Carolina Panthers
Panthers' coaches also to blame for Newton's dreadful game in Miami
Chris Lea joins Kacy Hintz on WRAL Sports Xtra to explain the reasons why Cam Newton completed only 5 of 21 passes and threw two interceptions in the Panthers' 33-10 road loss to the Dolphins.
well, let's continue to break down this panthers. 33 10 loss to the dolphins in order to help me do. That has always wrl sports is Chrisley boy chris week three of cam. Newton two point oh and this one came crashing down. He was five of 21 just 92 yards and a pair of ugly interceptions. Now my question for you, is this a product of cam just still trying to learn the offense or is this the cam Newton that was released a few years ago? Well, part of the reason he was released a few years ago was health. That's what matt rule said before and they felt like he would have been good enough if he would have been healthy. Um, but we've always seen here in the Carolina for cam Newton that his accuracy has been an issue. So when you mix accuracy issues along with the fact that, uh, he's only been with these receivers and in this offense For 17 days, right? So that's not a recipe for him to have the best game that he could possibly have when you have a pass heavy game being called with somebody who already has accuracy issues. We'll talk about coaching later. Uh, so I think he definitely had a bad game. Um, you know, he could have played a lot better. So, I mean, there's no excuse for that and I'm not trying to take that off of him, but I will say that he does have the cushion to, you know, that with the fact that he hasn't been with this team long enough. He doesn't know the receiver as long as long enough, he doesn't have that connection with him and the timing down with him yet in just 17 days, he's superman, but nobody can uh do that well, uh, in that amount of time. So he's definitely gonna need some time to grow in this offense. It's good that they have a bye week coming up. Well speaking of cushion, no matter how much the offense has struggled in weeks past, they can hang their hat on a top ranked defense. But boy, the last couple of weeks they've continued to struggle. What has gone wrong with this panthers defense? Yeah, it's, you know, it's tough to uh, do what you've done and continue to save a team. Um, that's needed to be saved for for so long. Um, and still overcome the offense, giving the ball back to the other team and your back is up against the goal line in a lot of different situations. I mean, this defense has had to come in, uh, and in time after time and try to, you know, erase what the offense is. Um, I guess mistakes were in cam Newton even alluded to that today in this post game press conference. Um, here's the thing to uh, you wonder if the defense is starting to check out just a little bit. Uh, they didn't, don't seem like they were playing with the same fire in the same hunger because they're having to come in and not only just do their job but erase uh, the offenses mistakes. And so I think, I think, I think you did see them kind of let the foot off the gas a little bit. Uh, I will give them a little bit of credit. Dolphins had 33 points. You can take seven of those away because you have the blocked punt and then of course you had uh, them having to defend short fields a lot. So it wasn't the performance that we're used to seeing from the defense, but they also are putting a horrible positions as well and the final score I don't think indicates, um, exactly them playing bad, but they weren't the defense that we've been used to. And you wonder how much that has to do with them just not having faith in the offense and then just kind of saving it since the end of the season is nearing well, how much faith do we have in the coaching? I actually saw your twitter and you have kind of pointed the fingers or raise some concerns about not only joe brady but head coach matt rule. I'll allow you to explain. So before I always thought it was joe brady his scheme, you know, I still think that, you know, a couple of those uh, interceptions had to do. I think with scheming as well because these are the same interception as we saw with Sam donald. So these defenses are starting to figure him out and they're not doing anything to surprise them. I'm not even surprised by any of the things that the offense is calling and and that's something that's a problem. But then you look at all the penalties that are piling up. You look at the way that these other teams that are supposed to be bad teams are scheming up against the panthers and their stuff just looks clean and crisp and these teams are having their best game against the panthers. Um it just kinda makes you wonder what's happening on the coaching end. And so I kind of thought about this and I figured it out. So Jets uh falcons and then also what's the other team that has the first year head coach that they went against the Houston Texans. Jets falcons, Texans, those are three of their wins against first year head coach is Cliff Kingsbury, another college coach. So you can take that win from the cardinals and then the Saints, their fifth win. Um that was when a bunch of coaches were out with covid 19. Other than that matt rule is getting outcoached every single sunday brian flores put in a wonderful game plan, he made them uncomfortable today and it was the same thing that Ron Rivera has done and other coaches with experience have done this entire season and you know, even though this team is a lot better when you look at the roster from, uh, Number 50, from number 1 to number 53, it doesn't seem like the coaching has gotten better. The coaching has caught up to what's happening in the NFL right now. And that seems like it's a problem. And that rule needs to start, um, I guess taking a little bit more responsibility at this point of the season. Well, they've got two weeks to try to get it right with a bye week. Next sunday chris lee, Thank you so much.