Cam Newton: Is Panthers QB Still Rookie of the Year Favorite After Week 3?

Cam Newton, after throwing for over 400 yards in each of his first two NFL starts, came crashing back to earth harder than the rain in Charlotte Sunday.

At least, that's what most would have you believe.

It's easy to glance at a box score, see that Newton completed only 18 of 34 passes for a paltry 158 yards and think that his short stint as the most impressive rookie quarterback in years is over. It's easy to look at his lone touchdown pass and wonder what must have gone wrong for the first-year passer. And it's easy to declare that he no longer looks like the favorite to win Rookie of the Year.

Just because it's easy, however, doesn't make it right.

In fact, after today's performance, Newton's chances of winning ROTY should be even stronger. In case you didn't notice, the Carolina Panthers won. Newton won.

With rain falling in waves, Newton stepped up and took this game over when it mattered most, when the outcome was on the line. With time waning in the fourth quarter and the Panthers down 10-8, Newton completed 3 of 3 passes, including a lead-stealing 16-yard TD strike to tight end Greg Olsen. 

Then he went back out on the field and hit Olsen again to add two points.

Sure, he got off to a shaky start, and his Week 3 completion percentage makes Donovan McNabb look like Rich Gannon, but when the final whistle blew, Newton was victorious for the first time as an NFL player.

That's what this game is about, right? The Panthers didn't draft Newton in hopes that they'd set NFL passing records while stumbling to another two-win season. They selected him with the first overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft because they believed he could coax wins from a team that had forgotten how to do just that.

And after today, after only 158 yards through the air, only one touchdown pass and, by the way, zero interceptions, he's done more to fulfill that calling than he ever did during either one of his 400-yard losing efforts.