Panthers Coach Ron Rivera
On the value of QB Cam Newton
“There are some intangibles that you can’t measure. First of all, he is a very unselfish player. He wants to spread the ball around. He wants to throw the ball to everybody. It’s kind of neat if you look at the box score and see how many different guys he targeted … Whether he is handing the ball off or he is running the ball or whether he is throwing it, he understands that. His energy level that he plays with, I think his teammates feed off of it.”
On the first career start for rookie WR Devin Funchess
“He really came into this under control. I like the routes that he ran. More importantly, I like the way he went after the football, very Kelvin-esque in terms of trying to make plays. Cam put the ball where he needed to, where he just had to go up and get it, and he did. He went up and got the ball a couple of times and really made some spectacular catches. I think the young man is progressing very nicely.”
On RB Jonathan Stewart‘s performance
“I think Jonathan really is playing at a very high level right now. I like the way he is playing. I like the way he is doing things. Our guys feed off of his energy in terms of the running game. That’s one of the things we have to be weary of is to not overuse Jonathan. It was great to be able to get him out of the game once we got into the fourth quarter and give him a break. But he has been very vital to what we do on the offensive side.”
On the defense forcing five turnovers
“I like the way we went after the ball. I like the physicality of our defensive players. I really thought Sean McDermott came out and did some really good things. I like the first call in the second half where we brought a pressure and we were able to hit the quarterback on a play action to cause a fumble that we recovered and that really put us off to the races.”
On if the turning point was the overturned pick-6 by Redskins CB Chris Culliver
“That’s the refereeing part of it. That’s what happens I guess and we will just go from there.”
On the national attention this week likely focusing on the Cowboys
“That’s fine. Seriously it is because we will move forward … One of the things we talked about yesterday is our greatest victories aren’t behind us, they are in front of us, so we just have to keep going forward.”
On the injuries suffered Sunday
“We made out pretty good. Fozzy Whittaker had a little tweak on the side, so he had to come off. Amini Silatolu, I don’t know how bad it is but he may have just sprained the knee. That’s pretty much the extent of what we got that I know of.”