Yes, just 5 yards a pass, but again it’s a mixture of what the seattle DBs were giving him and where his mind was focused. We all know he’s quite capable of doing some damage to secondaries on deep balls. I think it’s just a matter of him being so focused (maybe to a fault) on the area that he wasn’t so good at in the past. The number of passes thrown wasn’t much different than in previous years. What is different was where his eyes were. It wasn’t downfield. My hope is that his eyes now get a more complete picture of the whole field.

I have no idea, though, if the conservative nature of this game was an abberation or not, but against the Bills, Rivera was asked about the up-tempo offense of the Bills on contrast with what his own offense did and he questioned the mindset of an up-tempo offense saying basically that unless you can sustain drives, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot because then rather than flying downfield quicker, they are flying off the field quicker and then the other offense just has to eat up clock and keep the defense on the field and the up-tempo offense off.

I expect that strategy to be used this week against the Bills. Force Manuel to make quick, pressured mistakes that either result in turnovers or quick three and outs and then, I suspect, go at a snails pace again while the offense is on the field. That could work, and it could bite them in the butt. What I don’t expect, tho, is another game of 5 yard passes, esp. with the Bills secondary in the shape that they are in. Gilmore is out and Byrd is more than likely out. Also, the Panthers will have Hixon (who said he was actually healthy lsat week) and Armanti Edwards both active. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s more targets for Newton on the field and will likely open things up downfield. After the presser on Monday, Rivera said that they had missed some opportunities downfield that could have helped and from the sound of it, that may have been a focus of work done this week.

We’ll see, tho.

Precisely. Newton didn’t play a great game, but neither did Brady against the Bills and Jets (4.80 NY/A through those games), and yet the Patriots are 2-0. The intuitive counter-response, of course, would be that Brady is doing this while playing with misfits at WR and TE, but nobody was talking about the differences in supporting casts when Brady was throwing the ball to Gronkowski, Hernandez and Welker; as opposed to a less stellar Panthers WR core led by an aging Steve Smith. Not to also mention the fact Newton played the elite Seahawks defense.

The mesmerizing, intoxicating power of the media narrative (along with the Panthers’ struggles to win games) has made it easy to pick on Newton. Chase’s writeups help to reinforce the fact that a lot more goes on towards winning football games than what just takes place at QB.