“But I’m thinking about Cam Newton being healthy today, tomorrow and 25 or 35 years from now”.
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In the aftermath of Denver’s 21-20 victory over Carolina on Thursday night, the staff member was asked a simple question: How is it that Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was not taken out of the game for examination of a possible concussion? Net result of those hits: Zero penalty yards.
The NFL has weighed in on an uncalled helmet to helmet hit by Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall. None were held out.
The league said the hit did not merit Newton’s removal from the game. “And sometimes we cross them but that’s part of the game”.
Rivera also said because of the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Newton’s size, he doesn’t draw the flags that smaller quarterbacks do.
“People throw all these jingles out there about (Cam is) mobile, he’s bigger, he’s more physical”, Newton said.
Kubiak said leading up to the game that he wanted his players to play with emotion.
The only time the Broncos did get penalized for hitting Newton, the penalty wasn’t enforced because Newton was called for intentional grounding on the play, which led to an offsetting penalty. The referees need to be sanctioned for not throwing the flag.
“It’s not my job to question the officials”, Newton said.
“Was Cam treated differently from other quarterbacks?” “I think the culprit is the mere fact that they allowed the game to get out of control”. He finished 18 for 33 with one touchdown running and another passing and moved the Panthers within field goal range twice in the fourth quarter. Newton found Kelvin Benjamin for a 16-yard gain that eventually set up the potential winning attempt for Gano.
Head coach Ron Rivera was focused on the big picture following the game, “We’ll get our head up and we’ll go back to work”.
Certainly, they’ll be watching them in the National Football League offices, as well. Earlier, he attended NFL Kickoff festivities in his role as pitchman for DirecTV, which sent out a video interview in which he was asked about the Broncos QB situation.
It proved enough as the Broncos’ dominant defense came up big against the Panthers and reigning league MVP Cam Newton, who was sacked three times. Now, Trevor Siemian has thrown 26, and he has his first win to show for it. Siemian was far from flawless – he threw a pair of interceptions and his 69.1 passer rating won’t remind anyone of Peyton Manning in his prime.
And then the season started on Thursday night, and it was business as usual. The NFL had the opportunity to make a huge statement by at least pulling one of the best players in the NFL from the game and going through the motions of sideline testing. “But no doubt, it’s different when you get out there”. Both were cleared and returned to the game. Rookie Andy Janovich took a shallow handoff, went around the right end and sprinted 28 yards for a score in the second quarter. But he wouldn’t take a pay cut, so GM John Elway released him in favor of rookie Riley Dixon. He had 11 carries for 54 yards on Thursday night, and all but one of them was a called run. He finished with six catches for 91 yards. They looked like the team that lost to Denver 24-10 in Super Bowl 50 instead of the team that started last season 14-0.
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He has been participating in practices but did not play in any of the Chiefs’ exhibition games.
