An Ugly Win... with a Price

Call it Newton’s first law.

With all apologies to Sir Isaac Newton and Newton’s 3^rd law that states for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, Carolina rookie QB Cam Newton’s first law states you can’t win a game even if you throw for 400 yards and throw 3 interceptions as well.

The Kid vs. the Reigning King:
Rodgers outshines Newton's Big Day

With almost  900 yards thru the air in his first 2 professional games Cam Newton is a throwing QB. By piling up 400+ on the Green Bay Packers it has added to his growing credentials while underscoring the Packers early inability to shut down the pass. But let’s not call the Packers pass D stinko quite yet. There have been 22 300+ yard games by NFL QB’s already this year – and GB QB Aaron Rodgers is one of them – and the NFL has shifted into a pass first/ run if and when you must type of league. There are going to be more 3,000 yard QB’s this year than at any time previous in the NFL. Keeping the offense ahead and in the game is far more urgent than putting up shutouts. With the ever expanding talent level complete shutdowns will come only at the expense of the very worst of the teams in the league, and at this point that distinction belongs to Seattle and the imploding Kansas City Chiefs. While the Packers have given up almost 900 yards passing after only 2 games they are still 2 -0. They will remain a bend-but-don’t-break type of defense, if they can stay intact.

The Packers came away from the game with a rather ugly w, but there is no asterisk for style points. In the all-important win column another one gets chalked up at the expense of the Panthers, but the Pack is also left with more holes and questions on defense in the aftermath. One critically important benchmark of any great team is the ability to come away with a win having not played their best. And this game certainly qualifies.

The Panthers came out and struck quickly and repeatedly, going up 13 – 0 after marching right down on their opening drive, scooping up Packers’ rookie Randall Cobb’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff and posting a field goal, and finally after holding the Pack to a 3 and out on their only possession another 3 pointer. While an impressive start the Packers are no longer young and hungry, they are now young and experienced. They’ve been here before.



The calm before the storm. Newton prior to
being intercepted by Charles Woodson



A struggling team that is inconsistent can also make a proven team look pretty bad in the process. So many of Newton’s plays looked as if he had drawn them up in the dirt and he was making it up on the fly. A disciplined team will cover their men, but when mass improvisation takes over all of a sudden the better team is rendered a gridiron version of the Keystone Kops. While Fox Sports newest talking head Jim Mora Jr. openly and repeatedly gushed over Newton (at one point Mora marveled at how well Cam was chewing his gum!!), the war of attrition was won by Charles Woodson, how came away with 2 timely picks and a key fumble recovery. Mora can soon change his last name to ‘Moron’ when, after Newton’s last pick that hit Packer S Morgan Burnett right between the numbers, he declared that the Panther rookie “ …looked like a champ…” when Newton was shown with  a towel covering his head on as he left the field at the end of the game. Jim, really?? This may be begging the question, but aren’t ‘champs’ actually supposed to win something first???



Newton meets the real Champ



Ball security issues will haunt the Panthers as they poke around finding their way. But when vet Steve Smith made the greatest of faux pas’ in holding the ball out like a loaf of bread only to have it slapped away from behind the Panthers do not have the firepower to match the Packers. By walking away with ‘only’ 13 points the Packers almost behaved as if they were done mailing it in and set about taking care of business.

A long drive was capped by John Kuhn’s 2^nd TD of the year and at 13 – 7. The Packers had been outplayed badly in the first half but realized they were but one drive from the lead. And when one of the NFL’s best receiving groups is held to but a single catch it was back to the basics. In the first half Greg Jennings had the lone catch by a WR while Donald Driver and Jordy Nelson were kept off the stat sheet. The Panthers lead of 13 -0 was the first time since the ’09 season the Packers had trailed by more than 7 points.

Enter Aaron Rodgers. Mr. Newton, welcome to the neighborhood. Rodgers opened the 2^nd half with a 46 yard lightning strike to Jennings to finally put the Pack on top. Driver’s catch gave him the record for yardage by Packers receiver, an impressive feat considering some of the pass catchers in Green Bays’ storied history. And gently, like a falling safe, the Packers began to pile up the picks and points as Mason Crosby connected on 3 consecutive field goals and Nelson got untracked late in the 4^th quarter with a nifty 84 yard catch and run away from the corners TD bomb from Rodgers.

Newton’s ill-advised throws and forcing it into coverage were the Panthers undoing. This Packers team has learned how to make a team pay dearly for its mistakes. James Starks has begun to establish himself as the #1 back with his understated size and speed in rushing for 84 yards, and offensively the Packers look as if they can literally turn it on at any time. Perhaps the 10 day layoff was too much. Or perhaps the Packers could be excused for looking past Carolina to next week’s early showdown with Da Bears.



Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Nick Collins exits after frightening collision



Call it what it is – GB won, as they should have, but it certainly was not an exercise in precision. It was hardly their best effort and the defense looked flat footed at times. And the defense took yet another potentially staggering blow as S Nick Collins left on a stretcher as his head collided awkwardly with Jonathan Stewart’s backside, and the results are devastating as Collins will miss the remainder of the season. While Collins agent Alan Herman is reported to have said that while the specific injury has not yet been diagnosed it is, at this point, “… 10% not a broken neck or spinal cord injury…”, Collins nonetheless spent the night in a Charlotte hospital and rejoined the Packers in Green bay on Monday sporting a neck brace. With DE Mike Neal already out for several weeks and CB Tramon Williams out with an unspecified ‘shoulder injury’ and eerie sense of déjà vu is setting in on the Packers this year.



Tramon Williams injury



GM Ted Thompson will no doubt have already begun the process of replacements. In the short haul Charlie Peprah will take over for Collins. There has also been talk of Charles Woodson moving to the S spot, and other past name possibilities include bringing back either the instinctive Anthony Levine (S) or problem child CB/S Brandon Underwood. After last season’s brilliance in finding gems TT will have to match that to keep the Packers in it.

The Packers have enough talent to win on talent alone. But they cannot afford to put up inconsistent performances. Clay Matthews has been mostly contained. The D is struggling to put together any semblance of a pass rush. Until the Packers can generate sufficient inside push Matthews may find it tougher sledding against the double and triple team looks he’ll see. Randall Cobb’s first law is what goes up must not come down. After terrorizing the Saints in week 1 Cobb’s fumble by running into his own man will earn a red face for the rookie who will no doubt get a hard lesson in holding onto the rock this week. Losing Collins cannot be an excuse, and Mike McCarthy will not indulge the troops with that, and this veteran group will no doubt regroup.

Newton’s first law will be a bitter pill to swallow and a very tough lesson. He’ll need to learn to put up the numbers, and build a bigger lead and not give it away so foolishly. Against a middling team, it may be enough. But against a Super Bowl Champ, it will never be enough. It was ugly.

But, it was a win. Bring on Chicago.