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Stewart healthy & moving well. Rivera's Party Line a Red Herring.

top dawg

By top dawg,
in Carolina Panthers

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top dawg Grand Master

top dawg

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As we all know, Johnathan Stewart is healthy this year, and I guess we can take some comfort in the fact that Ron Rivera affirms as much in David Newton's article this morning.

 

"Very excited about having Jonathan on the field," coach Ron Rivera said after Wednesday's workout. "He's healthy again. He's moving the way we need him to move. I like what we're getting out of him.

 

 

 

One thing that Rivera has espoused basically since the beginning of the off-season is the success of our running game last year. 

 

"We need to be able to rush for 100 yards a game like we did last year," Rivera said. "That's one of the things that really helped us out [last season]. We ran the ball well, we controlled the clock, we controlled the tempo of the game." 

 

 

 

Now, David Newton correctly noted that a healthy Stewart (fingers crossed) will only help the run game, but unlike Rivera who really is loath to mention Cam Newton in reference to the root of the "success"  of the Panthers running game last year, David Newton at least threw in Cam ostensibly as kind of an afterthought.

 

The rotation of a healthy Stewart and Williams, along with fullback/halfback Mike Tolbert, could give the Panthers one of the best trio of running backs in the league. 

Throw in quarterback Cam Newton, who should be stronger and faster than ever once his left ankle completely heals from surgery, and Carolina has four legitimate threats in the running game. 

 

 

 

Let us all cross our fingers that a healthy Stewart's production can eclipse Cam's rushing numbers, because that will be an indication that our running game truly is efficient and fitting of a power rushing team.  If Stewart can truly improve the running game, then that will go a long way towards returning the whole offense to equilibrium. And we haven't seen anything near that in years.

 

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joemac Grand Master

joemac

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Take away Cam's frantic scrambles and the run game is nonexistent last year.

But we have seen for the last 3 years that those are a part of Cams game and you can't take those away...that's what he does. I don't know why people are so anxious to have Cam stop running. He's extremely successful at it, and I hardly remember him taking any big hits when he's running the ball. In the pocket is where he takes most of his damage, I.E. the last Saints game 2 years ago, or the Miami game last year.

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Peppers90 NC Community Regular

Peppers90 NC

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But we have seen for the last 3 years that those are a part of Cams game and you can't take those away...that's what he does. I don't know why people are so anxious to have Cam stop running. He's extremely successful at it, and I hardly remember him taking any big hits when he's running the ball. In the pocket is where he takes most of his damage, I.E. the last Saints game 2 years ago, or the Miami game last year.

No one was suggesting that Cam stop running.  The point is that the run game was pretty bad last year with the exception of Cam's runs.  I would say Tolbert was able to finish a few games out at the end as well, but our 1-2 punch was less than adequate last season.

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panthers55 Grand Master

panthers55

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Yeah it was all Cam in the running game last year.   No one contributed at all but him.

 

What??  You say we rushed for 2026 and Cam accounted for 585 yards which is only a quarter of the yards we rushed for even with a diminished backfield with Stewart hurt..  You say we rushed for 14 TDs and Cam had less than half those.

 

You say that he wasn't the only quarterback who ran for over 500 yards while the team ran for less than 2500 total.  What?? Seattle did the same thing??  They must not have had a rushing game either.  What?  They won the superbowl with their lousy running game.............

 

nevermind 

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Peppers90 NC Community Regular

Peppers90 NC

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Yeah it was all Cam in the running game last year.   No one contributed at all but him.

 

What??  You say we rushed for 2026 and Cam accounted for 585 yards which is only a quarter of the yards we rushed for even with a diminished backfield with Stewart hurt..  You say we rushed for 14 TDs and Cam had less than half those.

 

You say that he wasn't the only quarterback who ran for over 500 yards while the team ran for less than 2500 total.  What?? Seattle did the same thing??  They must not have had a rushing game either.  What?  They won the superbowl with their lousy running game.............

 

nevermind 

Come on man, I know you watched the games.  How many times did we run on first down and gain less than two yards?  Too many.  Of course we have a few good rushing games that pushed the stats in a favorable direction but we can certainly increase the production by being more consistent.  Hopefully the addition of Turner and a healthy Amini will help that.

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Jeremy Igo Newbie

Jeremy Igo

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But we have seen for the last 3 years that those are a part of Cams game and you can't take those away...that's what he does. I don't know why people are so anxious to have Cam stop running. He's extremely successful at it, and I hardly remember him taking any big hits when he's running the ball. In the pocket is where he takes most of his damage, I.E. the last Saints game 2 years ago, or the Miami game last year.

 

I agree you can't take it away. But credit Cam, and not "the offense" and definitely not Shula.

 

Cam's legs are the only reason Shula was not coaching the absolute worst offense in the league. Cam elevated it to its 28th ranking all by himself.

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