Getty Cam Newton praised the Seahawks days before New England squares off with Seattle.
Cam Newton is more familiar with the Seattle Seahawks than the majority of New England Patriots coaches and players. During his weekly press conference, Newton admitted that the Seahawks felt like a “division game” when he was with the Panthers even though Seattle played in the NFC West. Newton suspects the Panthers played the Seahawks more than any other team outside their division.
“I don’t think people understand that we played Seattle in Carolina like they were a division game,” Newton noted. “We played them a lot, and [not sure] if this is not an accurate stat, but I will put my name on it. I think we played Seattle more than we played any other team outside our division. It was a team that we kind of looked forward to playing, measuring our toughness and where our team was.”
Cam on Seahawks: They Don’t ‘Change for Nobody’
Newton has traded in his Carolina blue for a darker navy with his move up north. The new Patriots quarterback still sees the Seahawks as the same opponent that will not “change for nobody” and continues to “contend for championships.”
“This week is not going to be any different,” Newton added. “It’s simple, they know who they are, they know what they want to do. They are not going to conform or change for nobody. You know, when you got a method or mentatility like that, it’s kind of hard to lose. When you have a quarterback that’s under siege there or at the realm, it’s kind of hard to lose and he has so much command of that team and offense. Obviously, with the new acquisitions of the guys they do have there, from the cornerbacks to free safeties to the linebackers to the d-line, it makes no difference. And you can go back five, ten years from now, it’s still about how the Seattle Seahawks have been a great team to contend for championships year in and year out.”
Pete Carroll on Cam: ‘We Don’t Know What They’re Going to Do With Him’
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll mirrored Newton’s comments admitting the team has a great familiarity with the quarterback. The challenge is the Patriots could create a different game plan than what the Seahawks saw with the Panthers. Carroll referenced his first game of film with the Patriots as being helpful but the Seahawks coach would not be surprised if Bill Belichick created an entirely new scheme for Week 2.
“We do have a real good background with Cam, but we don’t know what they’re going to do with him,” Carroll explained, per Seahawks.com. “It’s only one game. We don’t even have the benefit of the preseason games to try to kind of figure it out. And they have been notorious for changing from one week to the next in how they approach their opponents and all. So we have to go into this game with a wide open-look, it’s almost like a first game. We have some information of course—they showed they really want to run the football, ran it 42 times in the game, which is a great commitment. But we’ll see. We don’t know.”
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