Postgame Transcripts: Week 10 at Arizona

“Happy with the win, I thought that was a total team effort. It took a lot of different guys: defense; special teams; Zane (Panthers K Zane Gonzalez) yet again is someone we can really depend on. Coverage teams – (Panthers LB) Julian Stanford on the opening kickoff and just a really nice job by us. That’s a great football team that we faced. They were down some guys today, but we know they’re going to be back. They’ll probably win their division or be in contention for it. That was a good step for us today, a lot of outstanding contributions. First and foremost, I have to start with (Panthers QB) PJ Walker – I thought he played an excellent football game. Cam (Panthers QB Cam Newton) came in and gave us a lot of nice plays as well. I thought a lot of our playmakers made plays when they had to. Defensively, pretty total defensive effort.”

On the game plan for Panthers QB Cam Newton:

“He came in, he put the work in on Thursday, Friday, Saturday to learn a package – we kind of came up with some things that he knew. He’s a veteran player, so his mind is ‘Hey, on this play – I’ve run this 100 times – and it’s called this now. I think the credit goes to Joe (Panthers Offensive Coordinator Joe Brady) and Sean (Panthers QBs coach Sean Ryan) as well. Cam put the work in with them and there was a good feeling down in that quarterback room.”

On if this was the team’s most complete game in 2021:

“I don’t know, it was more complete than last week – that’s kind of how short my memory is. It was a step forward from last week. I know we’ve had some good moments. I just challenged the team in there: ‘Can we be a team that does this two weeks in a row?’ Or is it going to be up-and-down and up-and-down? Today it was up. Played a good football game, we had a good week of practice. It was a trying week, there was a lot of work being done. I think anytime your backup quarterback (Walker) comes in and plays the way he played, that gives you a chance. A lot of guys rose up around him.”

On what he learned about Newton off the field this week:

“Not much, kind of had a good feel for who he is. Has got a ton of energy, he’s self-less. When PJ would score he was celebrating with him. He’s a total team-guy. He came into my office, and he told me, ‘This is all going to be about winning.’ That’s what it was: winning. I felt like that’s who he was. I’ve seen ‘All or Nothing,’ I’ve watched him on TV, I know that Cam is a competitor. I think the challenge to the rest of our team was: it’s not about one guy, it’s about everybody. Anytime you play defense the way we played it today, you have a pretty good chance. Obviously, we’re excited to have Cam here – don’t get me wrong, we’re excited. I kind of knew he would bring that energy, and he did.”

On the injury status for RB Christian McCaffrey:

“He was buzzed down from the observer up top to check him for a big hit, a concussion. He was fine. Then late once we were up four touchdowns, I didn’t want to get him banged up and I had a lot of confidence in Ameer (Panthers RB Ameer Abdullah). Unfortunately, we had that fumble on the one play, it didn’t look like it was Chuba’s (Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard) fault it looked just like a mishandling of the ball. We were going to let Ameer take it at the end of the game and he made a couple of nice runs to cement it.” 

On whom received game balls:

“Probably not going to do that until tomorrow. Every once in a while, there is an amazing thing and I’ll do it, but usually we’ll sit down as a staff and talk about it and do it tomorrow.”

On the difference in the team’s energy this week:

“It was the same as Atlanta – it’s just like how it felt on the sideline in Atlanta. We’re a team that gets on the road – I think the guys go out and eat together – and we like to battle. How lucky are we to have Panther fans travel the way they did? They traveled to Houston, they certainly traveled to Atlanta, they certainly traveled here. There were a lot of blue jerseys up there which is really cool. That was just what it felt like in Atlanta – Atlanta was a different type of game, but in Atlanta we were all fighting for each other, and we were all fighting for each other today. We’ll have to do that at home, that’s the next big step for us. 

On if Newton may start in Week 11:

“Yeah. I think all of us would say – I know we’ve talked a lot about Cam (Newton), and I get it – but I think a lot of us would say that PJ (Walker) played pretty well today. We brought Cam here to play, there’s no doubt about that – he knows that, and this is an amazing opportunity for PJ I just want to make sure – with everyone asking, ‘Why is he here?’ and ‘Why did you keep him as your backup?’ – that’s why. I have a lot of faith in him. And with Cam, the thing with Cam is everything on the right schedule. A couple of plays – he pulled the trigger on the deep ball today; we threw the sprint out with him – he’ll have to get into it this week and learn more and more and more. I’m not a big hypothetical guy – I’ll walk in tomorrow, and someone’s got a sprained ankle – so I kind of deal with it now. I’m just focused on this game. It was fun to have those guys out there.”

On the defensive performance:

“I thought it was excellent. A couple of mistakes here and there, but any time you get that first turnover –the difference this week was we were able to capitalize on it and get a touchdown – and Donte (Panthers CB Donte Jackson) with the great interception. We gave up a run here and there, but I thought for the most part our guys did an excellent job of not giving up big plays. We had some communication things. It’s a really tough offense, that same offense with Colt (Cardinals QB Colt McCoy) and those guys scored 30-something points last week. Our guys were ready for the challenge. We played a lot of guys that communicated, we got to the quarterback, stopped the run. That was a good game for us. All of that being said, they’re an excellent team and they’re a team that will certainly be a playoff team.”

On using Newton in goal line situations:

“It was just about today for me. Obviously, Cam is a weapon – we’re going to use him a lot of different ways. He did what he did today off two practices, really a day of practice. As we move forward, I hope you guys understand, I’m probably not going to answer many schematic questions – I only have a couple of advantages and that’s one of them. We had two guys (Newton and Walker) that played excellent at that position today, so we’ll mix and match play. It was certainly a jolt in the arm today.” 

On if Newton will start in Week 11:

“I’m not going to say anything about it right now. I’ll talk to you guys about it on Monday. I’m going to enjoy this win.”

On how QB PJ Walker recovered after the interception:

“That play was a nice play by the kid (Cardinals S Jalen Thompson). I thought PJ played really good football today. I thought he protected the ball. Sometimes it’s hard playing quarterback when you have a huge lead because you can’t play super-aggressive. We had a bunch of deep play-actions in the game plan and found out pretty soon that we didn’t quite need them. I thought he managed the game real well.”

On how McCaffrey opens the passing game:

“We just made a commitment this week to utilize Christian in the passing game. We ran some of those same plays with Ameer (Abdullah) and he caught some, too. We just wanted to use the tailbacks. They’re a big, strong, physical defense – we knew they were going to overload the box and we were going to try to utilize our backs to throw the football early. We did a nice job of that … I just want to make sure I clarify this one more time for everybody so that there’s no grey area: I’m not saying anyone is not starting or starting, I’m saying I’m going to get on the bus and enjoy this win. Before the tweets go out – and they probably already went out – I’m not saying anything because even if I knew it – which I probably do in my head what I’m going to do – I’m not going to say it. Probably on Wednesday you guys are going to ask me and I’m going to say, ‘Hey you guys, I’m not sure yet.’ Just so we’re all on the same page, it is what it is. That was fun today, let’s let it be fun.”

On what pleased him most about the team’s performance:

“Just watching guys play defense, watching guys run the football – I think we had 166 yards rushing – watching guys score in the red zone. It was just good football all the way around. There was a lot of great football by a lot of different guys. At the end of the day, we just asked every guy to play their best football – because every guy is enough – and we would have a total team-win, and that’s what it was.” 

On Offensive Coordinator Joe Brady’s game plan:

“I think there’s been a couple of times where I’ve said, ‘Hey, we want to run the ball more,’ but pretty consistently when you guys ask me about Joe (Brady) I’ve said, ‘Hey, I think he’s calling pretty good games.’ I watch the tape and I see guys open, and it’s just been bad protection here or – I think you saw today – there were a lot of guys open, and we made a lot of plays. Robby (Panthers WR Robby Anderson) made a lot of big catches, which we needed. DJ (Panthers WR DJ Moore) made a big catch. I thought it was another well-called game by Joe.”

On the offensive line’s performance:

“166 yards rushing and no sacks, to me that’s part of the narrative. Those guys went out there and they did an excellent job of protecting. That’s the number four-ranked defense that we faced out there today. That’s (Cardinals S) Budda Baker, that’s (Cardinals LB) Chandler Jones. (Panthers WR) Dennis Daley went down, (Panthers T) Brady Christensen stepped into the game, (Panthers T) Trent Scott. If you look at the starting line-up, four guys were starting who weren’t starting four or five weeks ago. That’s an excellent job by (Panthers O-line coach) Pat Meyer, but more importantly by those guys. (Panthers G) Pat Elflein stepping in at center, there were some good things there.”