Cam Newton heard the trash talk from Philadelphia Eagles safety K’Von Wallace. The “checkdown kIng” during the Eagles joint practices with the New England Patriots – as Wallace called him – Newton brushed the criticism aside as Philadelphia outplayed New England throughout the week.
When the game was on in front of a national audience, Newton got his revenge on Wallace. The Patriots quarterback completed a 28-yard touchdown pass to Jakobi Meyers on his final pass of the night – with Wallace appearing as the defensive back responsible for covering Meyers. Newton finished 8 for 9 for 103 yards and a touchdown in the 35-0 Patriots win over the Eagles, and had some fun at Wallace’s expense afterwards.
“Oh, that’s ‘glitter,'” Newton described Wallace after the game. “‘Glitter.’ It’s preseason. He was still cheering his team on the sideline. He was out there. It was good. Tell his coach to play man-to-man then. I’m just doing what I’m told just like he’s doing what he’s told.
“He was cheerleading a lot on the sidelines. You know, cheerleaders usually have glitter on, so.”
Why was Newton given the nickname “checkdown king” in the first place? During red zone drills in the joint practices, Newton was dumping the ball off to running backs, and Wallace was calling him “checkdown king” every time Newton dumped the ball off.
“If you feel like we’re checking down, just taking what the defense gives you,” Newton said. “There’s no need to kind of feed into this because anytime you have a joint practice with a bunch of alpha males, certain things are going to be said.
“But we did have fun, we did get better as a team and we just came out here and sealed the deal as far as another notch of moving in the right direction as the season progresses, so that’s what it’s all about.”
The Eagles had their first team defensive line sit out this one, with only three starters on the first team defense playing in Thursday’s loss. That left Wallace out to dry, a much different situation than when the Eagles defense was pressuring Newton in the joint practices earlier in the week.
Both Wallace and Newton had their fun this week, and a good laugh. Newton was able to get the last one.
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