The Cam Newton naysayers are out in full force, and they won't be going anywhere for a while.
Did the Panthers quarterback quit on his team late in the fourth quarter of their 24-10 loss in Super Bowl 50 when he could have recovered a fumble? Carolina center Ryan Kalil believes that reasoning is ludicrous.
"Cam's not the quitting type. So this idea or this notion that he quit on us is garbage. I think it's absolute garbage. That's not who he is," Kalil told the Charlotte Observer on Monday.
Before the dissection of the quarterback'spost-gamepress conference, Super Bowl watchers were up in arms with Newton's unwillingness to go after a backbreaking fumble that sealed the fate of the game.
Broncos' players even went as far as saying "Newton tapped out" of the game, per NFL Media columnist Michael Silver.
But Kalil is pointing the blame on the entire Panthers' roster.
"We just didn't play good enough. And as an offensive line group, didn't give him enough confidence to do what he does best," Kalil added. "And really we just didn't get in a rhythm. That's what killed us. Any time we had any kind of momentum, we killed ourselves in penalties and not taking care of the football."
The Panthers played well enough defensively to win the game. Carolina's shortcomings on offense and special teams on Sunday, though, lost them the Super Bowl. Newton is the head of the snake, so the attention will go to him first. However, excluding the defense, the Panthers as a whole played subpar football.
