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Need a one-stop shop to catch up on the top sports stories big and small? Time Out For Sports airs Mondays on WFAE's "All Things Considered" and has what you need to know about everything from Charlotte-area high school football highlights to the latest updates on the Carolina Panthers.

‘Cam can’t solve everything,’ Charlotte sportswriter says after Panthers’ latest loss

Things weren’t sunny for Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers in Miami this weekend.

In a grueling game, the Panthers fell to the Dolphins 33-10 and lost star running back Christian McCaffrey for the season due to an injury. Sunday marked Carolina’s second loss in a row and the third game since Newton returned to the Panthers amid plenty of fanfare.

Some of that enthusiasm may be waning, The Charlotte Observer’s Langston Wertz Jr. told WFAE’s Claire Donnelly on this week’s installment of Time Out for Sports.

“When you have a 5.8 passer rating, it’s kind of tough,” Wertz said. “Christian McCaffrey got hurt again… It was just a lot of problems with the Panthers, and Cam can’t solve everything — especially a Cam who doesn’t know the offense.”

The former league MVP who helped take Carolina to the Super Bowl in 2015 was only able to complete five passes on Sunday, but he says he remains confident in the team’s offense going forward.

“I do my job,” Newton told a reporter after Sunday’s game. “I have full faith the other 10 guys are going to do their job, and then we’ll be good.”

But that’s just the NFL. There’s also some big Charlotte-area football news at the high school level. Two Mecklenburg County schools, Chambers and Hough, are playing each other in the semifinals on Friday — and Wertz calls the meetup “the most anticipated high school football game in at least 10 years.”

“Both teams are nationally ranked,” Wertz said. “The high school season got postponed last fall. They played in the spring. These two teams played twice in April. They’re going to play twice again this year, so they’re very familiar with each other… I think the winner of this game goes on to win the state championship in the 4A class.”

You can listen to the full Time Out for Sports conversation above. Here’s a quick look at what else Donnelly and Wertz covered this week.

  • Wertz says the Charlotte Hornets’ LaMelo Ball is “a very similar player” to NBA legend Magic Johnson and is “on pace to be, perhaps, the best player ever out of Charlotte in any sport.”
  • There’s some more analysis on the Panthers’ loss to the Dolphins. 
  • Another local football team, South Point High, is having a strong season.
  • Duke University is looking for a new football coach after David Cutcliffe resigned following 14 years on the job.

     

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Claire Donnelly is WFAE's health reporter. She previously worked at NPR member station KGOU in Oklahoma and also interned at WBEZ in Chicago and WAMU in Washington, D.C. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and attended college at the University of Virginia, where she majored in Comparative Literature and Spanish. Claire is originally from Richmond, Virginia. Reach her at cdonnelly@wfae.org or on Twitter @donnellyclairee.