One of Josh Norman’s Panther teammates believes that Josh Norman’s performance suffered as a result of trying to play with a calmer attitude.
The Panthers dropped their first game of the season, and Norman was outplayed by Julio Jones to the tune of nine catches for 178 yards with a long touchdown. One of Norman’s teammates believes that his struggles were due to an attitude adjustment.
“I saw him try to be mild-mannered,” Panthers defensive back Ben Benwikere told WFNZ in Charlotte on Tuesday. “I’ve watched him the last two years now and he’s geeked when he gets to Julio (Jones). He is through the roof. You’re lucky if you can touch Josh because he’s just so in tune, so locked in and ready to go. I felt like, just watching from my house, I didn’t see him after he made a play, get up yelling and running 50 yards to celebrate.
“A lot of guys were just trying to make sure that they played within the rules.”
Benwikere felt that the Panthers got away from what made them so good this year.
“That’s something that coach has talked about all year: ‘You need to be yourselves,'” Benwikere said. “The fact that we weren’t out there just being ourselves, that hurt us.”
Any attitude shift in Norman is almost certainly a byproduct of what went down between him and Odell Beckham the week before. It should be noted that Norman was his usual trash-talking self during the leadup to the game, but Benwikere thinks he wasn’t himself during the actual game.
H/T Sporting News
