There is nothing that I love more than a night game at the Panthers stadium in uptown Charlotte. My friends Frank and Alisa treated me to the pre-season game this past Saturday against the NY Giants. We hopped the light rail to the Epicenter for dinner at Wild Wing Café and then headed to the stadium. Everything was going great until the sky opened up and it started to pour. We spent the first half of the game in the rain, but that didn’t matter to me.
I was so ready for football. Right before kickoff, I told my friends how much I love those last seconds before that first kickoff. In that second, anything is possible. The Panthers could have a winning season! We could win the NFC South! Or maybe even the NFC! Or go to the Super Bowl!
I always like to take a deep breath in that moment and think about the football season to come. This year, especially because of the lockout, any team could go all the way. The possibilities are endless.
Then the first kick was off and the reality of our new team, under a new coach, was born. There were a lot of things I saw that I liked and a lot of things that I did not like. Cam Newton is definitely a lot better under pressure than Clausen, but he has a lot of work to do when it comes to accuracy. Armanti Edwards certainly stepped up to the plate.
Finally, after the first half the rain stopped and the most beautiful sky and weather took over uptown Charlotte. The Panthers secured a victory and the possibilities for this team remain endless.
Maybe you can say Cam has some accuracy issues but I would think it more accurate to say that his timing was off. That is after all understandable 1. being his first game in this league, and generally a rookie overall will have some strides to make getting up to this level. 2. b/c of the lockout not getting adequate time to train with the team, coach and recv'rs, not getting to study the routes and see them in action. 3. What little practice he did get on routes I am sure was primarily with Steve Smith who was not in that game.
ReplyDeleteSo while I agree he looked good and I would not argue he has some work to do, I am excited to watch what happens in the coming weeks.