Hit after hit. He played on.

A wince, a deep breath and then back to the huddle to call the next play.

"He was gutting it out," head coach Ron Rivera said.

Rivera checked on him a couple times in the second half to see if Heinicke felt he couldn't physically carry on. The answer was the same every time. It was always going to be the same.

"He kind of gave me a nod that he was OK," Rivera said. "So we left him in there."

When it was all over, Heinicke had thrown 53 passes (third-highest total in team history) and completed 33 of them for 274 yards in Carolina's 24-10 defeat. That number of attempts and completions surpass Cam Newton's career highs of 52 and 32 respectively.

After fumbling (and recovering) the first snap of the game, Heinicke moved the offense down the field and tossed his first career touchdown to give Carolina a 7-0 lead. Heinicke rolled to the left and threw up a pass to rookie tight end Ian Thomas, who went up and made the play for his first career touchdown reception.

"I was just trying to extend the play as long as possible," Heinicke said. "I saw Ian looking right at me and I gave him a shot."

It was a moment of pure joy as Heinicke let the rookie tight end keep the touchdown ball.

But then the fairy tale took a turn.

A scary moment came in the second quarter, a moment Heinicke said felt like déjà vu. On third-and-13, defensive tackle Grady Jarrett roughed Heinicke, who landed awkwardly on his left arm. His immediately grabbed his elbow in pain and moments later he jogged into the locker room.