Well, it's power play of the week time again, after another depressing loss. This week we're looking at the Cam Newton 25 yard run on 3rd and 9. You may realise that this was only the 3rd play of the game, however, I felt it set the tone for the day. We couldn't stop Newton, and the defense just couldn't get off the field when they got in position to do so. If any Panthers fans are reading (I know a few have been checking in from the Panthers site), you're going to enjoy this, Redskins fans, you might want to skip a few of these pictures.
Newton is looking to hit the WR at the top of the picture (circled in red) but the initial push from Adam Carriker (who's made up for the injury to Jarvis Jenkins pretty well) is enough to force Newton back and off his timing.
Stephen Bowen takes over from Carriker up the middle and forces Newton to scramble.
Here's the first (of many to come) bad part of this play. Kevin Barnes throws himself at Newton's feet to try and tackle him. You can't just throw yourself at the feet of a guy like Newton, he's much too good for that and avoids it.
Carolina's Oline does a really nice job recovering and adjusting to the play. They get two nice blocks off here that allow Newton to cut back inside.
Newton wrong foots the defender here (I couldn't make out who it was) by faking to go back outside, and then carrying on back towards the middle of the field.
By this time, the DB's in coverage have realised that Newton has started to scramble, and come up to try and make a play. DeAngelo Hall comes at him with speed, but Newton shows off the athleticism that helped him become the number 1 overall pick in this years draft (amongst other things). He sticks his foot in the ground to cut back on Hall, using his arm to help shove Hall past him.
Hall try's to grab at his knee's and trip him up, but Newton manages to maintain balance and continue towards the first down marker and beyond.
Yet another Redskins player diving at his feet. Newton once again avoids the tackle, and is off to the races up the sideline.
Newton eventually steps out of bounds before a Redskins player can get a hit on him, and shows Mike Shanahan exactly what franchise QB looks like.
As I said, this may have only been the 3rd play of the game, but it set the tone for the whole day. The defense just couldn't come up with a way to get off the field consistently. When we managed to actually stop the run and the pass, Newton would do things like this and keep the drive going, and we had no answers to it.