Cam Newton blames himself for the Carolina Panthers’ struggles
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Nobody could have predicted that the defending NFC champion Carolina Panthers would be sitting in last place in the NFC South with a 4-8 record through 12 weeks of the 2016 season.
Though the Panthers returned most of the key players from last year’s Super Bowl squad, including former Auburn star QB Cam Newton, the results have been much different.
That’s led Newton to take the blame squarely on his shoulders. He told The Charlotte Observer that he feels he isn’t doing his part for the team:
“I don’t know. It’s just me,” Newton said this week. “It’s numerous things that I need not say. But I can tell you it’s not because of (a lack of) preparation. It’s the luck of the draw sometimes.”
Newton said he’s still preparing as hard as ever for games, but it simply hasn’t shown up in the Panthers’ record:
“You could stay here, you could sleep here, watching a lot of film, being prepared in certain situations. And we get (judged) off our production on the field,” he said. “So it doesn’t matter how much I prepare. If it doesn’t translate on the field, then people would just say, ‘He’s just garbage.’ ”
“For me it’s trying to get it to carry over from practice to games. And in this situation and this season, it just hasn’t turned over.
“And I don’t have nobody to blame but myself.”
The Panthers almost certainly won’t make the playoffs this year, but they can still turn their season around a little bit.
Carolina hosts the San Diego Chargers on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. Eastern time. The game can be seen on FOX.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
