Matt Rhule Claps Back At Dan Orlovsky Over Claims Panthers Were Tipping Playing Against Giants

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Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has had his fair share of critics. To their credit, those critics can point to Rhule’s 10-25 record and say the critique is well-deserved.

Rhule has also significantly reworked his staff since being hired by the Panthers prior to the 2020 season. One of those new additions is former New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo, who is now the new offensive coordinator in Carolina.

That addition hasn’t yielded the success that either Rhule or McAdoo hoped for through two weeks. The Panthers’ offense is the fifth-worst in the league at under 300 yards per game.

a glaring ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky believed he found a glaring reason why Carolina has struggled. Orlovsky called out Rhule on NFL Live earlier this week for what he called “coaching malpractice.” The former NFL QB pointed out what he believed to be an obvious tell in the way the Panthers line up in the shotgun.

Orlovsky claimed that every time running back Christian McCaffrey lined up alongside quarterback Baker Mayfield, the Panthers passed the ball. But every time McCaffrey lined up staggered, Carolina ran the ball or ran a run-pass option.

Now Rhule is saying he needs to pump the breaks.

Matt Rhule Claims Dan Orlovsky’s Claims About A Tell In The Panthers Offense Are Untrue

Rhule was asked about Orlovksy’s video breakdown by a media member on Friday morning. But he says the entire thing is overblown and incorrect.

“Yeah, I saw Dan’s thing,” he said. “I’ve been around long enough, I’ve seen enough coaches get on there and say ‘hey, every time they do this it’s gonna be this and then it’s wrong. I disagree with it.

“For us, when we put Christian at depth we are kind of getting into a run set, and from that we either run it, we zone read it, we RPO it, we run it to the left, we run it to the same side run. Our biggest pass play was from that backfield set that then we play action off of it. So if you tell me that we line up in a formation and we run it, we throw it, we play action from there, that’s pretty balanced.”

Rhule went on to ask why his team ran for 146 yards if the other team knew what was coming.

Frankly, his rebuttal doesn’t really refute anything Orlovsky said. And success in the run game doesn’t really mean that the team didn’t have a tell.

But Rhule isn’t bothered by the criticism.

Though maybe he could use the free advice.