Newton keeps Panthers perfect with comeback win over Saints

– NFC West leader Arizona is 10-2 after whacking St. Louis, 27-3.

Newton’s receivers weren’t doing him any favors early in the game-Panthers wideouts finished the first half with three catches for six yards-so Newton found other ways to keep the Panthers in it. There was the 12-yard touchdown pass to fullback Mike Tolbert (followed by Tolbert’s delightfully awkward interpretation of the Carlton Dance from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”), and the Jonathan Stewart five-yard touchdown run with 1:55 left in the first half.

The Saints’ slump extended to when they scored only one touchdown in the second half of a 34-28 overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans, which followed a 47-13 loss at Washington that stood as the most lopsided defeat in the Sean Payton/Brees era.

AN NFL FIRST: Saints linebacker Stephone Anthony was already having a good game when he did something never before seen in the NFL.

The play was part of a breakout game for Anthony, a rookie from Clemson whom the Saints drafted in the first round last April. “I’m extremely blessed and I don’t take it for granted”. “I consider myself blessed and fortunate to have been able to play in the National Football League for 12 years”.

“We have to tighten up on defense because that wasn’t good enough”, linebacker Luke Kuechly said.

“It sucks”, Ingram said.

COUGHLIN’S CHOICE: In the latest example of the New York Giants’ apparent attempt to do everything in their power to give away the NFC East, coach Tom Coughlin went for it on fourth-and-2 from the 4 with a 10-point lead against the Jets with under 9 minutes left. 500 (at 4-4), had a chance to do what we wanted to do, and we just haven’t gotten it done in the past four weeks.

We have rules here…game balls only go to winners, a wise but somewhat ordinary coach once said, “You play to win the game”, that’s exactly how we feel Herm, no win, no game ball. “The corner he played against, Josh Norman, is fantastic, so we tried to move him around to free him up a little bit, and we had some success”, said QB Drew Brees. “(Our execution) is better, but it’s not where we need to be, and it’s not where I know we can be”. But you can’t play teams that aren’t on your schedule and Newton’s low passer rating might be a scary sign for the future, but it hasn’t affected the final outcome. They hit Newton continuously.

The Panthers had help throughout the game from the Saints defense.

“You always want to take care of your own busiensss, ” Cotchery said. “This whole game was on us”. It’s the first time the Pats have lost back-to-back regular season games since 2012. Again, that’s on us. “We are playing well and, obviously, we are already short one corner, but that’s how it is”, Payton said. This was a wakeup call for us. “A lot of great things, a lot of great flashes, (but) that’s been the plague of this season, a lot of great flashes and there are still a lot of things we don’t capitalize on”.

On fourth-and-4 on what was the Panthers’ game-winning drive, Newton rolled out to the left sideline and lofted a pass toward Olsen before getting crushed.

That wasn’t the last of the punch, counterpunch.

Alex Smith threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third score and Maclin had 95 yards on nine catches to lead the Chiefs. Midway through the first quarter, the Saints got the scoring started with a 14-yard strike from Drew Brees to Benjamin Watson. On the Panthers’ game-winning drive, Ted Ginn Jr. dropped a ideal deep ball from Newton that should have been an easy 57-yard touchdown.

Cincinnati closed in on the AFC North title with a 37-3 win at a woeful Cleveland which has lost seven straight. I understand and I know that. “Let’s just put the record aside for a moment”.