Cam Newton does just enough against Eagles' defense

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - When the Eagles played the Carolina Panthers last season, and beat them handily, Cam Newton was a frozen husk of the quarterback he can be. He had undergone ankle surgery during the spring of 2014, and the rehabilitation and recovery had left him stationary, had confined him to the pocket, and the Eagles took advantage of their good fortune. They sacked him nine times, intercepted him three times, and won by 24 points.

That Cam Newton did not show up to Bank of America Stadium on Sunday night, as glad as the Eagles would have been to see him. This time, Newton was healthy. He was mobile. He was dynamic. And though he again threw three interceptions, he justified the attention that the Eagles had planned all week to pay him, making enough big plays for the Panthers to win, 27-16, influencing the Eagles' defense on every Carolina offensive snap.

Newton threw for just 197 yards and ran for just 20, and two of his interceptions led to six points for the Eagles. But he rushed for one touchdown and threw for another, and his mere presence and playmaking ability were enough to keep the Eagles' defense off balance for much of the night. Throughout the week ahead of the game, the Eagles had emphasized the need to keep Newton pinned in the pocket if they could, to turn him into a standstill passer. It was no coincidence, then, that the Eagles' three interceptions Sunday - by Nolan Carroll, Malcolm Jenkins, and Byron Maxwell - came on straight-drop pass plays.

"But the athleticism kicks in," Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis said last week, "and it's about a bunch of effort trying to get him and taking good angles. Athletes like that make their plays, and we have to keep it to a minimum."

There was more to Newton's impact Sunday night that his athleticism, though there were moments when his considerable strength and speed were apparent and important. Twice, the Eagles came close to forcing Newton to fumble but couldn't knock the football out of the viselike grip of his right hand. Similarly, after back-to-back encroachment penalties by nose tackle Bennie Logan advanced the line of scrimmage to the Eagles' 2-yard line, Newton gave the Panthers a 14-3 late in the second quarter by carrying off left tackle, keeping the ball in his right hand, and stretching it across the goal line.

Later, in the fourth quarter, Newton rushed up the middle of the Eagles' defense for a 16-yard gain as part of a drive that led to a field goal, breaking free and rumbling toward Eagles safety Walter Thurmond. Thurmond is 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds; Newton is 6-foot-5 and 245. It was, needless to say, a bit of a mismatch.

But the Eagles had problems both apart from and linked to Newton and the need to guard against what he could do. The Panthers pounded them for 204 rushing yards - "We didn't do a good job holding up," Davis said - and gashed them for seven plays that gained at least 20 yards. And no play better illustrated the effect of a quarterback such as Newton - the kind of mobile, big-armed quarterback that Chip Kelly just can't seem to find for his own offense - than a key moment Sunday. And Newton was involved only as a decoy.

From the Panthers' 49, Newton took the snap and rolled to his right, and the Eagles' defense moved like an amoeba with him, as if he were Justin Bieber and the 11 Eagles on the field were all lifelong US Weekly subscribers. Except Newton then flipped the ball to wide receiver Ted Ginn on a reverse, and when Marcus Smith (yes, he was on the field) failed to establish and maintain the backside edge, Ginn zoomed 43 yards down the empty left side of the field to the Eagles' 8-yard line. Two plays and those two Logan penalties later, Newton scored.

"Cam has a lot of athletic ability, and it does pose a lot of challenges," Thurmond said last week. "You rely on your defensive line to get after the quarterback and make him throw from a tight pocket and, on the back end, playing tight coverage and make hard throws for him. We all work hand in hand. . . . Everyone's on a string, you know?"

The Eagles did all they could Sunday night to keep that string from breaking, and if their receivers hadn't dropped so many passes, if their offense were just a little more competent, the defense's effort might have been enough. It wasn't. This was a different Cam Newton from last year's, and over those few big plays, with the way he can occupy a defense's every instinct and action, he demonstrated what he can do this year, and what the Eagles can't.

msielski@phillynews.com

@MikeSielski