NFL Predictions Week 3: Will Cam Newton Continue His Tear vs. Jaguars?

I could spend all day picking apart why Cam Newton's first two NFL games weren't really that impressive. I could say the Arizona Cardinals have a terrible secondary (which they do). I could say the Green Bay Packers aren't all that much better, having allowed 400-yard passing performances in each of their first two games and having lost safety Nick Collins for the season (which they have).

Above all, I could simply point out that Newton's Carolina Panthers are 0-2 after two weeks and that a quarterback's chief concern is winning (which it is).

However, that would ignore the bigger points: that rookies just don't throw for 400 yards or more in a game, much less their first two, that no one expected Newton to have anything close to this sort of success so soon, that the Panthers don't look like the lifeless team that went 2-14 last season.

I, for one, count myself among Newton's millions of detractors coming into the season. I still think he'll come crashing back to Earth at some point soon once opposing teams have more video on him and figure out how (easy it is) to confuse him.

For now, though, there's no pressing reason to believe he won't continue his torrid pace against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. In Week 1, the Jags gave up 263 yards and two touchdowns to Matt Hasselbeck, who was terrible with the Seattle Seahawks in 2010, albeit in a 16-14 win. Last weekend, they managed only one sack and four hits total on the Jets' Mark Sanchez in a 32-3 defeat.

In neither case did Jacksonville give up even 300 yards passing, much less 400. I certainly wouldn't expect the Jaguars to start this week against the Panthers, nor would I be so brazen as to expect Newton to extend his own incredible streak.

Not that Newton will mind if his numbers take a dip, slight or steep, so long as the Panthers pull out their first win of the season against the Jags at home. They should be able to do that much against a Jacksonville team starting a rookie quarterback of its own in Blaine Gabbert, perhaps wishing it hadn't let go of David Garrard so soon.

A win over a team as downtrodden as the Jags may not be as impressive on Newton's resume as setting the single-game rookie passing record in each of his first two games, but it would easily be the most important accomplishment of his young, promising career.

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