Cam Newton & Panthers Defense Embarrass New York Giants

The Panthers came into Sunday's match up with the Giants looking to exercise some of last seasons demons as they were embarrassed in front of a national audience in 36-7 blowout on their home turf at Bank Of America Stadium. Well at the end of Sundays game they exercised those demons and handed the Giants their worst loss in the Tom Coughlin era as Cam Newton and company dismantled New York 38-0.

Defense Sets The Tone

Panthers Defensive End Greg Hardy

Early on in the game the Panthers front 7 made their presence felt as they caused problems for Eli Manning giving him little to no time to establish any rhythm on offense. Manning on the day was sacked 7 times for 45 yards with a dismal QB rating of 11.4. The Giants had a incredibly tough time sustaining any type of offense as they went 3-12 in 3^rd down situations.

“We had to find a way to slow down the pass rush, whether running the ball with screens and getting the ball out quicker”. A huge reason the Giants offensive rhythm was disrupted is because of #76 Greg Hardy who had 8 tackles and 3 sacks on the day. Hardy had his breakout season last year as he collected 11 Sacks and 2 forced fumbles. He has had a slow start so far this season but today along with Cam Newton he defiantly broke out and the team was obviously better because of it.

Cam Gets It Together

Cam Newton took the most criticism last year for the Panthers Thursday night debacle to the Giants as he celebrated scoring a touch down while his team was down by more then 2 touchdowns. Sunday he looked like the guy every single football expert expects him to be as he threw for 223 yards, 3 Touchdowns while rushing for 1 as well. He did throw an early interception to Aaron Ross but after that he shook it off and earned the most important win in his career to date.

Newton did an exceptional job at distributing the football to his receivers as 4 of his wide outs had at least 3 receptions with 40+ yards. The balanced distribution between his receivers mixed with Deangelo Williams 120 yard performance made for an explosive day for the Panther offense. Couldn't have scripted a better performance for Cam and the offense.

Ginn Shines In Win

When Ginn was picked up in the off season by Carolina many experts thought that it would only be in a special teams role but today he showed that he can offer much more then just a few explosive punt returns every year. Ginn lead all Panthers wide outs with 3 receptions 71 yards and a touchdown. The highlight was a 47 yard touchdown over the middle where he displayed his speed blowing by the Giants secondary in an instant.

It was Ginn 2^nd touchdown this season and he has been earning more reps in the offense since the season started. Ginn is slowly but surely proving all of his former employers that he is more then just a return man. It's been a solid 3 weeks so far for the former Ohio State star but lets see how long he can keep this up.

The Panthers have a bye week next week and don't return to action until week 5 vs Arizona.