Teddy Bridgewater hit was 'cheap shot,' Panthers running back says

Carolina Panthers running back Mike Davis was unhappy with the hit Teddy Bridgewater took during the team’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons that knocked the quarterback out of the game briefly on Thursday.

Bridgewater was looking to scramble for a 1st down in the third quarter when he was tripped by Falcons linebacker Dante Fowler Jr. Bridgewater went down and was immediately hit by Charles Harris.

PANTHERS' TEDDY BRIDGEWATER BRIEFLY LEAVES GAME AFTER GETTING TRIPPED, HIT HARD BY FALCONS DEFENDERS

The quarterback was down on the field for some time before being taken off the field to be looked at by the training staff. Harris was penalized for unnecessary roughness and ejected from the game. P.J. Walker came in for Bridgewater and led the Panthers to a field goal to cut their deficit to two points.

Davis said after the game that it was a “cheap shot.”

“I think it was a cheap shot. It was late. Hit him in the neck. That’s just something you just hate to see. That’s unnecessary,” Davis told reporters.

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Davis added that it meant a lot to see Bridgewater get back into the game in the fourth quarter.

“For me, I can’t speak for everybody, but something like that, a lot of guys would have been like, ‘yeah, I’m not going back in.’ I just feel like he earned a lot of respect from me and with him doing that, it just makes me want to go out there and play harder for him," he said. "That’s how I took it. I mean, you hate to see it. When you see a guy, no matter what’s going on, he wants to go out there and play and he’ll play through it, I feel like that sends a message to his teammates what kind of person he is.”

Bridgewater also talked about the hit.

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“It was just a play where I was stepping up in the pocket," Bridgewater said." I just knew that someone stuck their leg out from Atlanta and as I was tripped, I was stumbling and I knew at some point guys would be swarming so I just tried to get down and protect myself. I don’t really know who hit me, I just know that somebody got ejected. I was in the tent when all that happened so I didn’t really get to see. I know we finished with a field goal so I think the guys responded well."

Falcons interim head coach Raheem Morris wasn't sure that Harris' hit warranted an ejection.

"I know Teddy is going to get protected, obviously, defenseless player as a quarterback, you’re going to protect the quarterback so much," Morris said. "I know he ran up on him. I know he hit him. I’m not sure if he made full contact with his head, but obviously the officials saw it that way and so did New York. So, you have to deal with hit, get him off the field and you keep playing and you finish the game."

Nonetheless, Atlanta held on for the 25-17 victory.