There wasn’t much Cam Newton had to say after a demoralizing, painful 36-7 loss to the New York Giants. The quarterback and a team blowing an opportunity against the Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants, showing pretty much every flaw instead of proving they’re a new force to be reckoned with in the NFC.

Newton was pretty much disgusted with his performance, with his team’s performance. Who wants to support something that puts on a performance of embarrassment out there, and that’s what that was. If I was a fan of the Carolina Panthers I would be holding my head down in shame at the product that was out there.

The option read simply had no effect, as the Giants plowed through his offensive line, like they usually do. They only sacked him twice, but Newton had no chance and time to get his running game going, limited to only six yards on six carries (scoring one touchdown), while his passing was on the down scale of what has become a yo-yo syndrome for him, especially after big performances like he had against the Saints.

Newton threw three interceptions and was especially bad when the pressure came with five pass rushers or more, 5-10 for 83 yards and two interceptions on such throws. The offensive line was a big part of the problem, and not having Jonathan Stewart next to him, missing his second game of the season, was just as big of a problem, as the Panthers mounted to only 60 rushing yards on 20 carries.

It wasn’t what the Giants did but what we didn’t do. Our problem was execution, not anything the Giants did to stop them. We have to fix it.

Returner Joe Adams dropping two balls and losing them wasn’t really helpful. The Giants have a hard defense to handle, but the Panthers should have never looked that bad. The fingers always point towards the quarterback in these losses, and Newton wasn’t escaping the blame. He had nowhere to run to after such a performance.

They came in and slapped us around and dragged us to the ground a little bit. Hopefully, we learn from it a little bit. Hopefully, we learn from it and, hopefully, we don’t like it and we come back focused. (Ron Rivera, Panthers head coach)

Overwhelmed by the occasion, or maybe the New Orleans Saints are simply that bad? We’ll find out what the Panthers’ place in the NFC South is when they play the Atlanta Falcons in week 4. So far, their up and down performances on both ends of the ball, and especially of their quarterback, seem to be more than just focus issues. A season that was supposed to be about a leap forward it taken a bit more damage and hits than expected, even if these were the Giants.

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