Cam Newton Appears to Be Ready for the N.F.L.

The only problem with Cam Newton’s passing for 422 yards in his N.F.L. debut was that his Carolina Panthers needed 423.

For Newton, the first pick in the draft, the first day at work was full of positives. He completed 24 of 37 attempts — short passes, long passes, passes across the middle and passes to the sideline. He was intercepted only once, mostly avoided trouble (though he was sacked four times) and even ran for a score. His yardage total broke Peyton Manning’s mark for the most by a rookie making his debut.

The only thing Newton did not do was win the game. Trailing by 28-21 in the fourth quarter, Newton got one final chance to produce a winning ending when he took over at Carolina’s 17 with 2:20 left. Two quick completions moved the Panthers into Arizona territory before the two-minute warning, and a deep ball to Steve Smith and a roughing-the-passer penalty gave him the ball at Arizona’s 11 with 1:39 to go.

But Newton threw three straight incompletions, and another on fourth down that was erased by an offisde penalty. That gift gave him one do-or-die play: a fourth-and-5 from the 6. But Newton’s final pass, a quick throw to running back Mike Goodson out of the shotgun, gained only 4 yards.

The ball went back to the Cardinals, and Kevin Kolb — who had a pretty good day in his own debut for Arizona — kneeled three times to seal Newton’s first loss in two years.

“The last time I lost a game was Navarro Junior College,” said Newton, who was unbeaten and won the Heisman Trophy last year in his only season at Auburn. “What do you want me to say, it feels great? It is not a comfortable feeling for me.”

There was one big winner for Carolina, though. That man was Steve Smith, who had eight catches for 178 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Smith is entering his 11th season with the Panthers, and for most of them he was reliably productive — and frequently sensational — at the end of balls thrown by Jake Delhomme. But Delhomme lost his way, and a series of replacements left Smith waiting for off-target and underthrown balls from the likes of Matt Moore, David Carr, Vinny Testaverde and, at rock bottom, Brian St. Pierre.

It got so bad last year that Smith told the team’s bumbling rookie savior, Jimmy Clausen, that he ought to apologize for the way he was playing.

Newton is more likely to get a thank-you card.

“He was everything everybody didn’t expect him to be,” Smith said. “He was on point, he made some great runs, he made some great reads, made some fantastic throws. He made some throws out there that honestly as a receiver it made it easy to catch them.”