’s still going to continue to get better.’’
The Panthers’ reward for another win was another day of work.
Instead of letting his players do whatever they wanted Monday, Rivera wanted to get a point across. While they haven’t lost a regular-season game in nearly a full year, the NFC’s lone unbeaten team is far from a perfect product.
“We’ve had a couple of ‘Victory Mondays’ and one thing that you always miss is being able to detail certain things and after a couple of them I felt like we missed a couple of details,” Rivera said.
“I wanted to make sure we came in and really were able to hammer the message across to our guys about the details. In fact, I opened my meeting to the guys talking about paying attention to the little things, to the details, about being careful that winning does mask some of your warts.
“We’re a good football team. I think we can get better.”
There’s no question that, despite an unblemished record, Carolina has flaws. That’s also a reason for optimism.
During the early years of the Rivera/Newton era, the Panthers were one of the league’s best at finding ways to lose. Now it’s almost like they can’t give games away, as hard as they may try.
Six days after the Colts rallied from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit, the Packers nearly came back from a 23-point hole in the final nine minutes. But instead of turning wins into losses, the Panthers are the top team in the NFC.
“My first couple years were hard, and I was concerned with the look and the body language, body expressions, the looks on the face, the ‘Oh no, here we go agains,'” Rivera said. “We’ve grown that in our first two seasons to now in season five where our guys have that kind of confidence and swagger.
“But the thing you have to be careful of is that it’s not false bravado that you can just show up and people are going to roll over. That’s not going to happen, not in today’s football. There’s too many good athletes with too much pride going on out there.”
It’s easy to focus on the Panthers’ defense and what it’s done wrong in the fourth quarter the past two weeks. But for what it’s worth, there are worse quarterbacks in the league to get a scare from than Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck.
While Carolina’s defense has left the door open, the offense has barely given it a budge. After scoring touchdowns early in the fourth quarter against the Colts and Packers, the Panthers had a number of chances to put together long drives. Six combined, to be exact.
During those six drives, they ran 16 plays , gained 55 yards and took just 6:14 off the clock. They didn’t earn a single first down, instead going 3-and-out five times and throwing an interception in the other.
“One of the things you’ve got to do is you’ve got to be able to impose your will as a team in the fourth quarter when you’ve got a lead. You’ve got to be able to go out there and play smashmouth football,” Rivera said. “If you can’t run when you know they know you’ve got to run, this is what we’re going to go through and we’ve gone through it the last two games.
“When you break it down, we may have been able to make a better call or two but we can also execute better. We’ve looked at that, we’re looking at that continually and we’re going to make sure we find the right answers for that.”
While the Panthers’ 12-game win streak is the longest in the league, the Titans just won for the first time in nearly two months.
In their first game under interim coach Mike Mularkey, Carolina’s next opponent outscored the Saints on Sunday to snap a six-game skid. It would be easy to start looking ahead on the Panthers’ schedule and see little standing in the way of 9-0, but Tennessee has a quarterback who has plenty of poise for a rookie.
Against New Orleans, Marcus Mariota became the first rookie in NFL history to notch a second game with four touchdown passes and no interceptions, which he first did at Tampa Bay in Week 1.
The Bucs have an average defense and the Saints are one of the league’s worst, so Mariota should have a tougher time against the Panthers. But in the NFL, should doesn’t guarantee a thing.
“I’m not taking nobody for granted. Nobody, man,” cornerback Josh Norman said. “Don’t matter if they’re 1-7, 0-8. I’m not taking them for granted because on any given Sunday anybody can beat you and take you off the top of where you want to be.”
A week after injuring his hamstring against the Colts, left guard Andrew Norwell admitted a return against the Titans “might be tough.” Norwell wasn’t limping when he walked through the locker room Monday, but walking is a lot different than playing with a tweaked muscle that could get worse.
“I was playing good football and to have this injury set me back from not playing and being out there with my teammates, I feel like I’m letting them down by not playing,” Norwell said. “Amini [Silatolu] did a great job stepping up for the guys and the O-line played great. But it’s a little frustrating being on the sideline.”
LB Luke Kuechly may miss some practice time this week, but he’ll play against the Titans. “Nice thing is it’s not a high-ankle sprain,” Rivera said. “That’s the best news I got. He just happened to roll it twice in the game.”
C Ryan Kalil played all 67 snaps Sunday, two weeks after suffering a high-ankle sprain against the Eagles. Kalil was back in a protective walking boot when the locker room was open to the media Monday, but trainers are mostly being cautious. “He’s a little sore today, but he should be fine,” Rivera said. “He might be limited on Wednesday but expect him to be out there on Thursday and ready to roll.”
DT Dwan Edwards is expected to return to practice this week after missing the past three games with a high-ankle sprain.
DE Charles Johnson could start practicing this week as he continues to get ready to return on Thanksgiving Day. Johnson, who’s on the injured reserve/designated to return list with a hamstring injury, has been working on the side during practice the past couple weeks. He can get back out on the field with his teammates as soon as Wednesday, but he can’t play in a game until the Panthers’ Week 12 visit to Dallas.
