A quick observation of quarterback Cam Newton and how he played in the Carolina Panthers' win in Week 16:

No play defined how valuable Newton is and perhaps how far he has come as a quarterback than the winning touchdown against the Cleveland Browns, a 9-yard pass to running back Jonathan Stewart with 7:07 remaining.

The Browns were leading 13-10 and the Panthers were faced with second-and-goal from the Cleveland 9. Newton was under pressure. He scrambled forward, stiff-armed a defender near the line of scrimmage, faded a bit to his right and threw a strike to Stewart.

Newton's legs were an obvious weapon as he avoided the sack. But his eyes were what made this play. The two-time Pro Bowl selection never took his focus from downfield after going through his first two progressions. He doesn't always do that. He often begins looking for a place to run more than he does a receiver to target. This time he kept the focus on the pass. It turned into a touchdown for an offense ranked 28th in the league in scoring red zone touchdowns, and for one that already had blown an opportunity inside the 20-yard line earlier in the game.

It was a big moment for a quarterback 12 days removed from breaking two bones in his lower back in a car crash.

"You see time in and time out all great quarterbacks, and the guy who does it the best is probably Aaron Rodgers, where he just moves around and buys time and keeps his eyes down the field and finds guys that weren't maybe open at first," offensive coordinator Mike Shula said. "Cam did a great job. The difference with Cam is he is so good running it that you don't want to tell him don't scramble and pull up and go find a guy. I don't want to be the guy that does that. So I think it's kind of feel thing for him with the more he plays and gets in those situations, the better he's going to be."