The Good: Cam Newton throws for 422 yards.
What a performance by Cam Newton in his first start. I am not ready to stamp him as a franchise quarterback, since we all knew the kid has a ton of potential. He will have to prove himself against better competition, but considering everyone was expecting the Cardinals defense to have a field day against him, this was one heck of a performance. The biggest surprise was the Panthers inability to run the football, which makes Newton’s 400 yard passing performance even more impressive. I am not sold on Newton yet, but this provides a lot of hope for a team that had none last season.
The Bad: Just about every teams’ special teams.
Remember when everyone thought the new kickoff rules would limit the number of kickoff returns for touchdowns? That didn’t really pan out this week. Three kickoffs were returned for touchdowns, which was part of a record setting week that saw 8 returns for touchdowns. That doesn’t even include the numerous blocked kicks and punts we saw this week. A lot of special team players are running sprints as we speak as punishment for their horrible performances in week 1.
The Ugly: Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers’ performance.
I do not think Ben Roethlisberger has ever had a worse performance than he did against the Ravens this week. After looking so strong in the preseason, he looked completely lost in this game and seemed to have forgotten how to play the quarterback position all together. You have to give the Ravens defense a lot of credit for an amazing game plan against all of the Steelers weapons, including Rashard Mendenhall who could not find a running lane all night long. This is the worst the Steelers have played in a very long time.
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