Cam Newton has a very fragile ego, and Jameis Winston has a fragile shoulder. We need to decide which one of those things we are willing to bet on, and I believe that it should be the shoulder of Jameis Winston. If nothing else, he can focus. That will make him a little bit more dangerous against the Panthers, and I think that Cam Newton is not able to focus unless he is having a 100 percent good day. We know that he has been miserable the last few days, and that will make it hard for him to perform.
What about Cam's ego?
I think that Cam can play angry, but I do not believe that that can produce results.
Passers cannot play angry because they have to be very calculated in the way that they play the game. They cannot do that if their head is clouded with all the things they are angry about, and you can see that Cam is the kind of person who will space out if you are not drawing his total interest. He likes the spotlight, and he was even panned for that when he was drafted. The poor man who lit him up in that infamous draft preview was right, and Cam's ego will get in the way.
Jameis is hobbled
I do not think that Jameis Winston is in some kind of trouble, but I do think that he is going to have to be very careful with his shoulder. I think that he can do that pretty effectively, but he is going to have to have really good protection.
The only way that that can happen is if the Bucs are having a good day and they are stopping the Panthers. It will be hard to keep morale up in this team if they are getting trounced by the Panthers, and that is why the Bucs have to be very careful about how they play this game. If they play off the fact that Cam Newton is distracted, they will be fine.
The coaching challenge
The coaching challenge that you see on Sunday will be between Dirk Koetter and Ron Rivera in a battle where one will win because he is just much wiser than the other. To be fair, I really like Ron Rivera, but he has not handled Cam Newton well. That is why I am not going to give him any slack about this.
Cam should have been put on the naughty step already and left in timeout for a long time. They need to get the Supernanny to help them or something. It does not even matter what they do, but they have to do something.
The Bucs should prevail
The Bucs should prevail, and I think that is purely because they are managed better overall. You have to wonder why the Panthers got rid of their GM looking at how they are playing. I bet he was over the behavior of Cam Newton.
