Panthers perfect 10 (and 0)

He wasn’t up to the task.

Texans 24, Jets 17 – Quarterback T.J. Yates had two TD passes and receiver Cecil Shorts also threw for a score as host Houston won its third straight. While they have given up the ball 12 times on the season, they have an National Football League leading 25 turnovers, with 15 interceptions and 10 fumble recoveries. For all of the talk that the Panthers are a shallow offensive team, they have a top-10 offense and have scored 20 points or more in every game.

Embrace the new age National Football League, embrace the quarterback that runs, throws, dances, and dabs.

“That’s fine”, he said. We understand the way we’re trying to keep player safety alive and it’s a very important part of this game, player safety and where to hit people.

That task is a short week, then the Cowboys.

Matt Hasselbeck – two years younger than the 42-year-old Vinatieri – threw a pair of TD passes in place of the injured Andrew Luck, improving to 3-0 as a starter this season. They covered 27 yards. Roberts received a kickoff at the 1-yard line, and sprinted it back 99 yards for the touchdown to tie the game at 14. Cousins had just 207 yards passing, throwing an interception to Kurt Coleman-his fourth of the year, tying Josh Norman for the team lead.

Colin Jones was burned on a 56-yard touchdown to DeSean Jackson early in the game, but other than that, the secondary clamped down. Meantime, they also lost running back Justin Forsett with a broken arm in the first quarter.

Cousins, who doubled as a human pinata so often that there were cries to pull him in the fourth quarter for his own safety, led a touchdown drive on the next series before stalling the rest of the game. It was the first the Panthers have given up since 2009.

Jonathan Stewart (Running Back): Stewart had an excellent day as well racking up 21 rushing attempts. Newton has nine touchdown passes in his last three games.

There were a good number of Washington fans in the crowd, perhaps 15,000, a number heartily debated in the pressbox. But the Cowboys don’t need any one RB to give them a dominant performance. Newton threw 5 yards to tight end Greg Olsen for a touchdown and a 28-14 lead. His four scoring tosses in the first half against the Redskins were the most ever in a half for a Panthers quarterback and his five for the game tied Steve Beuerlein’s franchise record.

After the Panthers (10-0) continued on their merry way to home-field advantage in the NFC with a 44-16 victory, Carolina coach Ron Rivera praised McDermott for his aggressiveness coming out of halftime.

Rivera referenced a popular quote from a former coach, Mike Ditka, that rings true in this instance. “But, you do wonder if we go up 21-14 there and they don’t have the ball on the red-zone fringe, like where they had it, you wonder what happens”. Winning covers up a lot of things and we can’t get complacent with the victories.

Say what you will about Cam Newton’s demeanor as the CEO of the Panthers offense.

“You can’t really predict the game, but I think it would have been a different ballgame right there when (Culliver) made the play”.