Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers looked to get revenge on the Denver Broncos in the 2016 NFL season’s opening game. The Thursday Night Football game feature two teams who struggled on offense to get much going. The Panthers QB was the star of the night when he danced after scoring, but in the third quarter, he headed to the bench in pain after taking a hard hit.

It didn’t look good for Panthers nation as their starting quarterback was in pain. On the bench, he put a towel over his face as the Panthers went back on defense.

Luckily, he wasn’t limping for long. The veteran QB entered the game on the next drive for the Panthers. This is good news for the NFC team, or else they could be in a similar situation as the Broncos. For now, Newton is throwing dimes like he was doing throughout his career.

The NFL season is only one game in, but the league almost had a star player leave the game for good. The quarterback was definitely in better shape after that hard hit since he was flossing his teeth on the sideline. Quarterbacks get often hit in the NFL, and this leads to chest and rib injuries. Most of the time it’s more muscle soreness than something serious that causes missed time.

This time around the Panthers dodged a bullet; Newton appeared to be just fine after leaving the game in pain. It looked like he just got the air knocked out of him and his body isn’t used to being hit that hard. The Panthers held the lead after the third quarter 17-7. It appears as long as Newton remains accurate and doesn’t take another similar hit, and the defense doesn’t implode in the game’s last 15 minutes of action.

Newton is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. If he missed playing time in Thursday’s game, then the Panthers would have been in worse shape offensively.