Not every hit Cam Newton takes warrants a flag, and the sack he took from Rams outside linebacker Mark Barron in the third quarter of Sunday’s game was brutal. The referees seemed to think it was also totally legal, and it looked that way from the broadcast. But another angle makes it look like the refs missed the call.
This hit on Cam Newton didn’t get flagged by referees. Should it have been?
It was a punishing hit that looked perfectly legal at first, but a different angle makes it hard to tell.
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
Here’s the hit as it was shown live on the game broadcast.
According to the angle shown on television, Barron led with the shoulder and didn’t make contact with Newton’s head or neck. Viewed from another angle, it looks like Barron did hit Cam’s head.
It looks like Barron’s head made contact in this one too, but it’s harder to tell.
From behind, it doesn’t look like an illegal hit at all. That’s also where the referee would have been standing.
Though many hits on Newton this season have been questionable, and the league has acknowledged some missed calls by officials. Initially, it didn’t look like this one fit into that category.
Following the Panthers’ Week 8 matchup against Arizona, Newton said he didn’t feel protected by the referees, and specifically pointed to a low hit by Cardinals defensive lineman Calais Campbell as his “breaking point.”
“It’s taking the fun out of the game for me,” Newton said after the game.
Newton later discussed the matter with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and Panthers head coach Ron Rivera and GM Dave Gettleman both addressed the matter with the league office.
Campbell was fined $18,000 for the hit.
After the Rams game, Rivera said there was one unflagged hit on Newton that bothered him:
Rivera didn’t say which one it was, though.
If it was the Barron hit, we could be hearing a lot more about it this week when the NFL has a chance to weigh in.
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