Cam Newton had no shortage of doubters coming into the NFL.
They're much harder to find now.
Newton, the No. 1 pick in the April draft, added to his remarkable season by breaking Peyton Manning's rookie record for yards passing and setting a franchise record with a 91-yard touchdown pass to Brandon LaFell, and the Carolina Panthers handed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers their ninth straight loss, 48-16 on Saturday.
Newton threw for 171 yards and three touchdowns and scored on a 49-yard run up the middle in which he showed his speed by outrunning smaller defensive backs.
He has accounted for 34 touchdowns this season and has the Panthers playing well down the stretch, something coach Ron Rivera wanted to create momentum for next season. Carolina (6-9) has won four of its last five.
"There's always going to be something," Newton said when asked if he has answered his critics. "I continuously try to do what I can control.... I don't worry about what people say because you know one day you'll be on top of the world and everybody is praising you, and the next day the world will be on top of you and everybody else will be criticizing you."
Nobody was criticizing him Saturday.
Behind Newton's masterly performance, the Panthers scored on eight of their first nine possessions and piled up 397 yards in three quarters against the league's 30th-ranked defense.
Rivera pulled Newton and the other key starters early in the fourth quarter.
As Newton walked over to the bench, teammates DeAngelo Williams and Jordan Gross sat with towels over their heads — some good-natured ribbing directed at Newton, who has been criticized by some fans for covering his head when things weren't going well.
That drew a big smile from Newton.
So did the support he got on the field.
Williams scored on runs of 8 and 22 yards, his sixth and seventh touchdowns of the season, and Jonathan Stewart ran for 88 yards and caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Newton.
Newton entered the game needing 18 yards passing to break Manning's rookie record of 3,739 yards and did so with a 7-yard pass to LaFell on the first possession.
"It's very nice to do something with a record that's so prestigious in this league," Newton said before crediting his teammates and coaching staff for allowing him to break the mark.
On Carolina's third possession, Newton backpedaled into his end zone and unleashed a pass to LaFell, who got a key downfield block from Steve Smith on the 91-yard touchdown play. That topped the franchise record of 89 yards set in the Panthers' first season of 1995 by Kerry Collins and Willie Green.
LaFell finished with a career-high 103 yards receiving.
Carolina's offensive line mauled a Tampa Bay defense that was without starting tackles Albert Haynesworth and Brian Price because of injuries. The Panthers piled up a season-high 270 yards and three touchdowns rushing, raising their total for rushing TDs to an NFL-best 25.
"It's unfortunate that we're playing like this at the end when we let a lot of games slip away," left tackle Gross said. "It's exciting for the future. I love the look of this team right now."
The Panthers have led in all but one of their 15 games but have shown a penchant for blowing fourth-quarter leads.
They left no doubt this time, breaking open a 20-10 game at halftime with three touchdowns in the first 15:04 of the second half. The 48 points were the second-most in team history.
"I believe there is certainly that kind of talent in the locker room where we can certainly take the next step and become a very competitive football team (next year)," Rivera said.
The play of the game came when Newton faked a handoff to Stewart and took off through a big hole on the right side of the line. Newton faked a defender, then shifted into another gear and blew through the secondary for the longest touchdown run by a Panthers quarterback.
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