Intercepted pass leaves Carolina Panthers WR Kevin Norwood deflecting Twitter hate

Receiver Kevin Norwood didn’t exactly get his Carolina Panthers career started with a bang in Sunday’s 24-17 victory over the Houston Texans.

Late in the second quarter, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton looked near the end zone for Norwood. Newton’s arm was hit by a Texans defender as he threw, and the wobbly ball deflected off Norwood’s hands and into the arms of safety Rahim Moore for an interception.

“It’s a tough catch,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said Monday. “A veteran guy, a guy who understands and is comfortable in what we’re doing, he runs through that and makes the catch. I think the more comfortable he gets in what we’re doing, he’ll run through and make that catch.

“Should he have caught it? Yeah, he should have. But again I think a lot of it is just understand what we’re doing, so he plays faster.”

A 2014 draft pick out of Alabama, Norwood caught nine passes on 11 targets last year for the Seahawks, with two balls being uncatchable. He was traded to the Panthers late in August for a conditional late-round pick in a future draft.

The Houston game was the first game Norwood was on the active gameday roster. He was inactive for the season opener in Jacksonville. After the game he called out “fake fans” on Twitter who had tweeted negative responses to him following his interception.

The Panthers will stick with Norwood and give him more opportunities as he learns more of the playbook.

“He’s a young guy with a lot to learn,” Rivera said. “He’s only been here a few weeks but he showed us some promise and did some nice things on special teams. He’s growing in our scheme and that was the whole idea about getting him out there.

“He’s shown us everything in practice that we’re looking for. Now he’s just got to go ahead and put it all together.”

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Intercepted pass leaves Carolina Panthers WR Kevin Norwood deflecting Twitter hate."