Cam Newton And Panthers Shut Down By Giants In 36-7 Loss

Cam Newton might have had things all his own way against the New Orleans Saints, but the New York Giants proved a different proposition on Thursday night. Newton and the Carolina Panthers crumbled to a 36-7 home defeat with the Panthers offense wilting in the face of the Giants’ mighty front-four pass rush.

With the Giants defense stifling Newton, the reigning Super Bowl champions sped to a lead of 23-0. The Panthers only avoided a shutout when Newton himself rushed a one-yard touchdown run with 6:25 left of the third quarter.

Cam Newton insisted the team’s offensive failures were related to “nothing the Giants did,” but it was hard to agree with that verdict, especially with the young quarterback being restricted to just six yards of rushing. Even Panthers coach Ron Rivera knew that the Giants’ defensive front was mostly responsible for the defeat and later told reporters:

“[The Giants] did a nice job of mixing it up and moving things around. Unless you slow them down some, bad things are going to happen.”

For the Giants, Andre Brown ran for two touchdowns, and Lawrence Tynes kicked five field goals of 27, 30, 36, 47, and 49 yards. The rout started early with Eli Manning lobbing a 14-yard touchdown pass to Martellus Bennett only 3:22 into the game. From that position, the Giants didn’t look back.

The result in North Carolina means New York go to 2-1, while the Panthers fall to 1-2. The game kicked off Week 3 of the NFL season with the following encounters still to take place:

Buccaneers at Cowboys
Jaguars at Colts
Bills at Browns
Jets at Dolphins
Chiefs at Saints
Bengals at Redskins
Rams at Bears
49ers at Vikings
Lions at Titans
Falcons at Chargers
Eagles at Cardinals
Steelers at Raiders
Texans at Broncos
Patriots at Ravens
Packers at Seahawks