For only the second time in his career, Cam Newton will take his first snaps of the Carolina Panthers regular season in front of his home crowd at Bank of America Stadium.
Newton and the Panthers will open their season in a 4:25p game on September 9th against the Dallas Cowboys in a matchup that is sure to delight fans of both the Panthers and the opposing Cowboys, but more importantly, will make Ron Rivera and the rest of the team happy after they’d opened the past four seasons on the road.
“I’ve been the head coach going on seven seasons now and we’ve only opened at home once,” Rivera said last offseason before his team traveled to San Francisco for their home opener. “It would be nice to be able to open up (at home) on the beginning weekend for our fans, more so than anything else. I just think we’ve got a tremendous amount of fan support in this town, and it would be nice for them to have that energy of the first week, the very first week, opening up here.”
“And really getting the opportunity to start fast.”
They’ll have the opportunity to start fast against the Cowboys, but they’ll be heading out of town to face division rivals the Falcons in Week 2, the site of their season finale loss that ultimately cost them the NFC South and the chance for a home playoff game in 2017.
They’ll sandwich an early bye week (Week 4) by hosting the Bengals, who finished 7-9 last season, and Giants, who boast former GM Dave Gettleman and the Panthers’ all-time leading rusher Jonathan Stewart on the roster – the Giants also have the second pick in the draft, which should add some star power to the matchup.
They’ll then travel for two consecutive NFC East matchups against the Redskins and Super Bowl champion Eagles; the Panthers will also have two primetime games – a Thursday night matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh on November 8th (the second of two Thursday night matchups with the Steelers after their preseason Week 4 tilt) and a Monday Night Football Week 15 game against NFC South rival New Orleans Saints that handed the Panthers three losses last season, including the one that ended their season in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
The Panthers will finish the season with four out of their final five and three consecutive divisional matchups, playing the Saints two out of three weekends including Week 17, which happens to fall on New Years Eve weekend. Should be a fun one. A limited number of single-game tickets for home games will go on sale April 28 at 10 a.m.
See the full schedule below:
