STUFFED: Cam Newton laments missed opportunity in Patriots loss

There were moments during Sunday night’s game in Seattle when Cam Newton looked unstoppable.

Lining up in a power formation, the Patriots quarterback had bulled his way ahead for key yardage several times earlier in the game.

On the last play of the contest, with a win at stake, he again lined up in that formation. With fullback Jakob Johnson beside him in the backfield and all tight ends and offensive linemen up front, there’s not a lot of disguise to the [...]

There were moments during Sunday night’s game in Seattle when Cam Newton looked unstoppable.

Lining up in a power formation, the Patriots quarterback had bulled his way ahead for key yardage several times earlier in the game.

On the last play of the contest, with a win at stake, he again lined up in that formation. With fullback Jakob Johnson beside him in the backfield and all tight ends and offensive linemen up front, there’s not a lot of disguise to the play.

The defense knew it, too.

The first two times the Pats employed it earlier in the game, the Seahawks couldn’t stop Newton. First, the Patriots quarterback followed his fullback and left guard Joe Thuney to barrel into the end zone for a 1-yard run at 13:59 of the second quarter. It was the same again at 2:16 of the fourth quarter when Newton ran in for another 1-yard touchdown run.

Down, 35-30, with three seconds left in the game, the Patriots were standing on the Seahawks’ goal line. Again, they went to the well, but the third time happened to the charm for the Seattle defense. On this play, Newton again tried to follow the fullback and head to the left side of the offensive line. The Seahawks were ready and he was met in the backfield by L.J. Collier, who stopped Newton and secured a dramatic win for Seattle.

When it was all over, Newton watched a clip of the play and was dejected. Sure, it was the same play, but he thought there was a way for the Patriots to win.

"I just didn’t make everybody right and that’s the only thing I regret," Newton said. "In that type of situation, it’s humbling to be able to have the respect of a team to have the ball in my hands. I just have to deliver. I saw a clip of it; I could’ve made it right by just bouncing it. I was just trying to be patient. Just thinking too much, man. Or even just diving over the top. There’s so many things that flashed over me.

"Playing a fast defense like that, as soon as you guess, you’re wrong. I’ll definitely learn from this. The play was there. The play was there all game. Moving forward, we just got to scheme up things and being put in that situation again, hopefully we can have a better outcome."

After the game, there was some criticism of the Patriots coaching staff. Should they have run a different play after showing the Seahawks this one on multiple occasions? Should they have spread receivers out wide to give Newton more options?

The Patriots did something like that earlier in the game. At 14:14 of the fourth quarter, the Pats lined up in the power formation on the goal line. The Seahawks defensive line came barreling into the backfield, but Newton didn’t run. Instead, he threw to his fullback, Johnson, who was wide open for an easy score.

If anything, the Patriots looked unstoppable when using that formation. That’s probably why offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels called the play again.

"That’s a play we had favored in the game plan. We ran it a couple of times," Newton said. "Figured, you know, probably went to the well one too many times, but at the end of the day, staff felt confident about it. We just have to execute and I could’ve bounced it — looking at the clip. I just got to be better. Got to be better here at the end. We put ourselves in position to win. When you do that, you’ve got to finish."

The biggest positive out of Sunday’s loss was Newton’s overall performance. He finished with 397 passing yards, the third most of his career. That’s the most yards he’s thrown in a game since 2011. For a quarterback who’s had two shoulder surgeries and a foot surgery in the last three offseasons, Newton looked healthy. That’s a huge plus for the Patriots.

That final drive began at the New England 19-yard line with 1:42 left in the game. Newton completed 5-of-7 passes for 63 yards to move the team to the Seattle 1. As much as people talked about his ability on the ground in Week 1, Newton showed he can still sling it with the best of them on Sunday night.

"It’s many ways you can win in this game. We don’t want to become one-dimensional," Newton said. "We had our opportunities. Just moving forward, we have a lot of things about being optimistic about but yet, we still have to get better. The reason why you play this game is for one stat and one stat only. We didn’t get that statistic today and that’s the win. For us, this is a disgusting taste in my mouth. I’ve just got to grow and get better in this offense and hopefully have a better result next week."

mdaniels@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @MarkDanielsPJ