The Broncos came out firing in the second half and both Siemian and the Denver defense found an extra gear to try and win the game.
Advertisement
The Carolina Panthers quarterback answered every question following Thursday night’s 21-20 loss to the Denver Broncos, from what he thought about the no-calls on several helmet-to-helmet hits to why he was flossing his teeth on the sideline in the second half. Following a rather clean first two quarters, Newton would face huge pressure and absorbed three sacks at the hands of linebackers DeMarcus Ware, Von Miller and Todd Davis.
Going into the season, Denver was expected to continue to be the biggest obstacle for the New England Patriots in making a return to the Super Bowl.
The Panthers finished with 333 yards, including a 71-yard touchdown drive in the first quarter and an even more concerning 18-play, 89-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter. “I think only one of the times they turned the turnover into points so very fortunate in that sense to have the defense we got”.
During the contest, Newton took a series of shots to the head courtesy of Broncos defenders without accumulating a single penalty yard. One of the specific jobs tasked to the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant is to identify those “big hits”, and take immediate action, not to make an armchair diagnosis.
The NFL has repeatedly said it is placing a greater emphasis on head injuries and diagnosing concussions during games. I really like this officiating crew (led by veteran referee Gene Steratore), so I know it’s not something they did intentionally. “But I knew that this was going to happen, especially from the media standpoint, ‘How would Cam react to the media?’ The truth of the matter is, the Denver Broncos are the defending champs for a reason”. But an illegal hands to the face penalty against Harris negated a fourth-down incompletion and extended Carolina’s last-ditch drive.
Newton was also blasted by Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall earlier in the game.
“I could in the second half, yeah”, Stewart said. First, on fourth-and-inches from the 1 ½-yard line, Anderson plunged forward to move the chains.
Following an interception by Harris that gave his offense the ball at the Carolina 27, Siemian and Anderson combined to finish off the short-field drive. The Broncos need to go just 23 yards and went up 21-17 on Anderson’s 1-yard plunge.
Newton wasn’t treated for a concussion after the game and wasn’t put into the concussion protocol, but there’s no doubt that he took some hard hits during the game.
Advertisement
If the National Football League is as serious about player safety as it says, then it needs to enforce the concussion protocol at all times – no matter how important the player might be to the outcome of the game. In the first half alone, they faced four 12-men-on-the-field penalties – one of the most-inexcusable penalties in football – only getting called for two after burning two timeouts to avoid the penalty yardage. 34-year-old veteran Antonio Smith wasn’t resigned and the Broncos are relying on mostly untested players to fill the void. He became only the third Broncos rookie to score on his first career rushing attempt, after fullback Kyle Johnson and quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt each did it in 2005.
