JACKSONVILLE, Fla. _ After a dreadful performance on a wet night in north Florida, the Panthers look to have an issue at quarterback.
Fortunately for Panthers' management and the team's fan base, it involves their backup QB.
On a night when Cam Newton made a brief, but long-anticipated return from offseason shoulder surgery, his value to this franchise became even further magnified by the play of the guy who came in after him.
Newton played one series and completed his only two passes Thursday, including a touchdown to Kelvin Benjamin in the Panthers' third exhibition against Jacksonville at EverBank Field.
After that Newton turned the offense over to Derek Anderson, whose first-half showing will increase public pleas for the Panthers to make Joe Webb _ or Colin Kaepernick? _ the No. 2 QB behind Newton.
The good news is that Newton looks to be on the road to recovery, although it's tough to take too much away from a cameo that didn't require him to break much of a sweat.
For the first six plays of the Panthers' first offensive series, it looked like Ron Rivera was playing a joke on the rest of the NFL.
Six times Newton took the snap from center, and six times Newton stuck the ball in the gut of Jonathan Stewart or Christian McCaffrey. With the offensive line gashing the Jaguars' defensive front, the Panthers quickly moved into Jacksonville territory.
Then on a second-and-6, Newton stood in the pocket, went through his reads before dumping a check-down throw to McCaffrey, who picked up 12 yards for the first down.
And the heavens shook. (Actually, that was before the game when lightning forced officials to clear the stadium for about 30 minutes.)
This was not the kind of rapid-fire play the Panthers dreamed of when they drafted McCaffrey No. 8 overall so Cam would have a weapon to quickly dump the ball to.
This was more of a layup, which is what owner Jerry Richardson called the easy throws Newton often overlooked early in his career while launching the ball downfield.
At any rate, what followed were two more handoffs to McCaffrey, creating a third-and-6 from the Jacksonville 9.
Newton took the shotgun snap from Ryan Kalil, looked to left and fired a strike to Benjamin, who somersaulted into the end zone for the touchdown. Benjamin, who lost his mother prior to the start of training camp, pointed to the heavens then celebrated with a number of teammates, including Newton.
It turned out to be the final play of Newton's short night. After the Jaguars went three-and-out in the start of the (second) Chad Henne era, Anderson began warming up.
Anderson completed 10 of 19 passes for 66 yards. He finished with no touchdowns, one interception on a ball the threw into double coverage, and an ugly 38.5 passer rating.
While Anderson floundered, Webb was out with shoulder soreness.
Meanwhile, Newton spent the rest of the night dodging raindrops from the sideline with a white towel around his neck and head.
His numbers: 2-for-2 passing for 21 yards and a touchdown, and eight handoffs, including an out-of-sync exchange with McCaffrey that appeared to be the result of a miscommunication.
Rivera usually rests most of his starters during the fourth preseason game. But given the gradual, buildup approach the Panthers have taken with Newton since his training camp setback, I think the Panthers have to get No. 1 some more work next week against Pittsburgh.
Newton has been participating fully in practice for only about a week. He's made some nice throws, but other times his timing's been off.
Newton has yet to let loose with a long throw on a deep corner or an out route from the opposite hash, the kind of passes he'll need to make Week 1 in San Francisco.
Thursday was a good first step for Newton. He needs to take another one.
