Cam Newton admitted he needed to vent after Week 16.
Fair enough.
The New England Patriots lost 38-9 against the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium, and Bill Belichick benched Newton in the third quarter after the quarterback completed 50% of his passes for 34 yards. He also had four carries for 24 yards and one touchdown. It was one of his worst performances in a tough 6-9 season for the Patriots — even if Newton has been unconditionally dedicated, with long hours.
During the ESPN broadcast, the production team showed a look a Newton’s schedule, which featured roughly five hours of sleep per night. Newton was asked about that schedule, and reflected upon the rigors of the season.
“That’s been my schedule for 90% of the time I’ve been here. So you can kind of understand the frustration I do have when I don’t have the outcome because I’m sacrificing so much. Talking to a person who ain’t seen his kids in three months,” Newton told reporters after the game on Monday night. “Obviously the contract is what it is. Submitting myself to this team is something I’ve been doing since day one. Being accessible. 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.
“I feel like I have done that. I’m not in the place of blame. I’m more or less venting right now because, yeah, I’ve sacrificed so much this year. I mean, it hurts when you have the outing that you have tonight, just to go home, then start it over for a whole ‘nother week.”
New England has a challenging work environment, with Bill Belichick building intense workloads for players, particularly captains and quarterbacks. Newton has been both in 2020. It must be complicated for a team to work so hard and see their record fall to 6-9 against a division rival in blowout fashion. The only silver lining for Newton is that Belichick defended his quarterback after the game. But even Newton brushed aside his coach’s praise.
“You don’t get pulled out just because you’re having a standup game. I can tell you that,” Newton said. “As a signal caller, as a person who is a dynamic player on this team, I need to impact the game more, and it just didn’t happen tonight.”
Stidham didn’t look any better. He completed 36.4 percent of his passes for 44 yards. New England will have a tough decision to make for Week 17, but more importantly, they’ll have the enormously challenging task of finding a quarterback for 2021. That’s one of the toughest decisions in football.
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