The Cam Newton era began with a Patriots victory in a close, hard-fought game that showed a much different looking offense than one that we had been used to seeing. The Patriots rode a grind-it-out running game and an opportunistic defense to down the Dolphins 21-11 in the opener for both teams.
Newton was in control of the offense from the onset of this one and looked more like the Newton pre-injury than the one that lost his last eight starts in Carolina. Newton completed 15 of 19 passes for 155 yards and ran the ball 15 times for 75 yards as the Patriots chewed up nearly 35 minutes of the clock.