The Carolina Panthers hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in an NFC South battle on Thursday Night Football. Both teams entered this game having dropped their season opener less than a week ago. It was an important early-season affair for the two teams. It was equally important for struggling quarterbacks Cam Newton and Jameis Winston. In the end, Tampa Bay came out on top by the score of 20-14 in an ugly overall affair. Winston did not make the same mistakes we saw last week. That was big for the Bucs in a close game. Meanwhile, Newton continued to struggle. Here, we take a look at the winners and losers from the second Thursday Night Football game of the NFL season. Winner: Chris Godwin Most expected this third-year receiver to break out even more after he put up north of 800 yards as a sophomore last season. Much like the rest of Tampa’s offense, Godwin was stuck in neutral during the team’s Week 1 loss to San Francisco. That was in no way the case Thursday evening. Godwin put up 79 yards and this beautiful touchdown while catching all five of his targets in the first half. The Penn State product ultimately finished Thursday night’s win over Carolina with eight catches for 121 yards on nine targets and that touchdown. In another game that saw the Jameis Winston to Mike Evans connection falter, he stepped up big time. That’s going to be huge for Tampa Bay moving forward. Loser: Cam Newton Even after connecting with Curtis Samuel on a 44-yard pass in the first half, it became clear that Newton’s arm strength has not returned. We were somewhat concerned about this following the performance the former NFL MVP put up in Week 1. But he was out there throwing some dead ducks against the Buccaneers on Thursday night. Is this an indication that Newton is not fully recovered from off-season shoulder surgery? It could also be an example of the quarterback’s new throwing motion taking more time to get accustomed to than we expected. Either way, Newton is nowhere near 100 percent after the first two weeks of the regular season. Winner: Luke Kuechly This former NFL Defensive Player of the Year was flying all around the field for Carolina Thursday evening. He racked up 10 tackles in the first half alone, including one for loss. Sure Kuechly dropped a would-be interception immediately prior to Tampa Bay taking the lead in the third quarter, but he can’t be blamed for that. He netted the Panthers two points after tackling Peyton Barber in the end zone early in the third quarter when it seemed like all momentum was in the Buccaneers’ favor. We really want to see how he performs moving forward now that the Panthers have Gerald McCoy and Kawann Short in front of the linebacker on defense. It should free Kuechly up to do more things away from the line of scrimmage. That’s what we saw Thursday evening. Loser: Norv Turner After seeing Christian McCaffrey go for 209 yards and two scores on 29 touches in Week 1, Carolina’s offensive coordinator somehow figured it made sense to rely more on Cam Newton in what was a close game. In fact, Newton attempted 26 passes in a first half that was marred by rain and a wet field. McCaffrey? He ran the ball just nine times and touched it 11 times in the first two quarters.It did not get much better in the second half. Knowing that Turner had pretty much abandoned the running game, Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles was able to draw up blitzes in Newton’s direction. It led to him being sacked three times in the final two quarters. When all was said and done, Newton dropped back to pass 55 times while McCaffrey ran the ball 16 times. If this weren’t enough, Turner drew up an absurd direct snap to the running back on fourth and inches inside Tampa Bay’s two-yard line late in the game. It did not work, and the game was over. Winner: Shaquil Barrett