Going into Miami at 5-6, the Carolina Panthers didn’t have much more room to get bested. Now, leaving the Sunshine State at 5-7, that room is a lot, lot tinier.
Head coach Matt Rhule spoke with reporters after his team’s lethargic 33-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Rhule attributed the thorough beatdown to just being simply outdone.
“I wouldn’t say that they weren’t ready,” Rhule said when asked of the Panthers’ numerous missteps. “I don’t live in that world. That’s other people’s worlds.”
Carolina began Week 12 as the most penalized squad in the league. Their latest performance didn’t help, as they drew seven more flags against the Dolphins on the afternoon.
But Rhule, as he always has, accepted much of the blame and will continue to try and get everyone around him to do their respective jobs.
“To me it’s not like this big global thing, it’s an aggregation,” Rhule continued. “Michael Jordan is out there playing on a bad hamstring and gets called for hold. Pat Elflein gets called for a hold at the end. It’s a play that happens every play. The plays I worry about are like the taunting. That’s just unacceptable. I wouldn’t say we weren’t ready. I’d say we got outplayed today. That’s harder for me to say, but we got outplayed, we got outcoached. Credit to them.”
The Panthers will now head into their late Week 13 bye, which Rhule hopes can give the team a bit of a reprieve. If it doesn’t, rumblings of more permanent reprieves, perhaps, may begin to arise.