1. Cam should have jumped on the ball. 2. Cam shouldn't have walked out postgame. 3. Saying that doesn't make you a hater.

[teeray]

Cam made a split second decision.  If you look at the way his knee indeed was contorted it really was very close to being a Daunte Culpepper type injury.

For years we have heard "Cam needs to protect himself."  "Cam needs to protect himself" "Cam needs to protect himself".

 Now we are wondering "Why did he protect himself?"  It was indeed the Super Bowl but he made a snap decision probably on instinct.  We can say he made the wrong decision, but to question his commitment to winning, heart, and toughness is absolutely laughable.  If you are fixating on one play and not his entire body of work, you are fixating on one thing because....  reasons. 

People bringing up Thomas Davis are not being fair.  Cam played with a broken back, broken ribs, and seriously injured ankle last season and was still running over people.

If Cam broke his arm in NFC Championship game and could have bolted up his arm and played he would have also.

As far as Cam playing well or not, the whole offense played poorly.  To fixate on Cam is nothing more than fixating on Cam for.... again reasons.

To me it is like a basketball player makes 10 threes and misses one, and we are complaining about the one he missed, but ignoring the ten he made, because "We should be able to criticize him and not be 'homers'"

The good he has done on the football field outweighs the negative by a large margin.  It isnt so much as not being critical as it is being appreciative for what he has done for this team overall.

It is hard to view someone as being critical to a guy who got us to the Super Bowl anything but incredibly ungrateful and petty.

[Thanatos]

16 minutes ago, truthjuice said:

So. Let's say he did dive or jump and his ACL was torn in the process. Cam gets carted off and Panthers lose (since the game was lost before that play). Cam heads into the offseason needing knee surgery and an offseason of rehab. Or if he'd broken his leg. Or ankle. The narrative would be "I love his intensity but Cam you've gotta be smarter than that! You're our franchise QB!!" Cam has never been afraid to get hit. However, one video I saw looked like he could've thought it was an incomplete pass at first, realized it wasn't and was not in position to dive for the ball. We don't know WHAT was going through Cam's head. I doubt it was because he just want to but I also don't see he need in possibly injuring yourself when you don't have to. It's not like he's NEVER made the effort after a bad play. Hell, the AZ game when he threw the int, didn't he run and try to make the tackle? I hate people questioning his toughness or his will to win. That's bullshit, especially from "fans."

The press conference is not as bad as its been made to be. They're 3 minutes (per Steve Young). He was there for about 2.5 minutes and answered the questions. What makes questioning after a loss tougher than normal? One, it was the biggest game of your pro career and two, you hear the celebratory chatter and talks of shutting you down, etc. The media ("fans") around mad about 30 seconds that he did not give you. Some probably feels like he threw salt in the wound because he refused to apologize for it. That was not that big of a deal. That press conference shouldn't even be a thing! He's not the first nor will he be the last person to do it! It's all water underneath the bridge now. So, im assuming this loss and that fumble and that press conference totally negates the season that he lead this team to? Alrighty then. 

Cam will always be a target, no matter how much good or bad he does. 

The game was NOT lost before that play. If we recover that ball, we are punting down 16-10. Game is not over.  Don't understand his reasoning that the fumble didn't lose us the game. It was the final nail in the coffin.

[truthjuice]

4 minutes ago, Thanatos said:

The game was NOT lost before that play. If we recover that ball, we are punting down 16-10. Game is not over.  Don't understand his reasoning that the fumble didn't lose us the game. It was the final nail in the coffin.

It was. They were already mentally defeated. That fumble was not the nail on the coffin. But your opinion is just that, yours. Good day. 

[TuckerMax25]

3 hours ago, Sam Mills Fan said:

The excuse making for Cam Newton's poor play and poor showing post-game on Sunday has been incredibly grating to people not looking at what he did through a homer lens. You can make all the excuses for why Cam didn't jump on the ball, why Cam threw errant pass after errant pass, why Cam sulked and walked off the stage postgame....none of that changes anything. Cam was not good Sunday. PERIOD. That doesn't mean he sucks or shouldn't have been MVP or isn't the best player in the history of the Panthers or a possible future Hall of Famer. Pointing out when he has legitimately messed up doesn't make you a "white-as-a-bleached cracker" either. If we can call out Teddy Williams or Jerricho Cotchery for messing up, Cam's fair game too.

 

I think a lot of the mindless Cam defending and homerism is a result of us having to defend Cam from all of these insane personal attacks he's been on the receiving end of especially this year. The idiotic Tennessee mom, the crybaby Seahawks fan that wanted Cam banned from the stadium, Bill Romanowski calling Cam "boy". fug all of those people! Seriously...fug them! But that doesn't mean that Cam can do no wrong.

I won't defend his post game interview but at the same time, giving him crap about it is as useless because it's his choice if I was an all star athlete like him I wouldn't do a single mandated interview ever. Just pay the fine and move on. He'd still get endorsements because he's a damn superstar 

secondly on the fumble. He said why he didn't jump on it. By criticizing him for it you're basically saying you could've done better, being a Monday morning quarterback. If he felt his positioning for it was wrong, you're in no position to call him a liar. 

Sure he didn't play that well, but he played better than his opponents qb who won. Cam could've played better but he also had a lot of crap to deal with being one of the best defenses he's seen. 

You can either support him, or not. There's plenty of other criticisms that can be made and are more significant. 

[BigKing]

If he dove for the ball and tore his knee up, there wouldn't be one person on here that would have said "He shouldn't of dove for the ball": it would have just been an unfortunate play that led to a freak injury because, well, NFL players always dive on fumbles and are criticized when they don't.

Again, thinking he should of dove for the ball isn't equal to thinking he is gutless and is in no way an indictment of his toughness.

We can talk about why we think he didn't dive, if he actually thought he'd get hurt, what he was thinking and all that but the reason doesn't change the fact that you have to dive for that ball.  If you freeze up and don't dive, it doesn't mean you are a wimp but that for whatever reason, you froze and made a bad play.  At the end of the day, this was just a bad play from the initial fumble to the poor attempt at a recovery. Just another bad play in a hailstorm of bad plays from the offense.

I love my sister.  When she fugs up, I don't pretend like she didn't fug up just because she's my sister: still love her though.

As for the three point shooter analogy, it would fit in this instance if Cam played well throughout the entire game and this was the only mistake, but it was far from it.  People are currently focusing on the last game because it was, you know, the fuggin Super Bowl.  I'd like to think that most here are not oblivious to the season he just put together and love that he is the QB of the Carolina Panthers, but let's not pretend that this place wouldn't be roasting Ryan,Brady,Rodgers et al if they made the same play.

As an aside, I'm all for the hate from around the league.  Feel the hate flow through you, Cam.  Use it.

[BigKing]

15 minutes ago, truthjuice said:

It was. They were already mentally defeated. That fumble was not the nail on the coffin. But your opinion is just that, yours. Good day. 

If they were already mentally defeated, there are much larger issues to be worried about than whether Cam should of dove on a fumble or not.

I'd like to think they still believed they can win.  If what you say is true, then you just criticized Cam more than anyone talking about this particular play.

If Cam is the leader of the team and the team is mentally defeated, isn't that an indictment of Cam?

I don't think I can buy this.  I think the majority of the huddle was already mentally defeated, sure, but I don't want to believe my team essentially gave up.

[Growl]

3 hours ago, Sam Mills Fan said:

2 very intelligent responses so far, anyone else?

to garner intelligent responses you have to have an intelligent premise. that wasn't found in the initial post, hence the responses you'll find.

 

frankly watching you, a supposed Panther fan and you alone perpetuate the rampant idiocy that has overtaken comments sections (par for the course I guess is a much worse look for the fanbase and the team than a player instinctively reacting to protect his knee from someone diving at it

[goodoleboy]

9 minutes ago, BigKing said:

If they were already mentally defeated, there are much larger issues to be worried about than whether Cam should of dove on a fumble or not.

I'd like to think they still believed they can win.  If what you say is true, then you just criticized Cam more than anyone talking about this particular play.

If Cam is the leader of the team and the team is mentally defeated, isn't that an indictment of Cam?

I don't think I can buy this.  I think the majority of the huddle was already mentally defeated, sure, but I don't want to believe my team essentially gave up.

Exactly. How many last second hail mary TD passes did last years MVP make this season.

[rodeo]

Cam did jump on the ball you fuging dumbasses

[teeray]

38 minutes ago, BigKing said:

If he dove for the ball and tore his knee up, there wouldn't be one person on here that would have said "He shouldn't of dove for the ball": it would have just been an unfortunate play that led to a freak injury because, well, NFL players always dive on fumbles and are criticized when they don't.

Again, thinking he should of dove for the ball isn't equal to thinking he is gutless and is in no way an indictment of his toughness.

We can talk about why we think he didn't dive, if he actually thought he'd get hurt, what he was thinking and all that but the reason doesn't change the fact that you have to dive for that ball.  If you freeze up and don't dive, it doesn't mean you are a wimp but that for whatever reason, you froze and made a bad play.  At the end of the day, this was just a bad play from the initial fumble to the poor attempt at a recovery. Just another bad play in a hailstorm of bad plays from the offense.

I love my sister.  When she fugs up, I don't pretend like she didn't fug up just because she's my sister: still love her though.

As for the three point shooter analogy, it would fit in this instance if Cam played well throughout the entire game and this was the only mistake, but it was far from it.  People are currently focusing on the last game because it was, you know, the fuggin Super Bowl.  I'd like to think that most here are not oblivious to the season he just put together and love that he is the QB of the Carolina Panthers, but let's not pretend that this place wouldn't be roasting Ryan,Brady,Rodgers et al if they made the same play.

As an aside, I'm all for the hate from around the league.  Feel the hate flow through you, Cam.  Use it.

Fair points but there is a difference between saying a guy should have made a play, and getting on him for not making one play.

I can say someone made a mistake, and be grateful for what he has done.

But if people what to get pissed at Cam, or say he doesn't have the heart of a Thomas Davis because of one play contrary to 5 years of evidence and him playing with an injured ankle, broken ribs, and broken back last season.

That is remarkably small minded, petty, and ungrateful.  Not to mention uninformed and contrary to all other evidence.

If people want to say, "meh maybe he made a mistake not diving".  OK.  No problem.

But to post pictures of Thomas Davis' arm and say Cam doesn't have the  same heart, toughness, commitment, or willingness to win is flatly absurd.  And should be called out accordingly.

 

 

[propagandamachine]

Were severly underpaying Cam... and he can do WHATEVER the F#$k he wants... 

 

[IGSaint]

As others have said, Cam has earned the right to be believed, that he couldn't have jumped for the ball at that time. If you can't accept it then maybe you need to follow another team. And the media deserves no respect, you are acting like Cam disrespected the Broncos or Peyton. Give me a break. 

[IGSaint]

1 hour ago, teeray said:

Cam made a split second decision.  If you look at the way his knee indeed was contorted it really was very close to being a Daunte Culpepper type injury.

For years we have heard "Cam needs to protect himself."  "Cam needs to protect himself" "Cam needs to protect himself".

 Now we are wondering "Why did he protect himself?"  It was indeed the Super Bowl but he made a snap decision probably on instinct.  We can say he made the wrong decision, but to question his commitment to winning, heart, and toughness is absolutely laughable.  If you are fixating on one play and not his entire body of work, you are fixating on one thing because....  reasons. 

People bringing up Thomas Davis are not being fair.  Cam played with a broken back, broken ribs, and seriously injured ankle last season and was still running over people.

If Cam broke his arm in NFC Championship game and could have bolted up his arm and played he would have also.

As far as Cam playing well or not, the whole offense played poorly.  To fixate on Cam is nothing more than fixating on Cam for.... again reasons.

To me it is like a basketball player makes 10 threes and misses one, and we are complaining about the one he missed, but ignoring the ten he made, because "We should be able to criticize him and not be 'homers'"

The good he has done on the football field outweighs the negative by a large margin.  It isnt so much as not being critical as it is being appreciative for what he has done for this team overall.

It is hard to view someone as being critical to a guy who got us to the Super Bowl anything but incredibly ungrateful and petty.

This, if people still complain about Cam after this post then PLEASE follow another team. You don't deserve to watch Cam giving his all for this fanbase. 

[uscgamecocks]

This really isn't very hard.

I for one am glad that the league MVP isn't scheduling knee surgery for next week.  Do you think we would have won 6 games or 8 games with DA at QB?

Handling the press conference like that wasn't a good look.  I personally could not care less, but he's going to take heat all offseason for that so why not play nice for five minutes to save yourself trouble down the road.  If Cam had come out and said on Sunday what he said to the media on Tuesday that would have been more than sufficient.

Even if we had recovered that fumble, our chances of winning Super Bowl 51 were better in that moment than winning Super Bowl 50.  Our line was done.  Funchess was wide open at the 50 on that last fumble and we couldn't get a hand on Miller to permit the pass.  Game was over.