Cam Newton answered the first question about his shoulder at his post-game press conference with a half-truth.
“It’s alright.”
But after his worst game of the season, both with the eye test – Newton was inaccurate on multiple balls, including his second-quarter interception that he left short and cost his team points near the end of the half; and on paper – his longest pass attempt traveled only 17 yards in the air and he set season lows in completion percentage, passing yards, yards per attempt, touchdowns, and quarterback rating, Newton admitted that not only was he not playing his best football, he didn’t have any explanations about why it was happening.
His shoulder, like the situation, is anything but alright.
“I think it’s disheartening to me because there’s so much invested time put in,” said Newton in a pointed press conference in which he laid bare his concerns with the shoulder he had surgically repaired in March of 2017. “I don’t want to play the “woe is me” game, but I have to be better. That’s what’s so frustrating. When you want it so bad and you push; you put so much on your plate and you know it doesn’t come down to you, but at the end of the day you just have to uphold your end of the bargain. When certain things don’t happen, that’s when frustration comes.”
“That’s why I’m frustrated.”
Cam Newton’s @NextGenStats passing chart from tonight. Longest pass attempt was 17 yards. pic.twitter.com/wmmBSZgJ8N
— Josh Klein (@joshkleinrules) December 18, 2018
Ryan Kalil, who has been with Cam Newton for his entire career, expressed his frustration for his team’s franchise quarterback; even as the center’s career winds down – he confirmed that Week 17 in New Orleans would be the final game of his career – and, like the rest of the locker room after a game when Newton’s inability to go downfield may have cost them a victory that they needed to keep their slim playoff hopes alive, went above and beyond to compliment the quarterback’s toughness.
Newton has only missed three games in his seven-year career to this point, but with the Panthers all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and Newton himself saying the only answer is time, have we gotten to the point where shutting down the Panthers franchise quarterback with two games left in the season is the right decision?
“I don’t have an answer for that [and] that’s not in my decision making, regardless,” said Kalil. “Cam is one of the toughest players I’ve ever played with; I’ve seen the guy take hits and get his body up, game after game, season after season. Hits I’ve seen him take, other guys wouldn’t get up from. I don’t know what to tell you – it’s the same guy who makes huge plays doing what he does and fights through a lot of stuff.”
“He’s been fighting all season.”
While receivers and teammates continue to stick up for their teammate – DJ Moore: “The balls always get there so I don’t see any problem with it; we just have to make the catch when it’s in our vicinity – they weren’t coming up short.” – but even if the throws themselves weren’t affected, the timing on the routes were; both Norv Turner and Ron Rivera confirmed this week that a lack of practice, specifically with young receivers like Moore and Curtis Samuel, who only had one catch on four targets Monday night, may have led to the struggles in the passing game over the past few weeks during the Panthers losing streak.
What’s most alarming is not the fact that Cam’s shoulder has almost certainly cost them at least one game this season – that’s in the past now, their streak of non-consecutive winning season continues for another year – what’s more important is how the Panthers can fix the shoulder that controls the throwing arm of their franchise quarterback; and Newton isn’t sure how that happens.
“I wish I could say what the injury is because I don’t really know what it is either,” said Newton. “No matter how much you push, no matter how much you ice, the anti-inflammatories you take. Trust me, I’ve done it. Acupuncture, massages. There’s not a night that goes by without me getting some type of work done on my arm.”
“You just don’t have the strength.”
“I think the thing is when you talk to the different people who can help you with it, there is no magical surgery – it’s just time. I’ve been hearing that since the injury happened, but when you look around the league and you see guys doing certain things that you know you’re capable of doing, whatever it is.”
So will the Panthers sit Cam Newton for the final two games of the season?
Ron Rivera was cagey after the game, saying that he will leave those decisions up to the doctors; Newton was more honest, saying that was a conversation he wasn’t looking forward to if and when it happened.
But whatever happens, the Panthers need to find a solution, because another losing season, one that began with not only six wins in the first eight games, but with Super Bowl aspirations; a season that will likely send Panthers legends like Ryan Kalil and perhaps Julius Peppers into retirement on a sour note; a season that currently has the longest losing streak of the Newton/Rivera era and may grow to the third-longest in franchise history before all is said and done – a season like that is anything but alright.
