Third-quarter benching, little help from receivers have Cam Newton 'venting' after loss

FOXBOROUGH – Bill Belichick’s words sounded so familiar. Even in a third straight mind-numbing defeat Monday night, this one to the AFC East champion Buffalo Bills, the coach firmly stood by his man, Cam Newton.

“Cam did a good job for us. I mean, that wasn't the problem,” the coach said in a succinct postgame virtual meeting with the media after the 38-9 defeat assured a losing season for the Patriots. “We didn't have much direction. Just the combination of things. Protection, dropped balls, lack of good execution. We just didn't execute the passing game well, and they played well defensively with their pressure. They covered well.”

To Newton, it seems, those same words rang pretty hollow. It was the first time the first-year Patriot, who likes to ride his Superman schtick, saw his frustration drift into the land of negativity.

The former MVP and top pick overall in 2011 did not take his third-quarter benching well — on the field, or off it. After his benching, Newton spent most of his time down by the linemen near the heater, not actively on the sideline. And after the game, the perfect team guy for this entire, torturous roller-coaster ride let a crack or two slip.

Was Newton, who hit on just 5 of 10 passes for 34 yards before Stidham got the call just one possession into the third quarter, flustered solely by being sent to the sideline prematurely?

Most likely, no. His evening began with a perfectly lofted floater that should have been a 36-yard touchdown, only to have a wide-open Damiere Byrd drop a ball that hit him in stride, in his hands.

Things got progressively worse from there, what with free rushers unleashing heavy shots and rookie tight end Devin Asiasi again failing to register his first pro catch.

“It’s disappointing, but I’m just doing what I’m asked to do, trying to be the best player for this team I can possibly be, and that’s what it is,” Newton said. “It’s nothing that another opposing team is doing, but I’ll be the first to say I need to get better, and it starts with practice.

"... I don’t care about my contract, I just want to win.”

Admittedly, Newton was not the first to bring up his bargain-basement, one-year veteran minimum deal in the postgame. But why did he go back to it, just minutes after dismissing?

An ESPN pregame report had noted Newton’s tireless dedication here at New England, away from his family and waking daily at 4:20, out the door at 4:30 and not stopping until his 11:30 p.m. bedtime.

“It’s been my schedule for 90 percent of the time that I’ve been here, so you can kind of understand the frustration that I do have when I don’t have the outcome, because I’m sacrificing so much,” said Newton. “You’re talking to a person who ain’t seen his kids in three months. Obviously, the contract is what it is.

“Submitting myself to this team is something I’ve been doing since Day 1. Being accessible, and yeah, it’s frustrating. It makes you mad, it makes you angry. Knowing that to be a trusted teammate, you first have to submit to authority and submit to what the coaches are asking you to do. And I feel like I’ve done that. And, I’m not to place the blame. I’m more or less just venting right now, because I’ve sacrificed so much this year. And I mean it hurts when you have an outing that you had tonight and just to go home and then start it over for (another whole) week.”

Physically, Newton is a shadow of the 2015 NFL MVP he was in Carolina. His second-quarter one-hopper down the middle to N’Keal Harry certainly told the Newton story for 2020. He escaped the pocket, slid to the line of scrimmage and unloaded on the run.

It’s a throw that Newton must have clicked on a couple hundred times with the Panthers to Steve Smith or Greg Olsen. But this one to a lonesome Harry skipped off the turf like a Marcus Smart fast-break assist. The mind was there, the execution or ability to execute simply was not.

“It’s extremely frustrating, knowing what you’re capable of, having belief in yourself. But it’s just not showing when it counts the most,” Newton said.

Newton now has 515 passing yards total in the last five games. At one point on Monday night, the passing-yards total was 180 for the Bills and 8 for the Patriots.

The hook in the third certainly was warranted. Even Newton might admit that. Remember, this is a guy who sets the bar high.

“What my standard is for myself is never to just blend in and be the status quo,” he said.

Blending in would have been OK this year. And the sad part about this Patriots season is that Newton is just part of the problem.

What about Stidham, who continues to allow his stock to tumble toward Enron levels without much of a fight? The second-year man out of Auburn went 4 for 11 for 44 yards, and that was the highlight.

The lowlight, had the officials and Bills coach Sean McDermott not already checked out, was an attempted incompletion on a bollixed screen to Harry, in which he actually found a way to throw it backward, making it a fumble. Fortunately, a quick whistle and McDermott’s merciful ways allowed it to be ruled an incompletion.

“I mean, I think for me, at the end of the day, whatever opportunity I’m given, I want to try and make the most of it. Whether that's in the third quarter, the fourth quarter, whenever that is, I need to go out and make the most of it. That's exactly what I'm trying to do,” said Stidham.

With each passing attempt, the wedge grows wider. And for New England football fans, that is not a good thing.

With neither starter Newton nor reliever Stidham able to solve a rather nonplussed Bills defense on Monday night, the Patriots and their followers have bottomed out at the most important position in professional sports.

Rock-bottom.

Celebrate the hometown Pats breaking a 186-minute, 50-second touchdown drought. And then realize that New England continues to sink deeper and deeper behind all three fellow AFC East combatants in the QB spot.

Josh Allen has Buffalo reaching Jim Kelly-esque heights. Rookie Tua Tagovailoa is 6-2 as a starter for a Miami team on the cusp of clinching a playoff spot, one that bilked the Houston Texans out of the No. 3 pick overall in the upcoming draft and looks to be ready for a long run toward the top of the heap. And even the woeful Jets are currently riding a two-game win streak behind Sam Darnold, who when allowed to remain upright in the pocket behind a gross compilation of offensive linemen, appears at the least competent and at the most a potential upper-echelon guy.

New York, locked into the second pick overall, will be so hungry when it hits the Gillette Stadium turf on Sunday. Remember, this is a team that allowed the Patriots to escape with a win back in November.