Carolina Panthers report card

The performance marked an impressive return for Mariota, who had missed the previous two games with a knee injury.

Newton’s response was more of a challenge: don’t like his dance? We started it and when we started it, it started an abundance of bad things for us. – Carolina coach Ron Rivera, on the Titans’ five sacks. “They played hard, they played well enough to win, most certainly”.

The Tennessee Titans (2-6) defeated the New Orleans Saints, 34-28 in OT last week. Do I expect a fight there?

Newton ran and passed for touchdowns and opened the game with a career-best 11 consecutive completions as the Panthers remained unbeaten with a 27-10 win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

“It wasn’t (called for) taunting, but in my mind it is”, Titans head coach Mike Mularkey said. Mariota only managed 185 yards passing and no TDs, meaning that the Titans put up a TOTAL of 249 yards on offense. You come up against a team that made the change last week, they win the football game, they come out, they’re aggressive.

In 1996, the then-Houston Oilers and Carolina Panthers met in one of the final games to be played in the Houston Astrodome.

They are now 8-0 and have a two game lead on any other team in the conference, so at the moment they look good to achieve that goal.

“We have an opponent that we need to go get”, Panthers wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said. Detroit hadn’t won at Lambeau Field since 1991, so it snapped a 24-game losing streak in the Packers’ home stadium. The Titans have lost nine straight at home where coach Ken Whisenhunt was 1-11 before being fired November 3. Who will win this game? “I heard somebody say, ‘We’re not going to allow you to do that.’ But I’m a firm believer if you don’t like me to do it, don’t let me in”.

“I’m not doing it to be disrespectful to be nobody”, Newton said, “more so just doing it just to shine light and get people a smile and having fun doing what I do”. But Young’s all-time mark of 43 — something he set during 15 seasons in the league — is in jeopardy. Newton’s efforts might pay off again this week as the Titans are relatively friendly to opposing offenses.

Both teams have good pass-catching tight ends in Ben Watson and Reed, but both rushing attacks are average or below average at best. Johnson returned to practice this week but isn’t eligible to play until Thanksgiving Day against Dallas. Neither Bishop Sankey nor Antonio Andrews has consistently produced out of the backfield this season, and the Titans shouldn’t have to count on the return of sixth-round draft pick David Cobb from the injured reserve to give a boost to the running back corps.

Newton said he’s not dancing in the end zone to be disrespectful. On the surface, it may seem absurd that his name is anywhere near this list, as Newton is only completing 53% of his passes.

OLSEN A WEAPON: Greg Olsen is in the midst of another Pro Bowl-caliber year for the Panthers.

On top of the rushing struggles, the Titans sacked Cam for a season high 5 times.

“For the most part, everything was at your hands”, Olsen said, via ESPN. The lack of a running game on Sunday just continued a recurring theme all season, as the Titans are averaging just 97.4 yards a game on the year and have scored only five rushing touchdowns all season.