TAMPA, Fla. - Cam Newton is playing some of the best football of his three-year NFL career, and the surging Carolina Panthers are back over .500 for the first time in five years.
An efficient Newton threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score Thursday night to pace a 31-13 victory over the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Panthers (4-3) won for the fourth time in five games after an 0-2 start. They’ve won three in a row, with Newton throwing for 667 yards, six TDs and no interceptions.
The Bucs (0-7), one of two NFL teams yet to win, have dropped the first seven games in a season for the seventh time in franchise history. They’ve lost 12 of 13 dating to last year, and some fans showed up at Raymond James Stadium carrying signs and wearing paper bags over their heads urging that second-year coach Greg Schianobe fired.
Newton, the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner from Auburn, set the tone for another efficient performance, going 7 of 8 for 57 yards on Carolina’s opening drive and finishing the nearly 9-minute, 15-play, 70-yard march with a 1-yard TD pass to tight end Greg Olsen.
Newton added a 3-yarder to Mike Tolbert on the first play of the fourth quarter for a 28-6 lead. Newton had his way against the Bucs in between those scores, too, setting up a nifty 12-yard TD run by DeAngelo Williams (Wynne) and getting into the end zone himself with a 6-yard run midway through the third quarter.
Sports, Pages 23 on 10/25/2013