Cam Newton contributed two touchdowns to a win over the Cardinals in his first game back with the Panthers and he played pretty well in a losing effort against Washington his first start of this run in Carolina, but things went haywire against the Dolphins on Sunday.
Newton was 5-of-21 for 92 yards and two interceptions in a 33-10 loss that sends the Panthers into the bye week with a 5-7 record. Head coach Matt Rhule said after the loss that Newton will remain the starter when the team returns to action against the Falcons and Newton said that he’s going to use the time to get a fuller grasp of an offense he’s been in for three weeks.
“I would take this time to really dive into the whole offense,” Newton said, via Darin Gantt of the team’s website. “I think today it really got exposed because of the situation, and not having a full grasp. But it’s not nobody to blame more so than just the situation that I came into. So having this week to kind of self-scout, so to speak, and really dive into the root of what this offense is about and that’s what I plan on doing.”
The Panthers are one of a number of NFC teams with five wins and eyes on nabbing one of the conference’s final Wild Card spots. They’ll need Newton to be much better than he was on Sunday in order to remain in that mix much longer.