Ron Rivera’s Press Conference the Day After the Panthers’ Loss in Philadelphia: [gap size=”10px”]

“No, he’s not injured.”

Cam?

“Yeah. I’m not quite sure where all that came from, but to put it to rest, and he said it in his press conference after the game — he’s fine. That’s all I have to say on that issue.”

The report was it was the other foot.

“I have no idea where that came from.”

Cam has a high pain tolerance, but he has a history of saying ‘I feel good’ despite his injuries. You’re saying he’s fine?

“I’m taking him for his word. He told you guys last night he’s fine. The doctors have nothing on it. The trainers have nothing on it.”

Did you have any sense during the game that he wasn’t himself?

“No. I had no sense of that. Other than he missed a throw in terms of an interception, no.”

Cam does not look as elusive as he was. He’s almost like a shell, in terms of escapability?

“There’s a lot that plays into things that happen. Watching some of the tape, there are some things that need to be corrected. There’s a lot of things that can be spread around to all of us — coaches included — about what we can do to make things work and make things look better. I thought the third series coming out and going on an 11-play drive and scoring a touchdown was pretty impressive. I know that there’s a sense of panic. I’m not going to do that. But there is most certainly a sense of urgency.”

Does he look a fast and elusive to you as his first three years?

“Yeah. When he decides to run and go, absolutely. Absolutely.”

After watching the tape, have you been able to account for how many of those sacks were on the offensive line and how many were on Cam not getting rid of the ball quickly?

“Well, there were too many. There were some things that need to be shored up. They did some really good things. Give them credit, first and foremost. But those are things that we’ve seen, and we’ve worked on, but we need to work on them more. We’ve got to get better at it. I know we’ve had some new people back, but that’s no excuse. These guys, a lot of them have all started for us, and they should be able to handle those things. Some of it had to do with the decision making on the quarterback’s part. Some of it had to do with some of the routes that were run. Some of it could have been we could have called something different as well.”

Looking back now, did you not do enough to address the offensive line this offseason?

“No. I think you’d like to be able to say, ‘Our offensive line has played all 11 games together.’ Coach Kelly and I had an opportunity to talk beforehand. We were talking about how last year, his whole group played all 17 games. That’d be a pretty neat thing. He said, ‘This year, boy, it’s been a mix.’ And I said, ‘I know. I understand.’ So you’d like to have that, but you don’t. And when you don’t, guys come in and have to be able to pick up the slack, and they’ve got to be able to work together.”

So you think it’s just a matter of them not gelling together?

“You can say that. You’d like to see these guys get an opportunity to work together, play them more than one game together. It was the first time that group that started has started together and played together in that fashion.”

You said blame was all around, was it more the coaches should have called better protections? Should Cam not have audibled at some points?

“There was a mixture of things that could have gone better for us, some things that we could have done better.”

Do you still think Cam is less than 100 percent?

“I think he’s playing at the best condition he’s going to play him. This is Week 11 and we haven’t had the bye yet. So he’s about as healthy as he’s going to be. And that’s true for pretty much anybody that plays this game at this point in the season.”

You or Cam or both said around Week 3 or 4 that he wasn’t going to be 100 percent this season?

“No, because the season is just going to wear on him. He’ll take shots that may wake those ribs up. He may twist his ankle. That might bother him. I don’t know that for a fact, but I do know that it’ll hamper him.”

So was leaving him in there to establish a rhythm more important than him waking up with a couple more bruises today?

“Yes, because, again, I’m under the assumption that he’s fine on the field. Talking to the trainers, talking to the doctors, there was nothing. And talking to him, there was nothing.”

FOX showed some shots of him stretching some stuff out on the sideline. Do you know what that was about?

“That was from a shot he took earlier in the game. He came to the sideline. He stretched it out, and he was fine. And that was it.”

On the interceptions, were a couple of those routes being cut off when they shouldn’t?

“On the first one, he made his read and the underneath zone dropper got in there, he tried to hold it for a second to let Kelvin clear and it actually closed up on him and the corner jumped it. It was a very good play by the corner. You’ve got to give him credit on that. On the second one, you’d like to see him through the ball to the outside a little bit more.”

Do you think Kelvin should have kept running on that first interception?

“Again, he was trying to avoid the collision with the underneath coverage. He could have run, and it could have been incidental contact, and you’d have the same result. The corner, like I said, was jumping the pass.”

Anyone in particular on the offensive line you’re disappointed in?

“I’m disappointed, and we’ll go from there.”

Are there any other guys, like Chris Scott, who may get a chance?

“We’re going to evaluate this week. Not just at that position, but at all positions. We’re still in position, believe it or not, we have an opportunity, but we’ve got to start making hay. As I said earlier, there most certainly is a sense of urgency. Things have to get going in the right direction.”

Are you confident that these are your best five offensive lineman?

“We’ll see. Like I said, we’re going to evaluate this week, and not just at that position.”

Chip Kelly said afterward they wanted to attack you on the inside of your defense. What were they able to do on the inside?

“They caught us twice in man coverage. They were able to rub it and get an inside position on us and caught people on big long ones. And they hit the tight end twice up the seam. And the two tight end plays, one was against Roman, actually two were against Roman. One I would’ve like to have seen the tight end pushing off, but he didn’t. On the other one, Roman was right there, and it just went right through the top of his helmet. You would have like to have seen him turn his head around and make the play. And the one on Thomas Davis, he tried to undercut it and he missed it.”

Did you come into the game planning on punting away from Darren Sproles?

“Part of it was looking at the circumstances of being backed up. We could have chosen to not kick to Sproles, take the chance of kicking the ball out of bounds when you’re backed up, and the ball could potentially go out at the 20 or 25. Or the other part was to kick it and see if we can get coverage and get guys down in position to make the play. We felt we were in position to make the play. Unfortunately, we missed it. Three guys missed it.”

Do you have an update on Star Lotulelei’s ankle injury?

“The X-ray was negative. He’s getting an MRI to find out, and we’ll see where he is.” (Rivera later came into the media room to update this — Lotulelei’s MRI was negative. He will likely miss this week, with hopes of returning after the Week 12 bye.)

It looked like a fairly nasty ankle roll. And how late we are in the season, how concerning is it?

“According to the doc, it’s not a high ankle sprain, which is a good thing. The way it was relayed to me is it’s more like what you would get on the basketball court. He is a big guy. Big guys tend to get a little bit slower on ankle sprains, but again, this is a lower ankle sprain as opposed to the high ones, which are the worst ones.”

Speaking of high ankle sprains, is Bene Benwikere close to returning?

“Yes. Bene should be out on the practice field tomorrow. We’ll get an opportunity to see how he does. We’ve got our fingers crossed. It’d be nice to have him back on the field.”

And is Trai Turner close to returning?

“Trai as well should be on the practice field tomorrow. We’ll get an opportunity to see how he is, and we’ll get an opportunity to pick the best five to start for us this week.”

How do you think Andrew Norwell played last night?

“He did a nice job. There were a couple things that happened that really weren’t his fault when you get a chance to break it down and really look at it. Then there were some things he did really well. I thought he pulled well, squared up nicely in the gaps when he was pulling. I thought he made nice contact, good hand placement, drove pretty well. Some of his pass protection sets were really nice. But again, he’s a rookie, and he’s just going to get better, I believe. He’s got good size. He plays with a chip on his shoulder, which I think is outstanding. He’s a physical football player.”

You said Cam is physically healthy. Do you think he’s mentally ok right now?

“I think he’s fine, I really do. He understands. He gets it. He’s just going to continue to work, and we’re just going to continue to coach everybody up and put ourselves in a better position.”

You said earlier you were not going to panic. Is it because you’re so close in the NFC South?

“I think at times we’re on the cusp. You’d like to say, ‘Yeah, but you’re not consistent.’ We aren’t. But you look at some of the things we’ve done, some of the positive things to grow on. The third drive, like I pointed to. It doesn’t tell you that we don’t have the ability. That defense, you see some of the things we do, you see some of the growth that we have. You think you have an opportunity. And our situation in the South — I’ve been through this before, and I know what it’s like. We’re mirroring that, but at the same time, we’ve got to start making hay. Cause eventually everybody’s going to start riding the ship, and if we’re not where we need to be it’s going to pass us up.”

Do you feel as if everybody on this team is giving a 100 percent effort?

“I think everybody’s trying. The effort’s exactly what you want. At times, maybe we’re not good enough. That’s the thing we’ve got to find. We’ve got to figure out where do we have to be better? What do we have to be better at? Are we doing the things that we’re supposed to do? Are we executing the way we need to execute? Are we putting our players in the position to win? Those are all things that as we’re going through this, you have a change of personnel in certain situations, and you’ve got to find what they do best. And that’s the hard part for us right now, is we’re trying to match all those things. It’s tough, but at the same time we’ve got to do it, because if not, we’re going to miss this opportunity.”

Charles Johnson hurt his elbow?

“He hyperextended it. They put a brace on it. Halfway through the game, he didn’t like the brace, so he took it off and put a sleeve on and finished up with the sleeve. It’s just sore is the last I heard, but he should be fine. Plus it’s Atlanta week. He loves Atlanta.”