“I’m beginning to question the consistency of how games are being called – and who they would call this particular play against versus this particular player”, Newton said to ESPN.
Advertisement
Newton did go through the standard concussion protocol, but it wasn’t until after the game and before heading to the press conference. “There is a protocol”, Rivera said. “Based on what they saw on instant replay, and then coming back and looking at him on the field, they determined – and the independent determined it – that he was OK to continue”. But you may have missed that Newton was sacked, hit while throwing or hit while rushing 17 times, the second-most in any game since he came into the league in 2011.
“Do you see them calling it?”
Right or wrong, the pounding the Broncos planned and delivered had an effect – not just the apparent headshots from Jared Crick, Brandon Marshall, Von Miller and Stewart, but consecutive, legal hits from Shaquil Barrett and DeMarcus Ware midway through the third quarter than had Newton talking to doctors and grabbing his right lower leg on the bench. “But again, that’s up to the referees”. I’m always thinking he’s running it with a player like that.
Newton is a big guy, 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds. “I think the league got it wrong”, Kubiak said. He goes to shoot a little layup and he gets hacked and hammered and they don’t call it. Seemingly every play down the stretch, last year’s MVP took a brutal hit to the head.
The coach would like to see Newton, now in his sixth season, get some “veteran favoritism” from the league’s officials. A flag was thrown but it was nullified because officials also called Newton for intentional grounding. There is a sense that he should be able to handle more hitting.
Newton said he didn’t feel he was being targeted and dodged a question about whether he received fair and adequate protection from Steratore’s crew. “If this quarterback is a physical as (Newton) you hit him, hit him until he gets exhausted of being hit”.
The idea behind icing the kicker is that by calling timeout before a potentially game-winning field goal, you can make the other team’s kicker nervous.
If you were against the Denver Broncos and got a phone call from Rod Smith on Friday, you probably got cussed out.
The Panthers look to recover with their first win of the season in their next game. He caught six of his 12 targets, including a 14-yard touchdown. Moments later, Gano’s second attempt at a game-winner sailed wide left.
“It was just me being aggressive”. “The timeout didn’t affect me, it never does.”.
It is argued that Newton is refereed differently than any other quarterback in the league, this may be true, but Newton plays unlike any other quarterback in the league. TE Greg Olsen caught seven passes, raising his career total to 549.
And while the Panthers medical staff went out to check on him, this is the kind of situation that leads to the second part of the problem.
Advertisement
The Broncos were penalized for only one of those blows, which came in the Panthers’ last possession and forced the quarterback’s head to snap to the left.
