Whats Up With All This Cam Slump Garbage?

[Who Dat Pat]

ARTICLE:

While The Denver Broncos’ The Golden Calf of Bristol ended up dominating the headlines of The 2011 NFL Regular Season, The Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton was finishing an impressive rookie year including a rookie record 4,051 passing yards and wins in four of his last six games.  Cam Newton and The Golden Calf of Bristol had many doubters coming into the year and both players showed flashes of brilliance that have convinced many people that both players will have long term success in The NFL.  The Golden Calf of Bristol will need to develop with The 2012 New York Jets if that is to happen.  The Golden Calf of Bristol performed so well in 2011 that he was the proposed starter for The Broncos going into 2012′s summer training camp but then he was traded. Cam Newton performed so well that he won NFL Rookie of the Year and NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and Newton’s continued NFL success may be assumed.  However, like The Golden Calf of Bristol, Cam Newton will still have to prove that he can have long term success in The NFL following the 2012 Carolina Panthers season and The Cam Newton Sophomore Slump.

I do not believe in the so called sophomore slump as much as I believe in the freshman fluke.  I would not be surprised if most supposed sophomore slumps were followed by junior and senior season slumps, so the success of a rookie’s performance, as it is for every individual and every team, is largely dependent on scheduling.  It’s not so much that I am predicting Cam Newton’s sophomore slump but that Cam Newton’s rookie season may be a fluke. People only want to know the final numbers and are not concerned with how they were reached. It doesn’t matter that The Golden Calf of Bristol lost his final 3 regular season games; The Golden Calf of Bristol led The Broncos to the playoffs.  The Golden Calf of Bristol Nation believes his win/loss record and playoff victory earned him the right to start in 2012 but it wasn’t The Golden Calf of Bristol’s overall record that John Elway was evaluating; it was the detail and execution of his plays.

Cam Newton came out of the gate on fire, passing for 854 yards in his first two games and he would win his first game of the year in week 3 vs. The Jacksonville Jaguars.  Newton would go on to complete the first half of the season as the lead passer in 6 of the 8 games.  Newton set the tone early in the season that he is for real.  While The Panthers would finish the first half 2-6, Cam Newton would have higher game totals in passing yards than opponents Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan and Jay Cutler. However, Newton would have no victories over their teams and his week 8 match up vs. The Minnesota Vikings would be the last time he was a game’s passing leader.

Newton’s led Panthers would finish the second half of the season going 4-4 but only one season win over a team with a winning record.  The Panthers beat The Houston Texans in week 14 minus key offensive players including Texans starting quarterback Matt Schaub. That’s right; T.J. Yates had more passing yards than Cam Newton in their match up.  While The Panthers were winning, defending Cam Newton was becoming a challenge more easily accomplished than in the first half of the season.

In the second half of his rookie season, Newton’s passing yards per game totals would leave him runner up to the leader in all eight games.  Matt Hasselbeck, Chris Painter, T.J. Yates and both Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterbacks, Josh Freeman and Josh Johnson would out pass Cam Newton.  Of Cam Newton’s 4051 passing yards, 34% would be achieved in games 1-4.  In games 5-8, Cam would amass another 25% of his season total, followed by 22% in games 9-12, and finishing the final four games with only 19% of his rookie season’s total passing yards.

Maybe it was the mental game wearing down on Newton but when we see his best games coming in September following an off season with a lock out, Cam Newton’s sophomore slump seems highly possible. In Week 1 Newton matched up against Kevin Kolb and The Arizona Cardinals, followed by The Green Bay Packers’ high powered offense and then The Bears’ week 4 match up, going toe to toe with what was still a Mike Martz ran offense at full strength.  If we take out those three games, Cam Newton’s record improves to a .461 win percentage as opposed to .375 but he would only have an average of 217 passing yards per game.  Newton’s touchdown to interception ratio and total rushing touchdowns were identical in both halves of the season. However, in addition to his victory over T.J. Yates and The Texans, Newton’s wins came against extremely inferior opposition as his passing yards per game declined throughout the season.

Rest of article at link:

http://www.duanescorner.com/

[Dpantherman]

No one is going to read all of that bullshit written by an anonymous blogger.

[Growl]

lol he just linked us to a blog

[CRA]

Article is nonsense.

Cam's best games also werent his first couple. he just had tons of passing yardage. Washington, Houston, etc were good games.....veteran like.

Also, it is clear the ST and D are the reason a rookie Newton didn't post a winning record. What is also clear....is a 2nd year player like The Golden Calf of Bristol is nowhere near the QB Newton is

[Mayor Qumiby]

Our young fan base isnt use to success so i guess alota people are looking in the past when they need be looking forward to our very bright future.

[Zcustom]

haha yeah that article is a bit skewed

not taking into account the meteoric rise of our running game, coupled with Cam not having to throw as much with our passing efficiency improving his numbers were bound to come back to earth so to speak

150-200 yards passing and a W? Sounds better than 400 yards and a L

[Frizzy350]

How profound. So your telling me that when our three headed rushing attack took over and highly minimized 3rd and long, and even 3rd down all together Cam threw the ball for less yards? When both RBs were averaging 5.4 yards per carry, actually getting carries, controlling the clock and extending drives? And in 5 of those last 8 games Cam never had more than 25 pass attempts? And we won more?

Gee whiz. That article really shedding light on how having game tape on Cam allows a defense to shut him down.

Curious, did something whack you in the head during Katrina?

[MadHatter]

Sophomore slumps aren't uncommon, but I suspect Cam will be ok this season. His demeanor is similar to Smitty's, (like someone already mentioned- chip on his shoulder.) and with Chud's creative and aggressive playcalling, Cam should be good to go.

I agree that I believe Chud's will be a big reason you are not likely to see a big soph slump from Cam....he is likely to keep adding wrinkles to keep defenses guessing.

However, realizing that QB soph slumps happen quite often is NOT "just hating on Cam". They are very common for a few reasons:

1. Getting tape on a young guy is big

2. Some young guys who have success think they have arrived and still do not know how to work in the offseason at an NFL level....don't think this will happen to Cam.

Not saying one will happen (I don't), but statistically they do happen a lot.

[Frizzy350]

We do need to re-sign Shockey though. I dont like taking weapons away from our young QB who is still learning. The more weapons, the better.

I'd like shock back more for his leadership. I think instead of running so many 2 TE sets that we did last year we will lean more towards 1 TE and 1 H-back. Tolbert is a great receiver and will get a lot of work as the H-back.

[tondi]

I don't necessarily think we will see Cam slump but it wouldn't surprise me if he had fewer passing and rushing yards this season. I could see him passing for 3800 yds and running for 500 but improving his efficiency by increasing his completion percentage and touchdown passes while reducing ints which would mean he had actually improved as a QB. Some people may categorize a 3800/500 yds, 64% comp rate, 26TD/12INT and 5 rushing TD's as a dissapointment or "slump" after last season but if he can put up those kinds of stats while leading a well balanced offense that results in 9+ wins I will be very happy.

That won't result in any big headlines like "4000 yard passer" or "NFL record rushing TD's for a QB" but it will show improvement and growth.

Now he could go apeshite and pass for 4500, 68%, 36/8 and run for an additional 800 with another 16TD's but I really think we will try to be more balanced on offense and let our RB's handle more of the running, especially around the goal line.

[mav1234]

I don't think Cam will have a bad season but in many ways he may have a bit of a "slump" as teams play him differently and we exploit that difference. If our defense plays better, and our offense cuts down a bit on turnovers, I could see us not needing to lean on Cam's arms and legs so much, instead moving to pounding people into submission with our trio of backs once we get a nice lead.

[MadHatter]

I don't think Cam will have a bad season but in many ways he may have a bit of a "slump" as teams play him differently and we exploit that difference. If our defense plays better, and our offense cuts down a bit on turnovers, I could see us not needing to lean on Cam's arms and legs so much, instead moving to pounding people into submission with our trio of backs once we get a nice lead.

This^^^

[tondi]

I don't think Cam will have a bad season but in many ways he may have a bit of a "slump" as teams play him differently and we exploit that difference. If our defense plays better, and our offense cuts down a bit on turnovers, I could see us not needing to lean on Cam's arms and legs so much, instead moving to pounding people into submission with our trio of backs once we get a nice lead.

I agree and if our D improves and we are actually leading some games instead of knowing we have to put up 35 pts to win his raw stat totals will probably decline, although it will be for all the right reasons. I would rather Cam have fewer yards and TD's (and our RB's have more) if that means we are winning 20-10 instead of losing 35-30.

[Herbert The Love Bug]

I just know how hard he has been working and how much tape he has been watching on himself to improve on every area he needed improvement. Also he has said many times not making the playoffs in year 2 would be a major failure and he isn't going to allow that to happen. With that being said, I think he will be even better than last season. His rushing ability will always be there, but I don't think he will have as many rushing touchdowns. I think he will have better passing numbers though.