“He made some good decisions. The unfortunate part is we got down in the red zone, and we didn’t put it in. We had to kick field goals, and that is disappointing. You get the ball in positions to score touchdowns, you have to, … We can’t put ourselves behind the eight ball when we get to the red zone. We can’t have penalties. We can’t have illegal procedures. We can’t have holding. One of the things that we have to correct and get those things corrected if we want to give ourselves a chance. You can’t kick field goals in this league and expect to win consistently.”

RE: Greg Olsen

“A guy like Derek Anderson is going to lean a lot more on his tight end as opposed to his legs. With Cam on some of those, he might have pulled it down and took off running whereas Derek Anderson is going to stay in the pocket. That is one of the bigger differences between the two quarterbacks.”

RE: Was there a halftime pressure adjustment

“Yes, that was most certainly what happened. We got more aggressive. I think Sean McDermott called a more aggressive second half to try and create some more pressure against the quarterback. They popped one big run on us. They got us on misdirection, and we didn’t get over the top like we are supposed to. That’s how they gashed us.”

RE: Did he see the challenge or the coaches upstairs?

“The guys upstairs. I want to give credit to the coaches that are upstairs. I believe that it was Coach Fuller, and Sam Mills saw that and they urged me to throw the flag. The big thing was they kept yelling ‘empty hand, empty hand.’ So that meant one of our guys knocked it loose and when his hand moved forward he had nothing in there except hitting the ball with his hand, knocking it forward.”

RE: Did he get everything he wanted out of Derek Anderson today?

“No, I wanted more from Derek. Derek is a very capable football player, and he knows it. We talked about it during the game. He knows he could have put some more points on the board.”

RE: How does back-to-back wins feel?

“It feels good. It’s exciting as you can tell. I’m fired up for our guys. It’s been a long time coming. This has been an up and down year for us in terms of things that has happened to us. We have fought through it. To be in this position, this late is gratifying to a degree. I think we could have possibly been in a better position, but this is the position we are in to fight for.”

“I missed some throws, some things I just have to take that are there and make them tackle him. Efficiency-wise I feel like I could have been better. I had a great week of practice. I felt good coming in. Last night I didn’t sleep. I was confident in what I was going to do and at times, I think I may have been a little over confident.”

RE: Were you nervous?

“No, I start going through my plays during meetings and walkthroughs at the hotel, and I start thinking and seeing. I’m very visual. I see pictures in my mind. So I turned the Golf Channel on to the Australian PGA playoff, and I fell asleep in about the second or third playoff round.”

RE: What is it about your connection with Greg Olsen?

“If I see him one-on-one with a guy that I know can’t cover him, I have a lot of confidence in what he’s going to do. I checked some plays, and they were trying to cover him one-on-one and he gets open. Early on when we were playing in Tampa, we got him over the ball, got him on a couple of stickies and that kind of opens up everything else for everybody else. Then we got to the point where they were going to play single high at the end of the game because they were going to try to stop the run and then that opens up stuff for the guys on the outside.”

RE: How Cam Newton’s his role today in this victory?

“It was good. I could tell he was frustrated sometimes. He would come over and say, ‘Hey, they’re doing this; they’re doing that.’ I said, ‘Okay, okay’ because there were some things I missed. Our relationship is good like that in our room with Joe Webb as well. We’re rooting each other on, see different things, try and communicate to each other. Just being a positive presence for each other, and I respect that from him and I give the same thing to him.”

RE: Did he like that first down move that you did there in the first quarter?

“That was for my guy.”

RE: Was that planned?

“Somebody told me I wouldn’t do it, and I said if I run for a first down I promise you I will do it.”

“Cam’s going to keep us hype on the field. He’s going to tell us what we’re doing wrong, what we’re doing right on the field. He’s going to be the biggest supporter on the sideline. That’s great. It shows how much he cares about the team.”

“It’s huge. Obviously Cam is Cam and it’s never ideal to lose your starting quarterback, but to have a so-called backup who is like a starter caliber quarterback is something a lot of teams don’t have the luxury of having.”

RE: You and Derek Anderson were really clicking. Can you talk about that?

“We felt all week with some of their coverages that there would be some opportunities for the tight end to get open and make some plays, both short and kind of medium passing. We got off to a good start hitting those, and I think any time you do that, we got into a nice rhythm and felt confident. He kept hanging on me. I think we were pretty efficient.”

RE: Happy to have 10 receptions in each of your last two games?

“That the quarterback trusts you that you’re going to get open, he’s going to sit on you and give you a chance, that’s fun. It’s fun to go out there and catch the ball, it’s fun to go out there and be productive but mostly it’s fun to go out there and contribute and help win the game.”

“I finally got one. I’ve been trying to run around and get one for a while, and I think a lot of that credit goes to the guy up front. The front four rushed extremely well on that last play and any time they do that, they just throw the ball up, it’s good for us in the back end.”

RE: Possibility of being in first place after this weekend

“We were in a bad situation in the middle of the season, but coaches and players, everyone in this locker room, kept everyone together and said keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting. You never know where it’s going to put us. That’s the message the whole year. We’ve scraped some wins up in the last few games, and we’ve got to keep moving forward. If we keep winning, we’ll put ourselves in a good spot.”

“That’s why they have the Jumbotron. I didn’t have to lobby. I knew what had happened, and I was just trying to be emphatic about picking the ball up and just make sure we take advantage of the little things, the opportunities we do have.”

RE: Possibility of being in first place after this weekend

“That’s the last thing I want to hear. I don’t want to hear about it. We’ve got to continue to play, don’t look at anybody’s schedule, don’t look at any scores, we’ve got to get better.”

“I’m glad I was able to do my part, but I’m a perfectionist at the same time and I wish I could have that fifty-yarder back, I love hitting those. But you move on, and you learn and I was able to get two more after that and I felt good and it was good to have the win today.”

“We’re always talking about securing the ball, and you want the quarterback to. It’s on a lot more than the quarterback when he gets sacked. It doesn’t matter what part of the field it is. That was of course a big turn in the game.”

RE: Anthony Collins scratched

“Coach’s decision. He was just like he was listed last week. Coach’s decision to keep him down.”

“I just have to find a way to hold on to the ball better. We had a screen going and I stepped up, and I was going to throw it at Chuck’s feet and I probably should have just ate it I guess. That’s the risk you run when you try to throw the ball away. It was unfortunate. It hurt us. It hurt us bad.”

Re: Call that was reversed to a fumble. Did you think it was a fumble?

“No, I thought I threw it down the field. I mean, it went forward an awful long way.”

Re: Did the explanation make sense to you?

“No, I didn’t understand it. Again, I thought my arm was going forward, and I don’t understand how the ball goes that far downfield that way and not… you know. I don’t know. He certainly didn’t push it forward. So it went forward somehow.”

RE: Any hard feelings toward the Panthers after being released a couple weeks ago?

“No, not at all. It’s a business. I understand that. I’ve been around it long enough to understand how things happen. Certain decisions have to be made, certain moves have to be made. At the end of the day, it’s a business. That’s how you have to look at it, not make it personal.”