The Carolina Panthers fell to 0-2 on the season after losing to the New York Giants on Sunday. Head coach Matt Rhule somehow still has hope in his team.

“We’re close. I believe that with all my heart. I think we’re so close coming down the stretch. But we haven’t found a way to get it done,” Rhule said, via The Athletic's Joseph Person. “That’s my job — to help us get over that last hump. That’s the hardest part, and we haven’t done it, yet. Didn’t do it today.”

To Matt Rhule's credit, the Panthers are close. They lost this nail biting game to the Giants by just three points, and lost the week prior to the Browns by two. Some of that can be attributed to bounces going the other team's way. The other part is not being able to close out games.

The Panthers may be getting unlucky and losing these close games, but at the same time, they are not very good, and they've lost to two below average teams. They are only going to continue to struggle against the rest of the NFL with the Saints, Cardinals, 49ers, Rams, Buccaneers, Bengals and Ravens all on the horizon.

Matt Rhule sounds like a guy pleading to keep his job. The Panthers have been close in game score their past two games, but they are not close to being a good team by any means. Their quarterback Baker Mayfield has looked horrendous. He has the worst QBR in the NFL (23.8) over the first two games, and he's completed just 53% of his passes. They have one of the best running backs in the NFL in Christian McCaffrey, and not even he can propel the Panthers.

Matt Rhule is 10-25 as head coach of the Panthers in his third season. That is not the record that is going to keep him on as an NFL head coach. The slack on Matt Rhule's leash is becoming tighter. The Panthers have no real winnable games in their near future either. The past two weeks were their chances to win, and although they were close, close isn't going to cut it. Matt Rhule's future with the Panthers will certainly be in question.