Cam Newton will get a few extra days to recover from his latest beating by Von Miller and crew. At least he won’t have to seethe for seven months.

Denver’s dominant defense came up big against Newton again and the Broncos escaped with a 21-20 victory over the Carolina Panthers Thursday night when Graham Gano missed a 50-yard field goal with 4 seconds remaining.

The Broncos collected three sacks and hit Newton eight more times, not counting the abuse he took on his 11 runs.

“We wanted to make sure we got to him,” safety T.J. Ward said. “Every time he ran we tried to put helmet and shoulder pads on him. If you’re not going to slide we’re going to put something on you. We saw him limping throughout the game so that running stuff, you can’t do that all game.”

Three of the hits were of the helmet-to-helmet variety but none resulted in any penalty yardage.

Miller hit him high when DeMarcus Ware was taking him down, linebacker Brandon Marshall hit him in the face just as he released a pass and safety Darian Stewart leveled him in the final minute, but because Newton was whistled for intentional grounding on the play, the penalties were offsetting.

“It’s not my job to question the officials,” Newton said after finally emerging from the trainer’s room. “I really like this officiating crew, so it wasn’t something I know they did intentionally. But it’s not fun getting hit in the head.”

A wobbled Newton appeared to have done just enough to get a measure of revenge for that bludgeoning in Super Bowl 50, when Miller stripped the ball and the Lombardi Trophy from his grasp.