Cam Newton: Panthers Rookie QB Looks Like a Different Player in the NFL

Cam Newton followed up his blockbuster NFL debut with another huge passing performance.  Newton went 28 of 46 for a whopping 432 yards with one TD but three INTs.  While the interceptions are obviously not acceptable in the NFL, for a rookie to be this prolific this quickly, especially a rookie who wasn’t known for putting up huge numbers through the air in college, is unprecedented.

To put it in perspective, Cam has bested his college high for passing yards by nearly 100 yards in each of the last two weeks.  For a QB who relied on his legs almost as much as his arm in college, that is truly stunning.  In fact, looking at the stat sheets, it’s hard to imagine this is the same QB we saw mow through the SEC at Auburn.

One huge difference, and perhaps the most glaring, between Auburn’s Cam Newton and Carolina’s Cam Newton is that at Auburn, he never lost.  Despite his huge yardage output the last two weeks, his team has nothing to show for all those stats, as the Panthers are 0-2.  Last week, it was easy to lay the blame for Carolina’s loss at the feet of the defense and special teams.  This week however, it will be hard to ignore those three picks when searching for blame in their seven-point loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

The Panthers defense did a fairly admirable job keeping the potent Packers offense out of the end zone, forcing three third-quarter field goals when Green Bay was threatening to blow the game wide open.  The flip side for the Panthers was ironically a similar story.  Three times the Panthers had to settle for red zone field goals.  This is particularly puzzling, as Cam Newton’s dual threat nature should make him a real headache in the red zone for opposing defenses.  It remains to be seen if Carolina can exploit his special talents more effectively going forward when the offense gets inside the 20-yard line.

Cam Newton came into the league as a polarizing figure, for both on- and off-field reasons.  I would venture to say, however, that even his most ardent supporters didn’t see production like this coming, at least not this soon.  If Newton can clean up some of the rookie mistakes, his future in the NFL suddenly looks blindingly bright.  The Panthers offense is loaded with big play threats, and Cam Newton appears to be just the guy to lead them up and down the field all day on Sundays for years to come.