AN XL X-FACTOR AT QB
A multidimensional passer with running back skills, Newton remains the biggest challenge for Miami’s defense.
They’re building quarDAVIE — terbacks bigger these days. Makes you happy the NFL allows them to slide untouched at the end of runs, because some of them would be taking out linebackers and safeties if full-speed, downfield collisions were the norm.
Take Cam Newton, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft and a giant issue for the Dolphins in Monday night’s game at Carolina.
Guys like that are usually considered too valuable to be exposed to extra pounding, yet for four consecutive games Newton has led the Carolina Panthers in rushing yards.
In just seven seasons, he already owns the NFL career record for quarterbacks with 52 rushing touchdowns. This is what happens when a man is 6 feet 5
and 245 pounds. Despite offseason surgery to repair a partially torn rotator cuff in his throw- ing shoulder, Newton doesn’t see much on the other side of the line of scrimmage to scare him.
“I’m not trying to be the best quarterback, to a degree, and I say that with all respect,” Newton said in an interview with the Pan
thers’ team website. “I’m just trying to be the best football player I can possibly be.
“That’s what makes me differ
ent, having the ability to run the football, having the ability to pass,
and just putting my team in a position to stay on the field.”
Remember when Miami used
‘I mean, look, if he’s dancing, he’s doing something right.’
to have a power runner named Jay Ajayi? He has one rushing touchdown this season as a Dolphin and an Eagle. Newton has four, including one acrobatic play in last weekend’s 20-17 win over Atlanta, where he went airborne and basically slam-dunked the ball over the goal line.
And how about Ajayi on third-and-1? His 4 of 5 conversion rate this year is impressive, but Newton has the same short-yardage numbers. Exactly the same.
Now it wouldn’t make sense for the Panthers to expect a 100-yard rushing game from Newton on Monday, though he has three of those in his career, or to look for him to recapture the magic of the 2015 season, when Newton was the league’s MVP and Carolina, a 15-1 sensation during the regular season, made it to the Super Bowl.
What the Dolphins can anticipate, however, is a dangerous scramble or two and maybe some designed runs. Newton, for example, ripped off a 36-yard run against the Falcons last week, Carolina’s longest rush of the year. There are a few other XXL quarterbacks unafraid to run, guys like Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott, but they’ve never done anything like that.
“He’s an elite running back at the quarterback position,” said Miami’s Ndamukong Suh, who at defensive tackle will be focused on containing Newton more than chasing him. “Obviously, he has a great arm as well.
“Cam’s a little bit different in a way because he’s a bigger body, so he can shrug things off and feel like he can overpower through most tackles, especially when he sees the little guys. I have noticed that when he’s against bigger guys, he tends to shy away a little bit. … At the end of the day, you’ve got to make sure you go after the ball and also you get after his right arm to make sure he can’t throw it.”
The passing side of Newton’s game hasn’t been so spectacular. He’s got 10 touchdown passes, which settles him into the middle of the pack with Miami’s Jay Cutler, and Newton has thrown 11 interceptions,
which is tied for the league lead with Cleveland rookie DeShone Kizer. Nothing at all, in other words, like the ratios of Newton’s MVP season, when he had 35 touchdown passes and 10 picks.
Monday’s game, in the national spotlight, will be a chance for Newton to power through those problems and to show why the Panthers, at 6-3, should be considered a Super Bowl threat again. Along the way, of course, Newton will look to break out some new celebration moves or simply return to his fixation with Superman, looking always for opportunities to mimic the ripping open of his shirt to reveal the otherworldly power inside.
“They’re at home and he likes to dance,” said Miami linebacker Rey Maualuga. “We’ve got to stop him from getting the crowd involved in the game and getting momentum on their side. I mean, look, if he’s dancing, he’s doing something right.”
Of course, when Newton is wrong, he is spectacularly so. His pouty postgame press appearance after the Super Bowl loss a few years back was widely panned. His insulting comments earlier this season, implying that female reporters can’t know football, were childish. Then there was a quote last week when Newton pledged that the Panthers would overcome any and all injury and personnel problems and go on like the Titanic.
Panthers teammate Thomas Davis had to remind Newton, or inform Newton, that the Titanic story did not end well.
That’s how it goes with the guy, and how it has been all the way back to his national title and Heisman Trophy days at Auburn. Newton can be counted on to do everything bigger than others in the room. You just have to hope you don’t catch him on a night when he’s doing everything better.