It should come as no surprise that in his first game as the Patriots’ starting quarterback, Cam Newton would be directed to make things happen as a runner in the red zone. No quarterback in NFL history had more rushing touchdowns than Newton before his time with the Pats, and at 58, Newton laps the field — Otto Graham of the old-time Browns ranks second with 44.
Otto Graham? Yup.
In any event, the other reason one would expect that Newton would be effective in a set of offensive schemes favorable to running quarterbacks is offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ ability to draw up those types of plays. Of course, we’re not talking about Tom Brady’s fourth-down dives — Brady is many things, but he has never been a runner.
No, we’re talking about what McDaniels and his offensive staff drew up for third-string quarterback Jacoby Brissett in the third game of the 2016 season. Brissett was starting against the Texans because Brady was serving a four-game suspension for his part in the DeflateGate scandal, and then-backup Jimmy Garoppolo was out with a shoulder injury. So Brissett, a third-round rookie out of North Carolina State, took the field with an interesting option package and shocked Houston with eight rushing attempts for 48 yards and a rushing touchdown in a 27-0 win.
Brissett’s big play of the day was this 27-yard touchdown run on a cool little counter option.
Why are we bringing this up? Because Newton’s second touchdown run of the day against the Dolphins, an 11-yarder, looked awfully similar.
Cam Newton punishes the Dolphins lack of contain. pic.twitter.com/xgfVrkv6Va
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) September 13, 2020
Perhaps Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who was the Patriots’ linebackers coach in 2016, knew this was coming. If Flores did, his defense certainly didn’t. And you know that Bill Belichick never forgets anything. He’s had this in his quiver for years, waiting for the right quarterback to come around again.
