That call was offset by intentional grounding in the final minute against Newton, who got utterly blasted on the side of the chin by Stewart, yet rose and completed two passes to get the Panthers in range for the winning field-goal attempt Graham Gano missed wide left from 50 yards.
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Only one was flagged as a penalty. This led to speculation that officials allow more unsafe hits on Newton, whether it is consciously or subconsciously.
“We wanted to make sure it got to him, so every time he ran, we tried to put a helmet or shoulder pads on him”, said the Broncos’ other starting safety, T.J. Ward. Again, it’s kind of like what happened to Shaquille O’Neal. They need “clear visual evidence” of “a player who displays obvious signs of disorientation or is clearly unstable”, according to the league’s game operations manual.
An undoubtedly sore quarterback after the game, though Newton went out of his way to say repeatedly the officiating was no excuse for the Panthers’ offense going limp as their small bit of revenge slipped away.
Rivera, who played linebacker for nine seasons with the Chicago Bears, said he experienced some of that prejudice playing high school basketball.
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was on the receiving end of several vicious hits-some of which were flagged.
Newton is a big guy, 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds.
“That’s potentially getting him hurt or you see him get hit a couple times today”. 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. He’s a little different. “He’s an imposing figure, and sometimes those big hits don’t look as bad on a big guy”.
There is protocol and “I do what the doctors tell me”.
“As far as my knowledge, he’s not in the protocol, he never was in the protocol”, Rivera said. Commissioner Roger Goodell and National Football League, help me understand how this can happen to the reigning MVP.
“It’s not my job to question the officials”, Newton said. While the targeting rule still has its share of hiccups, the replay system helps to weed out the calls that are blatantly wrong, an important safeguard when a foul comes with such stiff penalties.
So from that standpoint, the protocol was followed.
The Panthers quarterback added yet another move to his repertoire – he actually flossed his teeth on the sideline – but his rematch with the Broncos in Thursday night’s season opener was a brutal affair that ended with a missed field goal and the same outcome as the last time these teams met.
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“They determined based on what they saw, when they reviewed the tapes during the game, that he was OK to continue”, Rivera said. Gano is a solid kicker, and does have a pretty strong leg but distance was not the issue this time. “Don’t question my integrity when it comes to those things, OK?” I take it very seriously. I didn’t think it was that type of play. “It’s up to the doctors, just so you understand that”. It claims it wants to eliminate risky helmet-to-helmet hits. The Denver defense saw a handful of plays like this all night and a lot of them followed an impressive play which just gave the team minimal momentum all game long.
