The past five quarters for Cam Newton have been effectively flawless – 73% completion percentage, 420 passing yards, 63 rushing yards, four passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown and no turnovers – not to mention two wins and an NFC Offensive Player of the Week award as Newton bowled through two of the NFL’s top units; Baltimore came into Bank of America Stadium with the league’s #1 defense and left with their tail between their legs as Newton accounted for three touchdowns and seemingly had whatever he wanted en route to hanging a 24-7 halftime lead and 36 points on a team that was only allowing 14.4 points per game.
In a week in which Newton could barely practice – he battled soreness in his surgically-repaired shoulder which limited his reps before a heavy rain didn’t allow him to throw on Friday – the eight-year vet took more of a mental approach to his practice reps this week and it paid off on Sunday.
“The past week we had to work with him because he was working through the shoulder,” Ron Rivera said on Monday. “You can tell, his whole mental approach is different. He had a great week of studying and preparing, he took the reps that we had scheduled for him, but he made the most of them – he made great decisions with them and then you see that carrying over to the game.”
“In the past, he might have held onto the ball waiting for the deeper route to come open, [but] here he sees where the safety is and he makes his decisions even quicker – that’s probably one of the more beneficial things that happened. Him getting the ball out of his hands quicker has helped the pass rush as well; it’s all working together and I think he understands that.”
Newton has been kept clean by a makeshift offensive line – he called them ‘misfits’ on Sunday after the game – the offensive line that features a backup right tackle, a left tackle that began the year on his couch and a right guard that was not on an NFL roster in 2015 or 2016 has allowed their quarterback to be sacked only 10 times in seven games, the sixth lowest sack percentage in the league. That’s also the fewest Newton has been sacked at this point in the season in his career – he was sacked 13 times through seven games in 2015.
And that’s not the only number to compare favorably to Newton’s 2015 MVP season.
| Passer Rating | Completion % | Passing Yards | Touchdowns | Interceptions | Rushing Yards | Rushing Touchdowns | Fumbles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 78.1 | 54% | 1,523 | 11 | 8 | 286 | 4 | 2 |
| 2018 | 97.4 | 66% | 1,646 | 13 | 4 | 309 | 4 | 0 |
“When a guy has success – big success – they’ll compare him to when he had the most success and why isn’t he there, how come he’s not there,” Rivera said when asked about comparing this season to 2015 – it’s way too early to judge. “A lot of it has to do with the people around him; I think right now we’re protecting him as well as we’ve ever protected him. He’s making just as many good decisions as he did in 2015, but in just a different way and he’s got a great set of weapons. I think we’re playing well as a team right now in all three phases and it helps. We’ve had a couple of mishaps, unfortunately with the two losses, but you look at both of those games, he played very well – he played well enough for us to win.”
It was about this time in 2015 when Newton turned up the numbers – he had 17 touchdowns in Weeks 8-12 in 2015, but between the decision making that he’s showing, the amount of speed and weapons on the offensive side of the ball, the playcalling of Norv Turner, and the growth of players like Christian McCaffrey, Curtis Samuel and DJ Moore, the comparisons to 2015 are fair at this point in the season – just remember it was the 30 touchdowns in the final nine games that won him the award and pushed the Panthers to the #1 seed in the NFC more than the 15 scores that preceded them.
Defensive coordinator Eric Washington had a more simplistic view.
“I’m glad we don’t have to face him – I’ll say that.”
