It’s a good thing Cam Newton played through that shoulder injury during some meaningless games last December, and waited until late March to have shoulder surgery.
Or maybe not.
The Panthers quarterback still looked rusty in an embarrassing 33-13 loss to the Saints.
The fact New Orleans had the league’s worst defense made it embarrassing, but speaks to some fundamental problems for the Panthers. Newton didn’t do much through the offseason or training camp as he recovered from surgery, throwing just two passes in preseason games.
He’s also not practicing fully now, which keeps them from making the offensive tweaks necessary after losing tight end Greg Olsen for at least seven more weeks to a broken foot. The Panthers also lost wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin during the game to a left knee injury, further depleting Newton’s available targets.
But the Saints (1-2) deserve some credit for standing up on the road, before heading to London next week in what could have been a destructive stretch of games for a team which always starts slowly. But they picked Newton off three times, sacked him four times, and held the Panthers to just 288 yards, more than 200 yards less than what they were giving up previously (512.5).
Newton was 17-of-26 for 167 yards before being pulled in the fourth quarter.
Drew Brees was also efficient, as you’d expect, going 22-of-29 for 220 yards and three touchdowns. And that was against a defense which hadn’t allowed a touchdown all year, rasing plenty of questions in Carolina heading into next week’s trip to New England.