Monday, August 18, 2014

Rivera should have pulled Benjamin immediately



Panther rookie Kelvin Benjamin has done just about everything right so far in his very young career for the Carolina Panthers, but his obvious personal-foul penalty in the Kansas City game is worth discussing.

Benjamin flicked the ball at Chiefs cornerback Chris Owens after a reception far out of bounds in the second quarter Sunday night with about 10 seconds to go. Then he shoved and head-butted Owens, taking the Panthers out of field-goal range in the final seconds of the first half. Carolina won anyway, 28-16. (Here's my column on the game).

Benjamin said after the game he was "just being young. It was a mistake that I made. That’s something I’ve got to learn from."

He's right about that. The last thing Benjamin needs is to develop an anger-management issue like the one Steve Smith had, especially early in his career. Sunday night should be a lesson for No.13 -- and an exhibition is the right time to learn it.

Said quarterback Cam Newton, who has been Benjamin's BFF basically from the day the No.1 draft pick showed up in Charlotte, of Benjamin's mistake: "He understands. He knows. When you have an opportunity to kick a field goal right before the half.... don't put yourself deeper in a hole. As he will soon find out in this league, points are at a premium.... Don't have self-inflicted penalties that will get you out of it."

I thought coach Ron Rivera should pull Benjamin off the field immediately following the play. Instead, he allowed Benjamin to stay on for the final snap before halftime. But Rivera did realize that this brief but bone-headed action by the rookie has to be nipped in the bud (he did a better job with cornerback Josh Norman, who didn't get flagged but got pulled out of the game after temporarily losing his head). Benjamin is going to be too big a part of the team to do such things.

"I told Kelvin that this is going to happen," Rivera said. "A guy is going to try to get inside your head and get you to play outside of your game and that’s what we talked about. I told him that when they start doing that it’s because they know you can do some good things. You’ll learn how to handle it and learn how to be graceful about it and keep going forward."

But Rivera also defended Benjamin's actions to an extent. "Hopefully he’ll get out of it," the coach said. "But this is also one of those things where you have to stand up for yourself. There’s a point where you have to draw a line and a guy has to understand that if you do this and continue to do this then I’m going to draw a line in the sand. I told him that if you want to go get back at somebody, just go make a play."

The Benjamin incident reminded just about everyone of the three key personal-foul penalties the Panthers got in the San Francisco playoff loss in January. It can't happen again. I understand defending yourself, but don't do it in a way that hurts your team. Next time, Rivera should be quicker on the trigger with Benjamin if the wide receiver does so.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you not have anything better to write about? Glad the columnists are devoting space to a flag in a meaningless game.

Linda said...

It was KB's 1st mistake. Correct him, but don't shake his confidence.

JN is a continual screw up, and needed to be pulled.

Anonymous said...

Scott, "Coach" Rivera's job is to coach his players in the manner he deems appropriate and your job is to write "stuff" to get people interested enough to read your column. That's easy enough to understand.

Anonymous said...

IF HE NEEDS A PERFECT EXAMPLE. GOOGLE STEVE SMITH VS JANORIS JENKINS. STEVE WANTED TO PUNCH JANORIS SO BAD. BUT INSTEAD MADE HIM A HIGHLIGHT REEL. THEN PROCEEDED TO DO THE SAME WITH TALIB... AND SO "ICE UP SON" WAS BORN. HAHAHA.

Anonymous said...

you columnist tickle me. You bash the Panthers for getting rid of Steve Smith. You all loved the way he played the game. Steve would get in everyone's face, once or twice a game. What is the difference. I don't recall you wanting to bench Steve Smith. The worst thing to do would be to bench him. You let him learn to play through it, cause if he can not do this than he is in for a short career. Smith learned to play with fire, that is why he has had such a great career.

Anonymous said...

The Charlotte Observer needs to pull Scott from the sports writing game !

John said...

Scott,

I respectfully disagree with your Josh Norman comparison for two reasons:
#1 Benjamin is potentially far more valuable to Carolina long term than Norman.

#2 As a father, I know you don't punish your younger child the same way you do your teenager. Benjamin is a rookie, taking his first pro snaps. Norman is a veteran who should know better.

You coach the rookie, you punish the veteran.

John said...

Read Jonathan Jones column and compare the quotes from KB and Norman and you will understand why they had to be dealt with differently. KB accepted responsibility while Norman thinks he did nothing wrong.