Carolina Panthers secure narrow win against New Orleans Saints

When New Orleans got the ball back a minute later, that meant their only option was to drive for a TD, and that was the direction they were headed. The Saints attempted to pack the box defensively against the Panthers, leaving Olsen open repeatedly on crossing routes.

Ellerbe, a seven-year pro, said there is no need for the team or the fans to hit the panic button despite being winless in the first three contests.

He listened to every play-call Payton sent in to McCown and then clapped as he would if he were on the field when his teammates broke the huddle and headed to the line of scrimmage.

In fact, there were times where Sunday’s 27-22 loss to Carolina where things could’ve gotten really ugly had it not been for ‘cool hand Luke’.

His rationale: the physical gap between undefeated NFC South co-leaders Carolina and Atlanta and New Orleans is not as large as the record makes it appear. The schedule will be very similar with a Sunday night game. Brees once missed a game after the Saints clinched in 2009 and now he could be looking at another missed start if he doesn’t heal up from his shoulder injury.

Carolina Panthers’ Ted Ginn (19) catches a pass in front of New… “(Cam) read it perfectly”.

Newton completed 20-of-31 passes for 315 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a third to help the Panthers to 3-0.

The Saints drop to 0-3.

“It was putting a lot of pressure on us”, Newton said. He made no bad decisions, and even the heartbreaking interception was more a case of a great play by the defense than a poor throw by him.

Blandino defended the no-call by saying that because Newton was outside of the pocket and throwing the ball on the run, he didn’t get the same protection rule as a quarterback in the pocket.

“We got them in the right defense with the right action off the hard play fake”, Panthers coach Ron Rivera said.

Saints coach Sean Payton exlplined that he didn’t have to change much of the playbook from switching from Brees to McCown. Spiller was with the Bills, there would occasionally be stretches when people would wonder why he wasn’t getting the ball on offense more often.

“I think our thoughts, and Drew’s the same way, our training staff feels like there’s a real good chance he’s playing for us, and we expect that to happen”. “Our margin of error isn’t that (easy) to overcome”. McCown rewarded his team for having faith in him by connecting on 31 of 38 passes for 310 yards. On the ground, Mark Ingram rushed for 53 yards and one touchdown in 16 attempts while Khiry Robinson added 48 yards in five carries.

But Newton and Olsen battled back. Olsen caught eight passes for 134 yards.

The opportunity came after a penalty on an initial punt caused the Panthers to punt again.

Late last week, Brees determined he didn’t have the strength in his arm to throw down the field with the velocity he needs to be effective – which was evident after he was injured early in a Week 2 game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Umm, think it’s about time for a few Longest Yard action.

Asked if Hochuli could potentially be disciplined, Blandino said there are standard procedures in place if the league wants to investigate, such as checking to see if any players in the vicinity were wearing microphones.

“For his first start, I thought Luke did a really good job”, New Orleans coach Sean Payton said. “God gave me wings to fly”.