Comparing Week 5 in Cam’s rookie season

[hepcat]

Here we are heading into a Week 5 road matchup with a hot Detroit Lions team. It’s a foregone conclusion the Panthers are going to lose, the question is, how bad is it going to be? My take, the Lions are sure to rip off the Panthers collective genitalia, put it in a blender, then feed it to their pet goat.

Anyway, let’s go back in time to 2011 - Week 5 of Cam Newton’s rookie season at home against the prime-era Drew Brees lead Saints. 

This was an extremely exciting game. Great offense on both sides, big plays, it was just a polar opposite type of game we’ve seen from the David Tepper era Panthers squads. 

Some key moments stand out. 1st quarter, 3 min left in the quarter, Panthers are down 10 facing 3rd and 11 from their own 46 yard line. This is the legendary Newton to Smith catch and run touchdown with a sweet fight at the end. WHERE IS THIS KIND OF FIRE??? Bryce Young got hit late in the game last week, not ONE player did a god damned thing. The 2023 Panthers are soft and their head coach is old and sucks.  

2nd Quarter, 4 min left in the half, Panthers down 17 to 6 on 1st and 10 from their own 31 yard line. Great play design to trick the defense. Double option reverse pitch to Deangelo Williams who gat DANG I forgot was this fast. Takes it to the house. Wow. Haven’t seen the offense do ANYTHING like this probably since the Mike Shula days.

Down moment, right before halftime, Saints are rushing to line up to kick a field goal before the clock runs out. Someone calls timeout, but the Saints don’t have any. Ron Rivera called a timeout! WTF! After the game, Ron said it was because they didn’t have the right formation or something and was afraid they’d get flagged. Dumb move either way. I never forgot this moment and thought Ron was bad at clock management for awhile after this happened. 

4th quarter, 12:30 left in the game. Panthers down 23-20 facing 3rd and goal from their own 5 yard line. Newton guns it to Olsen in the end zone. Touchdown. I barely saw the ball zip through the air it went so fast. Bryce will never throw the ball this hard in his entire life. 

The Panthers defense was really bad back then but give credit where credit is due. Drew Brees was a marksman and this was when the Saints offense could kill you by death from a thousand cuts. This is the offense the Panthers should be running with Bryce Young. Quick hitter throws with misdirection, pre snap motion, read option, play action, it’s a real modern NFL offense. The Frank Reich offense looks like the offense a bad team was running in 1982. Run up the middle, run up the middle, try to throw on third down but everyone sucks, punt. 

Re-watching the highlights of this game made me very sad. This was not a good Panthers team but it was clear that they were going to figure it out. They were in almost every game and Cam was so exciting to watch. He had a huge arm, made huge plays. Aside from Steve Smith his wide receivers were trash. Best thing that offense had going was a multifaceted rushing attack with the read option. Not really sure why the current Panthers aren’t trying that with Bryce but probably because he’s smaller than me which is a super sad thing to say because I’m not that big of a guy. 

Anyway, fun to rewatch this one even though it’s a loss. Takes you back to happier times as a Panthers fan and makes you forget how truly bleak and embarrassing things are these days. 

[Bear Hands]

Cam was such an injection of adrenaline into this entire organization.  Can't believe that was a decade of him and that came and went.

Some huge plays in that -- the Smitty TD and D'lo run were fun ones.

Shoutout to Legedu. Legs!

John Kasay playing against us. 

Wild game.    

[therealmjl]

Plays like the TD throw to Smitty there, the TD run at home against Atlanta where he flipped into the EZ, the insane scramble tackle breaking first down run against the Skins are engraved in my memory forever.

Edited October 5, 2023 by therealmjl

[TheBigKat]