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 . . .