CHARLOTTE — Not having to face Drew Brees should have meant no problem for the undefeated Carolina Panthers.
With backup quarterback Luke McCown making his first start since Sept. 18, 2011 as a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans managed to take Carolina to the limit.
McCown, who was 31 of 38 for 310 yards, tried to give the Saints their first win of the season in the final moments of the contest. McCown lofted a pass into the right corner of the end zone to Brandin Cooks against the man-to-man coverage of Carolina cornerback Josh Norman.
Both players jumped for the ball, but Norman was the one who was able to snatch it out of the air for the interception to clinch a 27-22 victory for the Panthers.
“It was the exact same play we ran a couple of plays before to (Marques) Colston on the other side,” McCown said. “Josh Norman is a young corner and a good player, and he’s aggressive. He reads well, but we felt like we had something on him. With a particular concept, we could get him to set his feet, and Cooks could run right by him.
“In the moment, we felt like we had them on their heels and we wanted to take a shot.”
Norman said he was ready to make the play.
“Once I saw the ball release, man, I was loving it,” Norman said. “I saw it, and my eyes got big. I tried to target the ball, and God gave me the wings to fly.”
Carolina quarterback Cam Newton accounted for all three of his team’s touchdowns. Newton tossed a pair of touchdowns to tight end Greg Olsen and rushed for another. Newton finished the game 20-for-31 in the air for 315 yards and rushed seven times for 33 yards.
Newton’s 13-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter gave the Panthers a 27-16 lead and inched him higher in the record books. It was Newton’s 35th rushing touchdown of his career to move him into a tie for seventh with Randall Cunningham and Steve Grogan for the most by a quarterback in NFL history.
McCown led the Saints (0-3) on two scoring drives in their first two possessions of the game. The first was a 12-play, 67-yard drive and took 6 minutes off the clock. It resulted in a Zach Hooker 31-yard field goal.
The second was a 16-play, 94-yard drive and was capped by Mark Ingram’s 5-yard scamper to the right pylon. This drive drained more than 9 minutes off the clock.
Carolina responded with the first of Olsen’s touchdown receptions from 11 yards out. Earlier in the drive, third-string tight end Richie Brockel was flagged for offensive pass interference, which negated a 4-yard touchdown catch by Olsen.
“I’m not sure if it necessarily was the matchup as much as what we were trying to do,” Carolina coach Ron Rivera said about Olsen. “Basically they were rolling one direction and taking away some other sides of the field which allowed Greg to be open. So again, I think a lot of it has to do with moving Greg around. Greg doesn’t play the conventional tight end position. You see him sometimes line up at the Y, what we call the F, the X, the Z and the W. It just depends on where Mike Shula wants to put him. That’s what makes him such a valuable part of our offense.”
On the final play of the first half, Graham Gano connected on a 20-yard field goal to tie the game at 10-all.
New Orleans grabbed the lead back in the opening moments of the second half. The Panthers (3-0) appeared to have the Saints pinned back inside the 10-yard line after a 56-yard punt by Brad Nortman, Teddy Williams was flagged for running out of bounds. After the penalty and re-kick, Marcus Murphy returned it 74 yards for a touchdown. The snap on the extra-point was bobbled by McCown and failed, giving New Orleans a 16-10 advantage.
Newton and Olsen hooked up for their second 11-yard scoring pass play to give the Panthers the lead for good with 8:43 left in the third quarter. Gano tacked on a 47-yard field goal in the final moments of the third and Newton added his touchdown run as Carolina extended its advantage to 27-16 at the 9:32 mark of the fourth.
New Orleans’ final score of the contest came on a 2-yard run by Khiry Robinson with 4:50 left in the game. New Orleans elected to try for a 2-point conversion, but McCown’s pass to Marques Colston fell incomplete.
“For his first start, I thought Luke did a really good job,” New Orleans coach Sean Payton said. “He handled the looks that we were getting. I thought he showed a lot of poise, and I was really proud of the way he played.
“But our margin of error isn’t that good to overcome. Some of the miscues that can come up in a game — we’ve got to look to get those things corrected.”
Former Anson standout Stephone Anthony was credited five tackles. Former Richmond Senior star Dannell Ellerbe was sidelined for the third straight game with a turf toe injury.
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