Panthers QB Cam Newton sports 'Cutler face' after embarrassing loss to Giants

The many sad faces of Panthers QB Cam Newton. (Panthers.com)

Panthers quarterback Cam Newton had one of the worst showings of his professional career in Thursday night's 36-7 shellacking at the hands of the Giants. He completed 16 of 30 passes for 242 yards, threw three interceptions and was sacked twice. Not surprisingly, he wasn't particularly thrilled with how he played.

"If I was a fan of the Carolina Panthers, I would be holding my head down in shame of the product that was out there today," he said while sporting the perpetual frown you see above (looks familiar, right?). "Who wants to support something that puts on a performance of embarrassment?"

It's a fair question because the Panthers looked like they took up the sport for the first time earlier in the week. The lackluster effort will no doubt lead to knee-jerk "see, sophomore slump!" Internet memes. But as CBSSports.com's Will Brinson points out, this is bigger than Newton, whose phenomenal rookie season led to absurdly unreasonable expectations heading into 2012.

The defense and special teams are atrocious and, unless Newton and the offense can play flawlessly every week, this could be a long, mistake-filled season. And if Newton looks like this after Week 3, we can't imagine what shape he'll be in by December.

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