"Glad it's not the NBA because if you leave the bench a lot of guys would have been suspended," cornerback Captain Munnerlyn joked. "My reaction – I got up. That's BS. We're trying to take that out of this game. To do that was outrageous. They (officials) handled it the right way and I definitely feel like Torrey handled it the right way too."

Added wide receiver Jarius Wright: "It was a malicious hit intended to hurt him. I don't know what they talk about in their locker room, but that wasn't right. You know he's the quarterback, you know he's going to slide.

"I agree with the ejection and I agree with what Torrey did. If something happened to Torrey like that, I would do the same thing for him. We have to be smart about it but we do have to have each other's back at the same time."

Newton was evaluated and returned to action without missing a snap. He kept the drive alive with an improvised 12-yard pass to wide receiver Devin Funchess on third-and-5. Three plays later, he connected with Wright over the middle for a 5-yard score to give Carolina a short-lived 10-3 lead.

Newton finished the game 32-of-45 for 335 yards and three touchdowns with one interception for a 105.3 passer rating. He also rushed five times for 42 yards in the loss.