When Cam Newton plays like this, anything is possible for Carolina Panthers

Cam Newton will turn 30 in May, and his natural exuberance has been tempered just a bit by all that life offers. He brought two of his young children to his press conference Sunday and gently tried to keep them quiet for a few minutes while he answered questions.

“Hold on,” Newton told his son, Chosen, and his daughter, Sovereign-Dior, as they squirmed in his arms. “Daddy gotta work.”

Newton had actually had another fine workday by then in Carolina’s 36-21 home victory over Baltimore, throwing for two touchdowns and running for a third against a Ravens defense that came into the game No. 1 in the NFL and left in a crumpled heap.

It wasn’t all Newton in Carolina’s most complete victory of the season, but a lot of it was. He never turned the ball over, led the Panthers (5-2) in rushing and threw for 219 efficient yards.

The quarterback also let discretion be the better part of valor at the end of the first half, telling coach Ron Rivera he would rather not throw the ball 65 yards through the air on a desperation Hail Mary pass in an effort to save the wear and tear on his arm. The Panthers sent out second-string quarterback Taylor Heinicke to make the heave instead, and then Heinicke ended up throwing a short pass anyway to set up a Graham Gano field goal.

“I just knew how I was feeling at that time and felt that (Heinicke) put our team in the best situation,” Newton said.

I have a hard time imagining Newton taking himself off the field in a scenario like that, or saying something like that, during the first few years of his career. But he has matured in several ways, as coach Ron Rivera has often said.

“It was a heck of a decision by him,” Rivera said of Newton benching himself for a play, “just being upfront. We have a little bit of a new normal with him as far as we have to be smart (not to strain Newton’s throwing shoulder), and we had an opportunity to not make a bad decision.”

Newton is making bad decisions at a very low rate in 2018. He has now accounted for 17 touchdowns (13 throwing, four running) and only four interceptions through seven games.

And after years of talking about his below-average completion percentage, Newton and new offensive coordinator Norv Turner have finally done something about it.

Newton is completing 66.4 percent of his passes this season, after finishing at under 60 percent in each of the past four seasons. He also ducks down or slides at the end of a run if the situation isn’t extremely crucial.

“Cam played an outstanding game,” Baltimore safety Eric Weddle said.

“Cam played his butt off,” Carolina running back Christian McCaffrey said.

If Newton is playing OK, the Panthers themselves are only OK. But when he is great, the Panthers have a chance to be great themselves. On the right afternoon, with Newton at the right level, they can beat anyone in the NFL.

So on Sunday, the Panthers blasted a Baltimore team that had been slightly favored. It was Carolina’s ninth straight win in Charlotte, which ties the Panthers with New England for the longest current home win streak in the NFL.

It was a good day, then, for Newton to bring his son Chosen (almost 3 years old) and daughter Sovereign-Dior (about 19 months) to his press conference.

“To them,” Newton said, gesturing at his kids, “they don’t know who I am. They just know me as Daddy. You know what I’m saying?.... I’ll try to keep it like that as long as possible. No matter how high you get, no matter how low you get, having children kind of balances everything out and puts a lot of things into perspective.”

The Panthers certainly had the correct perspective against Baltimore. It was the rare Sunday that Carolina fans didn’t have to be nervous in the fourth quarter. Carolina had a 17-point halftime lead and Baltimore never got closer than 13 in the second half.

The Ravens would have needed a big mistake by Newton to make it a game, and he wasn’t going to give them one. The closest he came was a deflected ball near the end zone that Weddle batted into the air, and McCaffrey came down with it for a lucky TD.

So Newton was good Sunday, and he was lucky, and he was smart. That’s a tough combination for anyone to beat.

This story was originally published October 28, 2018 at 7:40 PM.