Newton played surprisingly well again. Can't deny that his first two games as a pro have been impressive.
I watched the whole game. Newton can be pressured, but Green Bay's "strategy" of starting Ryan Pickett and (the grotesque) Raji is flawed. I don't care what kind of defense Green Bay runs, but they
really need a lighter "La'Roi Glover-type" to slice through the middle and get in QBs faces.
Green Bay's "D" came out incredibly flat to start the game, and, later (like the 2nd half), they
finally decided that putting pressure on Newton was a "good idea".. It worked, and "pick city" was the result. It not particularly hard to pressure Newton.. Alabama can rattle him in college, but "NFL teams" can't? Of course they can, but teams' are clearly going "softer" on him than they do with Vick! It would be interesting to know why this is...
The media will certainly use this game to build up Newton, because, in the media's eyes, Green Bay doesn't have much flaws. However, I have pointed out GBs weaknesses on a few occasions and have usually been correct
(obviously, the MSM won't criticize "their boy Raji" or the correctly-hued GB secondary; Or Ryan Grant on offense). The interesting, and glaring thing about this game was how Aaron Rodgers' was getting rattled in the first half, while Newton went more-or-less unscaved! I do think that GBs d-line is rather pathetic (and is without Cullen Jenkins now), and Charles Johnson did play pretty well for Carolina, and, also, Carolina's secondary truly was crisp for much of the game. Carolina played hard, and there were even little guys getting knocked out from ramming into John Kuhn! If we are to take things at face value, Carolina brought a physical style-of-play that Green Bay wasn't expecting, and their cadre of "space eaters" got exposed. Jordan Gross leveled a few affletes, too.
This doesn't really address the issue of why Green Bay didn't send pressure earlier. With Hangartner starting over the injured-blob Bernadeau, I don't doubt that the o-line is better than it would have been otherwise. It is relevant that this isn't a "full sumo-line" right now.