FLOWERY BRANCH – Carolina quarterback Cam Newton, who's set to face the Falcons at 1p.m. Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday.
He’s guided the Panthers, the defending NFC South champs, to a 3-6-1 record. He’s won his past three starts against the Falcons. In six games against the Falcons, the former Heisman Trophy winner from Auburn and Westlake High has thrown nine touchdown passes and rushed for four more scores.
Here’s what he had to say:
Q: How can the Panthers get things turned around offensively?
A: Controlling the ball is very (important) for us. …We are just trying to control the things that we can. One thing right now is we're trying to put back-to-back good practices together. That' can start carrying over to game time.
Q: What do you see in the Falcons’ defense?
A: They are a very talented group. They have a lot of young guys, but that doesn't take anything away from those guys being talented. They can play. One thing that sticks out is the aggressive play by their cornerbacks. They are very aggressive, but smart at the same time.
Q: What do you thinks of the pass rushers?
A: Those guys are great at what they do. Osi has been doing it for so long as well as Biermann. We have to be aware of those guys and hopefully we will. Not hopefully, we will. We'll just be ready to go on Sunday.
Q: How are your running backs playing?
A: We just need to have a great team game. That's been our problem these past couple of weeks. We haven't been playing great team ball. It's going to be something that we are trying to stress this week. When the defense is playing well, we have to make sure that things are firing on all cylinders on the offensive side of the ball and vice versa. If we do that we'll put ourselves in a great position to win.
Q: How is rookie wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin been playing?
A: He's been great. For him, it's still a learning process since we've dumped so much into him. …Sometimes, it sticks out that he's still a rookie. He knows that he has to get better and understand what we are trying to do and what defenses are trying to do to him. As soon as he gets to a level to where he's playing great . . .when he's plays great, the offense does pretty well.
Q: Are you OK health wise?
A: Well, I think I should be ready to go come Sunday.
FALCONS FAN MAILBAG: We take your questions from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Friday.
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