Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is lucky he escaped Friday night’s game against the New England Patriots with only a black eye.
Newton took a scary-looking tumble during the first quarter of the game when he tried to run for a first down. He ended up getting hit low, flipping on top of his head before having the ball pop out on a fumble (watch here). He was immediately attended to by trainers on the sideline and evaluated for a concussion, but thankfully he was okay and did come back into the game.
Afterward, Newton had a funny take about his too-close-for-comfort near miss.
“It could have been better…. There were a lot of malfunctionings going on from the cockpit. Buttons was getting stuck. Oh my goodness. It was bad. It was real bad,” Newton said, per Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer.
He also explained that his black eye was due to his helmet coming down on his eye, which makes sense when you go back and watch the play.
Friday night’s action was almost certainly the last we’ll see of Newton this preseason. And, based on the way his injury-riddled offensive line has performed, that’s a good thing.
The real good news, aside from the fact that Newton didn’t suffer a bad injury against the Patriots, is that he seems to be taking to Norv Turner’s system pretty well. He completed 68.4 percent of his passes this preseason, which is very high compared to his career average of 58.5.
Now Cam Newton will have a couple of weeks to ice up and get ready for when the games actually matter.