Cam Newton threw his first touchdown pass since Week Three of the NFL season as the New England Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-17 to make it two straight wins following last week's victory against the New York Jets.
Monday 16 November 2020 14:51, UK
Cam Newton referred to head coach Bill Belichick as a 'football whisperer' after the New England Patriots battled torrid weather conditions to upset the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night.
The Patriots quarterback completed 13 of 17 passes for 118 yards and threw his first touchdown since Week Three, while Damien Harris rushed for 121 yards from 22 carries as New England made it two straight wins on the back of four successive defeats.
A much-improved day on offense was glossed by Jakobi Meyers' trick-play touchdown pass to running back Rex Burkhead, who had two receiving scores on the night.
"Everything that Coach coaches throughout the week, it tends to come up and I'm beginning to think he either has like a Staples easy button or a Buffalo Wild Wings button or just a straight direct line to the football gods because he's, like, a football whisperer when it comes to anticipating what the game is going to be like, how we need to win, and things like that," Newton told reporters post-game.
"I'm extremely impressed with that. But for me, trying to find ways to keep this team in a manageable situation offensively is one of the things that I have to keep doing and keep doing a better job of."
The Patriots didn't commit a turnover for the second game running, while Newton was sacked just once and hit just three times.
He also registered his ninth rushing touchdown of the campaign in a performance with the kind of promise that had been seen early on in the season amid offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels' efforts to adapt to his new dual-threat option.
"For me, I know a couple (of) games I took it personal, because I know what the stat line could be or if it would be different minus the turnovers," he added. "And Patriots over the years has just been phenomenal, to say the least, when no turnovers are committed offensively or no turnovers are committed as a whole.
"So me knowing that, that doesn't make me play conservative, it just forces me to play smarter and not being able to have that type of mentality as I had in the past, trying to do too much to make a play rather than just trusting in the plan and just throwing it away when it's not there and just living to fight another day."
Having come in for criticism in recent weeks, the Patriots' offensive line also provided a strong reminder of its importance to this team succeeding as it stood up to the Ravens' top 10 defense, notably enabling New England to establish some momentum on the ground.
"We have our keys to victory and week-in and week-out, Coach hammers it in each and every day with reminding us about, you know," Newton explained. "If we are going to win, this is what we are going to have to do.
"And I'm just excited that the offensive line was able to impose their will and play a great team. This was going to be a great test for us and we knew that. For our guys not to back down, but take it more upon themselves as a challenge, and obviously they did a good job."
Sky Sports NFL is your dedicated channel for NFL coverage through the season - featuring a host of NFL Network programming, a new weekly preview show as well as at least five games a week and NFL Redzone, you won't miss a moment. Don't forget to follow us on skysports.com/nfl, our Twitter account @SkySportsNFL & Sky Sports - on the go!
