Maybe Ron Rivera should have worried about the foot.
"Don't worry about the foot," the now-former Carolina Panthers coach said after Cam Newton struggled in the Panthers' second home game, an inexcusable loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to fall to 0-2. "The foot's got nothing to do with it."
Newton didn't play again because of the foot injury, and instead of renewing his endorsement deals, Rivera is putting his house on the market and scanning Zillow for homes in, say, Dallas.
Because Rivera will indeed land on his feet somewhere, a better-than-average coach undone when an offense built around a franchise quarterback lost its franchise quarterback. It's almost impossible to lose a player like Newton and not stumble in the NFL, unless there's a Tom Brady waiting in the wings, and Kyle Allen was _ truly, no offense intended _ no Tom Brady.
The Panthers' entire offense was predicated upon Newton's physicality and mobility, from the patchwork offensive line to the array of short-space playmakers like Christian McCaffrey and Greg Olsen. Move quickly, evade pressure, trap the defense in that neverland between pass and run. It all played to Newton's strengths, which happened to be Allen's weaknesses.
This isn't Allen's fault. He was a hard worker and a gamer, but never a great fit. For whatever baffling reason, the Panthers had Newton coming off shoulder surgery and limping from the preseason foot injury and still decided against making a move for a mobile and/or experienced backup who could at least try to do some of the same things as Newton. It didn't have to be Colin Kaepernick, although he would have fit the bill. Maybe they hoped Will Grier would emerge, but he looked hopelessly overwhelmed in the preseason, not entirely unexpectedly for a rookie.
The Panthers went into the season with no safety net, no parachute, no backup plan, and when things went wrong, they plummeted to earth. 5-7. Splat.
For all that, the margins were insanely thin. A handful of goal-line plays go the other way _ against Tampa Bay, Green Bay, New Orleans, Washington _ and the Panthers would have a decent shot to be 7-5 or 8-4, maybe even 9-3 if the stars aligned, and no one's getting fired. It isn't exactly surprising that a goal-line offense built around a powerful running quarterback struggled without him (or with him hobbled in Week 2) but the Panthers never figured out another way forward.
Maybe that's why new owner David Tepper was clearly of no mind to give Rivera a free pass after losing Newton. It would have taken a superlative coaching performance to paper over the gaping cracks left with Newton out. Instead the Panthers got what Olsen called "a comedy of terrible football" after one particularly dismal home loss. Allen was able to keep things moving for a month, but the holes in the offense (especially in the offensive line) were easy for opposing teams to spot and attack. Even the defense, Rivera's calling card, was adequate at best.
Tepper gave Rivera a shot. This wasn't it.
The Panthers lost three times at home to teams that have won a total of eight other games this season: Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Washington. With Kyle Allen or Kyle Orton or Kyle Boller at quarterback, that's a fireable offense even before you throw in Tepper's midseason spiel about refusing to accept mediocrity. Old coach, new owner, old story.
If this version of the Newton-Rivera-McCaffrey-Luke Kuechly core was going to get another shot at greatness, this was the season. The Panthers should have been no worse than the second-best team in the division, a wild-card contender, and at best could have pushed the Saints for the division title _ if everything had gone reasonably as planned.
Instead, they'll start over next season, with an expanded front office and without Rivera. And possibly without Newton as well. Their Panthers tenures were inextricably intertwined, from slow beginning to triumphant midpoint to this disappointing end.
Rivera couldn't have been more wrong: The foot had everything to do with it.
