Sports Betting Blog

The New Orleans Saints are looking strong towards the end of the season. The squad is motivated and they knew very well what it takes to make it into the Super Bowl and come out with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. In its core, this is still the same team that was guided by Drew Brees and Co. to the XLIV Super Bowl Championship ring in 2009. The Saints have won their last 8 straight games, and despite running the chance of injury, they finished the regular season without mercy and just proving that their offensive lineup is as frightening and effective as any other squad in the team, including Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.

The Saints are doing things so well this season under head coach Sean Peyton’s orders that they finished off with a 45-17 blowout of Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Sure enough, Cam Newton might finish of his first year of his pro career with the rookie MVP award, but on Sunday, it would be up to Drew Brees to show the youngster how the pros do it. On the one hand we have to recognize that this was quite a risky move for Peyton. Winning or losing against the Panthers wouldn’t have really changed much for his playoffs plans, but on the other hand, he knew that there was just a bit too much at stake just to let the bench play this one out.

In the 2010-09 season, coach Peyton opted to rest his starters on the last stretch of the 16-game stretch. He wanted to prevent injuries and rest his players. This time around, he wants to give his players a motivational boost: so he keep his starters out to finish off the Panthers and finish the season breaking all sorts of records for the franchise and the league. Check it out: the Saints broke the NFL single-season records in the following categories: season total offensive yards with 7,474; team total yards passing with 5,347 and first downs with 416.

Brees also collected some good records for his own career. Brees, who was 28 of 35, finished with a record 468 completions this season, breaking Peyton Manning’s 2010 mark of 450. He finished the season completing 71.6 percent of his passes, breaking his own 2009 NFL record 70.6 completion percentage. But perhaps the most significant record is the one he battled out against Tom Brady this same season: Most Pass Yards in a single season. For almost 30 years, Dan Marino had held the record with 5,084 total yards back in 1984. At the end, 2011 would be the year when both Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Drew Brees of the Saints would break that record. Brady finished the season with 5,235 yards, but he wasn’t able to catch up to Brees who finished off the regular season with a whopping 5,476 passing yards.

We need to give the Carolina Panthers a little credit. Cam Newton and Co. had managed to win four of their last five games, and even managed to keep up against the Saints for the better part of the first half.  But there was simply no stopping the Saints in the final two quarters. How is this for building up momentum before the postseason: the Saints set a franchise single-game record with 617 yards of total offense on Sunday.

As it is usually the case when a new talented player hits the No. 1 draft pick, many fans and reporters alike begin to wonder if he’s really as good as many say. Truth is that this critics do have a good point, it is not every season that the No. 1 pick in the draft goes on to become a successful NFL player. Because the bottom line is this simple: success in NCAA football is by no means a warranty nor is it an omen of a promising future among the pros. So when Cam Newton came in with the Carolina Panthers and made his first few throws as a pro, many of his critics didn’t believe he had what it takes to become a top-notch quarterback in the NFL. Towards the end of his first season, and despite the unsuccessful 6-9 season record for the Carolina Panthers, many are starting to believe.

If the Panthers are going to be finishing this year with a negative record it’s not because of the lack of talent or determination from their starting quarterback, but because it takes more than just one motivated player to get things moving in an NFL team. One thing is for certain, Cam Newton is having a great season. He has now worked his way into the list of the first five NFL players to reach 20 or more touchdown passes in their rookie year behind Peyton Manning, Charlie Connerly and tied with Andy Dalton and Dan Marino. And as if that was not enough, he has just recently surpassed Peyton Manning as the rookie with more yards passing in his rookie season.

In his latest game Newton set a franchise record with a 91-yard touchdown beautiful pass to Brandon LaFell in the second quarter as the Carolina Panthers handed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers their ninth straight defeat, 48-16 on Saturday. Newton finished the night with 12 of 17 passing for 171 yards with 3 touchdown passes and no interceptions. Just to prove that he is certainly an all around player capable of phenomenal passing but great mobility and speed, he also ran for a 49-yard touchdown down the middle, outracing the Bucs defense for a score.

The Carolina Panthers have now won 4 of their last 5 games and although they still have no real chances of making it into the postseason, overall we could say that this has been a good season for a team that is yet to really take advantage of the possibilities that Newton is bringing to the squad. Newton has accounted for 34 touchdowns on the season. And just to make things better for the franchise, he has managed to keep the Panther playing well down the stretch.

The Carolina Panthers managed to score on eight of their first nine possessions and piled up 397 yards in three quarters against the league’s 30th-ranked defense. Newton entered the game needing 18 yards passing to break Manning’s rookie record of 3,739. It seems that he has really figured out how to defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Newton scored eight touchdowns in two games against Tampa Bay this season. Four passing and four rushing: not a bad mark, considering his team scored 79 points against the Bucs this season.

Cam Newton had a record breaking debut last week against the Arizona Cardinals, throwing for 422 yards, the most by a rookie in his professional debut. The Carolina Panthers didn’t manage to win the game, they were ousted in the last play of the game, but sure enough, fans at Carolina were extremely excited to have Newton play at home. The fans were excited, the stakes were high, the Panther were playing at home against the defending champions.

On the one hand, everybody wanted to know if Cam Newton’s debut was a sign of great things to come, or if he simply had first-timer’s luck. Either way, Sunday at the Bank of America Stadium, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Panthers fans were hoping for Newton to pull off something just shy of a miracle: lead a team that only won 2 games last season to a win against the defending champions on its second game of the year. On the other hand, Cam Newton needed not only to have a brilliant game with plenty of yards; he also needed to get a win for the Panthers.

At the end, Aaron Rodgers and the Super Bowl winning Green Bay Packers were going to rely on their top-notch offense to set thing up for the win, but as far as we can tell, it really seems that Newton is getting a hold of the game and soon enough, the first wins are going to come. On his second game as a professional National Football League quarterback, Newton passed for one touchdown and also ran for a 4-yard score with 37 seconds left to bring Carolina (0-2) within seven points. At the end the Packers (2-0) recovered the onside kick and sealed the victory on the road.

Rodgers threw for 308 yards and two scores. Despite his great effort, Cam Newton couldn’t get his teammates to back him up a bit, and the win just didn’t come. Newton finished the game with a whopping 432 yards coming from 28 of 46 passing for 1 touchdown and three interceptions. The thing here is that for the Panthers to really get their momentum going and take advantage of the talented quarterback they’ve got, the Panthers need to build a strong supporting cast around Newton. It’s going to be a long-long way to a winning season if not only is Cam Newton hitting 400+ yards a week, but he is also the Panthers’ leading rusher. I mean, knowing that in 10 carries he ran for 53 yards and one touchdown is certainly a clear proof of his athleticisms, but it also reflects how little is coming from everybody else in the Panthers.

In the Press conference, the Panthers head coach, Ron Rivera aknowledge that Newton wasn’t perfect, but he was getting the job done. “This is a rookie quarterback that’s learning and growing and getting better each opportunity he gets. When we go back and really get to watch the tape, we’ll see he missed a read here, he missed a throw here, but for the most part, he handled himself with the type of poise and composure you would not expect.” Now all he needs is to get the rest of his team to chip in a little, and the Panthers could start brining in the positive results.

This off-season hasn’t been the most favorable in commissioner Roger Goodell’s career. Despite all the negotiations and the lock-down from the NFL in the league’s labor dispute between the league, teams and players, the only thing that was remotely predictable about this preseason was that Cam Newton would be the No. 1 pick.

Yes, there will always be controversy, whether this was the best pick, but before we even go on about the Panthers decision, we rather give him some time to see how he is going to do once he has to play with the big boys. Because let’s face it, Cam Newton was quite a phenomenal asset with the Auburn Tigers. Not only did he guide the team to a perfect season, he also secured the team’s National Championship. On the personal note, Newton received the SEC offensive player of the year award as well as the AP Player of the Year and tipped it off with the 2010 Heisman Trophy which he won by a big margin. On the Championship Game against the Oregon Ducks, Newton threw for 262 yards 2 touchdowns and one interception. So, yes, he really seems to have exactly what it takes to have success with the pros.

And yet, one can’t help to realize that winning on Saturdays is not quite like winning on Sundays and Monday nights. Truth is that college success is in no way an equivalent of success when it comes to playing in the NFL. Now, he is a talented quarterback, but can he really make that much of a difference in a team that finished with a 2-14 record last season. Yes, the Panthers won 2 games all season long. It’s not like I’m much of an expert but even Brett Favre during his peak would have had trouble shinning in those conditions. The only thing we know is that we are going to have to wait until the season kicks in (if it does kick-in, after all the lock-downs and failed negotiations) to see what the Panthers do with Newton’s talent.