On Wednesday, Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule revisited the sluggish season-opening loss to the Cleveland Browns. And, uh, he had an interesting take on his offense’s performance.
The Panthers were held in check for over three quarters of play—carrying all of seven points (to five punts and an interception) into the start of the fourth. While they would wake up, tallying a furious 17 points in the game’s final 13 minutes, their chances at a win were marred by the ineptitude that came before it.
But, when asked about what he wants to see from quarterback Baker Mayfield and his offense this week against the New York Giants, Rhule put one heck of an “analytical” spin on the outing’s first 25 minutes and its last 35 minutes.
“The 7.7 yards per play we averaged on offense over the last 35 minutes—we didn’t do it for the whole game—but once we kinda got going, that would’ve been third in the league last year,” he said.
Well, Panthers beat writer Sheena Quick put that in a tweet and, of course, Twitter had a field day with it. Enjoy . . .
https://t.co/g8Cs0VItXL pic.twitter.com/ExoKFJqoT3
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) September 14, 2022
This is the exact message I’d text my buddy to justify a poor wager I made. https://t.co/QsCpvKFPzz
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) September 14, 2022
pic.twitter.com/vnkgXVe2PO https://t.co/JvyrsHkqfM
— ProudBasementFanStep, MBA (@sjackson1271) September 14, 2022
Most coaches: "I want a good 60 minutes of football out there!"
Matt Rhule: "I'll take a solid 35 mins give or take." https://t.co/6OBHFGFJPm
— Kyle Madson (@KyleAMadson) September 14, 2022
Browns had a 1.000 win percentage in Week 16 of the 2016 season, that would've been best in the NFL that year https://t.co/RuzIQMiEpV
— Joey Gulino (@JGulinoYahoo) September 14, 2022
I once found $100 on the sidewalk. If I found $100 on the sidewalk every second of the day I'd be the richest man in the world. https://t.co/kEyaWk4GXM
— Kaleb Combs (@KalebCombs) September 14, 2022
— Andrew Whitworth (@AndrewWhitworth) September 14, 2022
https://t.co/1CFF3Y6Uj1 pic.twitter.com/fitpzeMUXZ
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 14, 2022
messing around with the splits to advance your agenda >>>>>>> https://t.co/aZq0dEnmnP
— Steven Ruiz (@theStevenRuiz) September 14, 2022
Rhule Analytics https://t.co/JJwgMi48Zc pic.twitter.com/iUBSuoICS5
— SalesMan (Panthers by 50) (@95KeepPounding) September 14, 2022
This is literally why medians exist https://t.co/jVwA6sRVNM
— Andrew Toth (@AndrewToth90) September 15, 2022
