What Cam Newton Said Following the Loss to Atlanta

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton met with the media following Sunday's game.

RE: Were you surprised when they put PJ Walker in?

It was communicated to me, P [PJ Walker] had a package for him, it was just the timing of everything. Coach Sean [Ryan] did a great job this week of communicating with us and king of telling us that PJ is going to play, just don’t know when. They had a package for him and he went out there and did a pretty good job executing it as well.

RE: What happened on the interception?

I mean that’s what it comes down to. Coach touched on it a couple of weeks ago about just mental stamina, just going and going and going and going and going, then all of a sudden, when that breaks, you just have to snap back and still maintain that same level of focus-ness. We had our sparks this game. Its just little things like that. Defender made a great play on the ball, I didn’t see him, and they disguised it. Pretty much everything that they did, we knew it was coming. I just have to do a better job of protecting the football. Anytime you lose the turnover battle like we did today, you just run the risk of doing enough just to win and just to lose. So, that’s what it came down go.

RE: The fumble exchange

I got stepped on, I just tried to hand it off, shouldn’t have did it, should have just ate it. Once again, it just comes down to protecting the football. That’s day one, just winning football in rec ball, high school, college and professionals, protect the football and I didn’t do a good job of that today. I think that’s what so frustrating because I hold myself to a high standard to do those things. When it doesn’t happen, it’s just inexcusable.

RE: Did you notice any difference in preparing for this game with Jeff Nixon calling the plays?

I’m not going to get into comparing and contrasting. This game just really comes down to protecting the football on my part.

RE: What do you think is the biggest issue in why you all have struggled the last three games?

You just have to really take one game at a time and I think we are growing as a team without a doubt. I only can speak myself, and that’s what I’m going to do right now man. I’m just so disappointed in where we were. We had such a great momentum for those drives and it was just drive killers, it’s game killers in essence because we were driving on both of those turnovers that I had. I think that’s just the thing that you know to be optimistic about it all, you see what we’re capable of, but we just have to do it for ourselves. We can’t look for nobody else to do our job and I’m thinking, I’m speaking directly to myself. It is my job to protect the football and put this offense in the best situation to not only score points but to sustain drives. You know, moving forward that’s just my plan and my plan of attack.

RE: Is it just as difficult to lose games now as it was as a rookie in 2011?

Yeah, I mean, you grow to bottle your emotions better. I could move some furniture right now if you guys allowed me to but that’s not going to do anything to nobody but make the story even more of a distraction getting prepared for next week. Like I said, I’m just so disappointed in myself. I hold myself to a high standard and a lot of guys around this team hold me to a high standard too. And for me to not perform or to kind of jeopardize the game the way I did today, is just inexcusable knowing that I do know the keys to victory, I do know that coach was going to rely on me to put us in the right situations today, and more times than not, I did do it but that’s just professional sports, and in essence professional football where you don’t know if it’s play one or play 30 or play 60 or play 80. You know you just have to constantly do your job and do it at a high level that doesn’t jeopardize any lackluster in my performance.

RE: Did you think about aborting the handoff before the fumble?

Yeah, I just thought, it was second and short and I just feel somebody kind of tugging on my foot and I just wanted to keep the ball going forward. I knew we didn’t, I didn’t want to take no loss right there, but in hindsight, yeah, I would have just did what I should have did and you know it is what it is. But those, without a doubt, you take those turnovers away, I think it would be a different type of tempo right here, right now. I’m just, yeah, I made my point.

RE: Did you ask to go no-huddle/hurry up after halftime?

No, I think that was something that the coaching staff kind of schemed up this week, knowing in being able to attack them as best we could, I know Coach Rhule and Coach Nixon had a pretty much of that type of pace before and it’s just our job to go out there and execute

RE: How tough is it not winning at home?

Man, at this particular point, I just hate just, you know, wasting my voice. Like I say, man I don’t know what more I can say or need to say but you know I just hold myself to a better standard than what the performance showed today.

RE: How close is the team to making progress?

We are close, we are close, but everybody needs to do their job, starting with me, including me. Preparation, prepare and then you know, just prepare for Sundays, and that’s pretty much what it comes down to.

RE: How tough is it to continue to grow and feel like you are moving in the right direction but not seeing it?

I mean, for anybody else that has a job, you know you just, you go to work on Monday, and just keep going at it. Just because you don’t get what you want, you don’t just stop going to work, for us, it’s no different. You know, we didn’t have the performance that I wanted to have today, as a team, we didn’t have, and we play the game to win. No need to belabor the fact and state the obvious but we just need to come in on Monday and just build off this game. Take the good, build off the good, take the bad, learn from the bad and be ready to go next week. 

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