Cam Newton was the best offensive player in Super Bowl 50

Drops and Contested Catches

The success of the passing game relies on coordination between the quarterback and his wide receivers. On some plays, either the offense’s scheme or the receiver’s route was good enough that the player got wide open. In those cases, the responsibility is on the QB to find that open receiver and throw an accurate pass so he can catch it and have potential to run after the catch. However, in some cases the QB doesn’t have a wide open option. On those plays, it instead becomes the QB’s responsibility to make a throw that the receiver has a good chance at catching, and then it’s on the WR to win the contested catch situation. The Broncos are a team that is good in all phases of their defense, and that includes a group of very good man-to-man corners. Against these types of players, QBs need to “throw receivers open,” but receivers also need to make difficult catches. The Panthers’ receivers were very bad in contested catch situations in the Super Bowl, to the detriment of their team. Similarly, the Panthers were plagued by drops. The Panthers had 11 passes where receivers failed to make a contested catch or dropped the ball. That’s an unacceptably high number for a team in the Super Bowl. Cam does get some of the blame for that, which will be outlined below:

3-8-CAR 21 (Q1, 9:50) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass short right to 88-G.Olsen to CAR 28 for 7 yards (21-A.Talib). Officials to measure for 1st down - short. Caught at CAR 28. 0-yds YAC

A lot of the time teams will run a route just short of the the sticks on 3rd down and rely on the receiver’s ability to stretch out and get the first down. That’s what happens here, as nothing is open on the top of the screen and Newton chooses to throw to Greg Olsen. The problem is Aqib Talib is totally blanketing Olsen, and while he makes the catch, Talib stops him from extending for the first down. This is good defense, but it’s also a failure that isn’t Cam’s fault because he gave his player a chance here.

1-10-CAR 15 (Q1, 7:23) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete deep middle to 82-J.Cotchery (26-D.Stewart). Carolina challenged the incomplete pass ruling, and the play was Upheld. The ruling on the field stands. (Timeout #1 at 07:16.)

This is the controversial incompletion that was challenged. Whether or not it was actually a catch is debatable, but Cotchery could have put away any doubt if he had secured the ball on his first attempt instead of bobbling it. It’s not the easiest catch to make, but Cam put the ball in a position where an NFL receiver should have been able to make the catch.

3-4-DEN 49 (Q1, 3:23) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete short middle to 82-J.Cotchery (29-B.Roby).

Another throw to Cotchery. Bradley Roby makes a nice break on the ball, but he doesn’t actually touch it (which is clearly in the broadcast replay angle). He does, however, succeed in distracting Cotchery, who cannot reel the pass in. Cotchery could have done a better job of shielding the ball with his body here. On 3rd and 4 near the sticks, you’re going to need to catch passes in tight situations. Cotchery couldn’t come through.

3-12-CAR 47 (Q2, 9:31) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete short middle to 88-G.Olsen (26-D.Stewart).

This is similar to the play before, but Cam deserves the brunt of the blame on this play instead. On the previous play, Cotchery is drifting towards the ball at a pretty constant rate. Here, Cam’s throw (had Stewart not knocked the pass away) would have actually forced Olsen to stop. In this situation, where Cam knew that the defensive backs were breaking hard on these curl routes, he should have led Olsen away from Stewart. Now, TJ Ward is waiting on the other side, so it’s a very tight window, but Cam could have made a better throw here.

1-10-CAR 20 (Q2, 6:58) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete short left to 28-J.Stewart.

This isn’t a perfect throw from Cam, but his offensive linemen are quickly getting pushed back in his face and the pass hits Stewart in both hands. It’s not perfect placement but Stewart needs to make this catch.

3-10-CAR 39 (Q2, 3:33) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete deep middle to 10-C.Brown (29-B.Roby).

Once again, Cam didn’t quite have perfect placement on the ball, and forced Brown to extend. Still, the ball hit Brown in the hands and Brown couldn’t reel it in immediately. This double catch allowed Roby to knock the ball away. Both Brown and Cam deserve some blame here.

1-10-CAR 41 (Q2, :52) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete short right to 10-C.Brown (21-A.Talib).

This is a slant and Cam gets hit as he throws. On slants, the WR needs to beat the corner and out-muscle him for the catch. Brown didn’t do that, and the blame for the incompletion lies on him.

2-11-DEN 26 (Q3, 11:07) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete deep right to 82-J.Cotchery (58-V.Miller).

Von Miller deserves props for his work on this play, but a WR should not allow an edge rusher to knock the ball out of his grasp. This is a great throw by Cam and he needs to make this catch.

2-10-DEN 28 (Q3, 5:57) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass deep middle intended for 19-T.Ginn INTERCEPTED by 43-T.Ward at DEN 10. 43-T.Ward to DEN 14 for 4 yards (35-M.Tolbert). FUMBLES (35-M.Tolbert), recovered by DEN-59-D.Trevathan at DEN 7. 59-D.Trevathan to DEN 7 for no gain (19-T.Ginn). T.Ward credited with interception return of -3 yards.

This pass hit Ted Ginn Jr. in the hands and it should not have turned into an interception. Talib is on Ginn like glue, but Cam did a fine job here and his receiver failed him again.

3-9-DEN 21 (Q4, 10:31) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete short left to 19-T.Ginn (29-B.Roby).

This is an excellent throw from Cam. When you’re a QB trying to throw to a receiver in a contested catch situation, you want to throw it to the area where he can use his body to shield the ball from the defender. In this case, that’s Ginn’s back shoulder, which is exactly where Cam puts the ball. Once again, a DB is on Ginn like glue, and he can’t reel in the catch.

1-10-CAR 20 (Q4, 3:08) (Shotgun) 1-C.Newton pass incomplete deep middle to 17-D.Funchess (21-A.Talib).

This is the last drive where the Broncos had a chance. Cam tries to force the ball into a really tight window, and Talib knocks it away. This throw didn’t have much of a chance at being successful because of the window Cam needed to throw it into, so I’d put most of the blame on Cam.

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Ultimately, how much you want to blame Cam for these plays depends on how much you want to nitpick his ball placement. It wasn’t perfect on all of them, but it was also pretty good for the most part. He gave his receiver a chance to win on most of the plays above. There are a couple plays where Cam’s throw is more at fault than the receiver, and almost all of the play above involve some really good coverage, but at some point one or more of Cam’s receivers needed to step up and make a few difficult catches to keep drives alive, and that didn’t really happen.

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