My observations of Cam Newton's game

[KillerKat]

I'll post this again for people to see what a national profootball writer says so you can see why you shouldn't care what TRD thinks

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth/post/_/id/23648/early-take-on-newton-and-clausen

Newton was far from perfect, but he didn’t have any disastrous plays like Clausen’s interception. He never looked lost and he also flashed big-play ability. The numbers (8-of-19 for 134 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions) weren’t spectacular, but there were memorable strong throws to Olsen and Armanti Edwards.

There were several times when Newton made good throws that were disrupted by good coverage. But keep in mind that Newton was playing with second- and third-team wide receivers, who had trouble getting separation from defensive backs, and Edwards didn’t help when he failed to hold onto a nice pass from Newton in the third quarter.

Give Newton a healthy Steve Smith, who sat out with an injured finger, and the results might have been spectacular. Newton, who played into the fourth quarter, didn’t have the luxury of playing with running backs Williams and Jonathan Stewart, and played behind backups on the offensive line.

And to add to that...

"I made a mistake watching him throw in warmups. Once the game started, he threw the ball really well. I was surprised how accurate he was. He passed well, he stayed in the pocket, and with experience and more reps, you can see him becoming a franchise-type quarterback. I was expecting him to run out of the pocket, but he didn’t. A lot of rookies, especially if they ran a lot out of the spread in college, you expect to take off. But he didn’t do that. He stayed in and did a good job of throwing the ball.” — Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, who sent a lot of blitzes at the rookie.

[Wither]

Olsen wasn't falling....he slid to catch the low throw by Newton

Since we're correcting... I would say that Olsen "fell" to catch it. I wouldn't really call it a slide to catch it. :)

[TheRealDeal]

We would have gotten a TD...that's the issue.

[koolkatluke]

Well, that guy's opinion isn't any more valid than ours. I will say, a former-Super Bowl winning head coach thought Cam played exceptional for a rookie in his first outing. I'll take that guy's opinion over most people's.

I will go by his and Bucky brooks opinion more then TRD. They aleast get paid for what they think.

[TheRealDeal]

To-May-Toe/To-Mah-Toe

You made it seem like Olsen fell/slid for no reason. If it's a good throw, it's a TD, not just a big gain.

[TheRealDeal]

I will go by his and Bucky brooks opinion more then TRD. They aleast get paid for what they think.

So you trust these guys? Did you trust them all before the draft too?

This old arguemnt again?

Why do so many people complain about the national media if they know so much?

Only support them when it suits you huh?

[panther4life]

Wasn't there already a thread on cam observations?

[lightsout]

So you trust these guys? Did you trust them all before the draft too?

This old arguemnt again?

Why do so many people complain about the national media if they know so much?

Only support them when it suits you huh?

Fug the media, dude. Tony Dungy and Perry Fewell's opinion > your opinion and basically every other poster's opinion.

[TheRealDeal]

So you think he played well, despite his lack of accuracy, footwork, ability to score a TD, etc?

[weymouthst]

I don't think a long, drawn out argument, disagreement, or analysis needs to occur to know that Cam didn't play perfectly.

Having said that, it is blatantly obvious that the kid did well, has potential, and will continue to work on his techniques. What we saw out of Cam isn't his best game he has. This was his FIRST real NFL game experience. Given that alone, I think it is hard to say negative things about him right now.

People can nitpick every single throw or decision he made, point out every error, but in the grande scheme of 1 preseason game, it kind of sounds foolish.

[koolkatluke]

So you trust these guys? Did you trust them all before the draft too?

This old arguemnt again?

Why do so many people complain about the national media if they know so much?

Only support them when it suits you huh?

Yes more then you. You are just a fan. Nobody pays you for your opinion on football. Your more qualified to bag grocery then to be a QB coach.

[Ruff]

You made it seem like Olsen fell/slid for no reason. If it's a good throw, it's a TD, not just a big gain.

Semantics. Olsen did, in fact, fall. Whether he slid or not.

But, that's not the point. The pass was a really nice one. It was away from the DBs, it was a frozen rope, and it was put where it had to be to not get intercepted. Olsen made a good catch, by being where he needed to be to catch the ball.

I would say that Olsen will be the best player on our offense this year.

[Panthro]

So you think he played well, despite his lack of accuracy, footwork, ability to score a TD, etc?

Do you think he played poorly?

[jayflip]

Olsen wasn't falling....he slid to catch the low throw by Newton

Ok on this one you are knit-picking TRD, Cam threw the ball right where he had to, and trusted his TE to make the play. The safety was closing in fast and he placed it where only Olsen could make a great play and catch it. If he threw that one to the numbers, it would have been deflected at best and picked at worst.

I'm not saying Cam played lights out, give us that Lombardi now! He has tons to work on. The missed TDs, the skip to Leg, throwing off the back foot... That's all stuff that now he has film on, and if Shula is as great as they say he is, and if Cam keeps working like he has been, you better believe these are going to be ironed out sooner rather than later. PreSeason is such a better indicator than a hakf assed training camp, and though Cam wasn't spectacular, he brought excitement, confidence and he showed enough to make us hopeful.

The big test will be how he responds to his short comings next week. It should be an epic battle of Newton vs Moore for 2nd string bragging rights, lol, but in all honesty, I believe we'll see a marked improvement from the giants game.