REPORT: Ronnie Pitts to rape Cam Newton poster

[Scott Campbell]

The guy got picked off twice by Charles Woodson, that's going to happen when you ask a rookie to throw it 40+ times but every play he knew where to go with the ball and never threw into double coverage.

B.S. I know for a fact that the pick where Charles jumped the route he had double coverage help over the top. It was a ball he never should have thrown.


The dude gets enough hype already without you making more crap up.

[Brandon494]

B.S. I know for a fact that the pick where Charles jumped the route he had double coverage help over the top. It was a ball he never should have thrown.


The dude gets enough hype already without you making more crap up.

Calm the fuck down

The pass was low and away, Woodson made a great play on the ball.

[Scott Campbell]

Calm the fuck down

The pass was low and away, Woodson made a great play on the ball.

Woodson was able to make the play on the ball because he had help over the top. As in double coverage. Check the tape.

[Scott Campbell]

The guy got picked off twice by Charles Woodson, that's going to happen when you ask a rookie to throw it 40+ times but every play he knew where to go with the ball and never threw into double coverage.

[Scott Campbell]

For the resident Newton jock sniffer.

Tell us again how he didn't throw it into double coverage.

[Brandon494]

Tell me again how posting a picture from a Lions game proves your point. Some people just can't stand the fact that Newton won't be a bust.

[SkinBasket]

SPOOOGE!

[Scott Campbell]

Tell me again how posting a picture from a Lions game proves your point.

[Scott Campbell]

http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/why-passing-totals-can-be-deceiving/

September 22, 2011, 8:00 amWhy Passing Totals Can Be Deceiving

By ANDY BENOITWe’ve seen monstrous passing numbers in this young N.F.L. season. With the rule changes and proliferation of spread offenses, those numbers will only climb in the coming years.
But how much do the numbers really mean?
Cam Newton is second in the league in passing yards (854). His Panthers are 0-2. The next four passing yards leaders – Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Tony Romo and Matt Hasselbeck – are on teams that are 1-1. It’s too early to read much into the numbers, but it’s not too early to understand why the numbers are climbing and why it may not matter.
The N.F.L. is undergoing a defensive revolution. Ten years ago, the idea of “good defense” was to stop the other team from moving the ball. The 2000 Ravens were a brick wall that yielded just 970 yards on the ground (fewest for a 16-game schedule in league history). But today, teams don’t sustain offense with the traditional run-run-pass approach. New rules and improved athletes have led to an explosion in the passing game, making it too much to ask for a defense to hang in there and continuously stop an offense.
The idea of “good defense” has morphed from stopping the opponent to making big plays. The best way to do this is to trick an offense into making a mistake. This is why we’ve seen rapid growth in versatile and confounding 3-4 schemes that are predicated on disguise concepts and blitzes (especially out of sub-packages). This has been the defensive approach of the past two Super Bowl champions (the ’09 Saints were second in the N.F.C. in forced turnovers and the ’10 Packers were fifth; ahead of the Packers were the Steelers, Patriots, Giants, Bears and Eagles – all playoff teams save for the 10-6 Giants).
Creating big plays requires taking risks (which often means blitzing). Those risks are contributing to more passing yards. But passing yards don’t always lead to points. Defenses know that with space being limited, offenses can’t spread out and dictate terms of engagement in the red zone the same way they can between the 20s. Thus, in taking risks, defenses have embraced more of a “bend but don’t break” mentality.
A great illustration of how this revolution is playing out can be found in Cam Newton. In Week 1, he went up against a Cardinals defense that’s run by the first-year coordinator Ray Horton, who came over from the Steelers. Horton has installed myriad blitz packages and is a proponent of taking risks to force offensive mistakes. His Cardinals D gave up 422 passing yards to Newton … but only 21 points. Late in the fourth quarter, on Carolina’s final drive, the Cardinals repeatedly blitzed Newton from inside the red zone. On fourth-and-five in that final drive, the Cardinals blitzed again and gave up four yards. Bending, not breaking.
The next week, Newton torched the Packers through the air. But Dom Capers also confused Newton with coverage changeups in the third quarter, resulting in two interceptions (Newton had also been baited into a pick by Charles Woodson late in the second quarter). Green Bay also capitalized when space became limited, holding the Panthers to two red zone field goals in the first half. In the end, Newton had played well for 90 percent of the snaps and posted 432 yards through the air. But the Packers were able to make big plays on the other 10 percent and, consequently, Carolina finished with only 16 points.
Quarterbacks are playing well these days. But defenses are more willing than ever to let quarterbacks play well. They just don’t want quarterbacks playing mistake-free. Thus, one of the reasons passing statistics are destined to inflate.
Andy Benoit is the founder of NFLTouchdown.com and an analyst for CBSsports.com. He can be reached at andy.benoit@NFLtouchdown.com or @Andy_Benoit.

[pbmax]

Brandon is still closer to the truth than the deniers, but the kid's value is being lost while we debate who is more internally inconsistent.

Newton is a once a generation talent. Elway. Manning. That kind of thing.

He may never take full advantage of that talent, or even get the chance, but its there. He also seems to have a desire to be great, like an even more friendly Finley.

And to suggest that "anyone" asked to throw the ball alot could do what he has done is obvious non-sense. There have been plenty of teams with a passing game and a bad enough D to produce tons of garbage time yardage. None have done what this kid has done.

There was a list of 500 yards throwers (for Brady's Week 1 performance) and the list was the usual suspects of HoFs and the like. Plus Billy Volek, I think. Billy Volek pops up in a list like this because somewhere along the line, a prefect storm emerges and something truly strange and out of the ordinary happens.

Newton has performed ridiculously for a rookie. To have done it twice likely means it is no fluke.

[pbmax]

http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2...-be-deceiving/


September 22, 2011, 8:00 amWhy Passing Totals Can Be Deceiving

By ANDY BENOITWe’ve seen monstrous passing numbers in this young N.F.L. season. With the rule changes and proliferation of spread offenses, those numbers will only climb in the coming years.
But how much do the numbers really mean?
Cam Newton is second in the league in passing yards (854). His Panthers are 0-2. The next four passing yards leaders – Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Tony Romo and Matt Hasselbeck – are on teams that are 1-1. It’s too early to read much into the numbers, but it’s not too early to understand why the numbers are climbing and why it may not matter.
Andy Benoit is the founder of NFLTouchdown.com and an analyst for CBSsports.com. He can be reached at andy.benoit@NFLtouchdown.com or @Andy_Benoit.

The fact that Benoit, who does great work, is comparing Newton to these Pro Bowl vets in good passing offenses should tell you something about a rookie.

I am not arguing he is taking the Panthers to the playoffs with this team. There are too many holes. But for Pete's sake, its his first two games. He's not in the Hall of Fame, but he has an obvious and good chance to be brilliant.

[Scott Campbell]

Brandon is still closer to the truth than the deniers......

Brandon said Newton never threw into double coverage. I'm not sure he even watched the game.

He's just in love with a portion of Newton's box score.

[pbmax]

Let me address the litany of complaints before they happen. Teams now have film on him in two games plus preseason. He is going to slump at some point this season. And it will happen again next season when teams have an offseason to adjust to him. My money is on the kid bouncing back when that happens. We'll see.

[pbmax]

Brandon said Newton never threw into double coverage. I'm not sure he even watched the game.

He's just in love with a portion of Newton's box score.

Same thing with Newton. I am not claiming everything Brandon writes is gospel or written on a stone tablet.

But he is right about what Newton can do. A week ago we thought (and when I say we I mean quality observers like Lurker, not just myself) that Newton wasn't reading defensive coverage.

Given the number of times he found single coverage after a blitz and the number of times he found a receiver in a hole in a zone, we are now left to debate how many mistakes he made reading that coverage. Whether anyone wants to admit it, he proved us wrong.

[Scott Campbell]

Same thing with Newton. I am not claiming everything Brandon writes is gospel or written on a stone tablet.

But he is right about what Newton can do. A week ago we thought (and when I say we I mean quality observers like Lurker, not just myself) that Newton wasn't reading defensive coverage.

Given the number of times he found single coverage after a blitz and the number of times he found a receiver in a hole in a zone, we are now left to debate how many mistakes he made reading that coverage. Whether anyone wants to admit it, he proved us wrong.

Except I already admitted that he played well at times. He has looked very promising.

What Newton hasn't been able to do yet is win. He should be able to fix that this Sunday.