Johnny Manziel admits slacking some as backup
December 16, 2014Cleveland State’s Win, in Limericks
December 16, 2014The Cleveland Browns were embarrassed in their second meeting with the Cincinnati Bengals. Johnny Manziel was only one component to that as the Browns defense gave up rushing yards in embarrassing bunches. The Browns failed in pretty much every phase of the game and from the very beginning. The Bengals punched first and that was before Johnny Manziel even had a chance to take the field. Make no mistake though, the fresh-faced Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel was a big part of the loss. And much like Manziel was targeted with Bengals celebrations in bunches, it’s hard not to look at the highest profile player on the Browns without hyper-analyzing his performance or lack thereof.
Everyone expected Manziel to make some rookie mistakes. In the end, I’m not upset that Johnny Manziel threw interceptions. I really did expect that. What frustrated me most was watching the offense’s complete lack of organization during pre-snap. The false starts drove me crazy, and nothing could have been worse than when the Browns had to call time out because the personnel was wrong after the two-minute warning. These are just the kinds of things that can be mitigated with preparation.
“You just don’t really envision that [kind of loss] in your head when you’re good throughout the week and you have a really good week of practice,” Manziel said Monday of his work leading up to the recent loss. “You feel really confident and really prepared going into the game, the something like that happens. It catches you off guard.”
I don’t want to re-litigate the Vegas stuff from the off-season because that’s ridiculous at this point. Still, I think it’s fair to ask in the wake of Johnny Manziel’s first performance, whether he wasted this first opportunity as a starter by not doing more with the time he was given on the bench this season. Would a little more time at the facility during the first 15 weeks have made for a better game against the Bengals?
What appeared on the field against the Bengals looked like a student who crammed all night for a final exam after not going to class for the whole semester.
Then again, maybe it was always going to be this way with a guy like Manziel. The thing I like most and least about Manziel is his attitude. The same attitude that saw him claiming he didn’t see the Bengals’ celebrations in his face is the same one that probably kept him from preparing to the maximum throughout this season. Manziel said he didn’t even notice all the money signs from Bengals players, which was clearly a lie as linebacker Rey Maualuga earned a 15-yard penalty when he did it right in his face. Still, that arrogant attitude that kept Manziel from preparing while being a backup, also likely leaves Manziel unaffected by the Bengals, that this first performance won’t linger for Manziel and that’s the upside of the extreme self-confidence of a guy like the Browns’ rookie quarterback.
This doesn’t mean Manziel will look a whole lot better against Carolina next week, by the way. Maybe these last three games will be just the humbling that Manziel needs to hit the ground running when he’ll presumably be named the starting quarterback for the Browns next season. The key to what makes Johnny Manziel such a good prospect is the exact thing he might lose if he’s humbled too much in the next couple weeks. Johnny Manziel needs to play with that cocky arrogance, but hopefully he’ll prepare with a little more humility than he has since being drafted in the first round by the Browns.
“We’re fine,” said Manziel. “We’re going to regroup this week and put that to bed. That’s in the past and you move on. People are going to have bad games. The biggest thing for us is how do you respond when some of this adversity hits us like this? It’s the end of the year. It’s been a grind, but we want to see people in here, in this locker room, who are excited to finish out the rest of the season.”
28 Comments
I’ll be at the Panthers game. Very curious to see how the entire team responds. I really hope the Browns bring some energy. Despite their record, because they’re in the NFCS, the Panthers aren’t just going to be playing out the season.
My hope is that this was a wake up call for Jonathan Paul Pigskin.
I compare it to a graduate program. In college, you did the work, and you earned good grades. Then you’re accepted into a program to get your masters, PhD, JD, etc.
You go to class. People told you it was more work, so you did more than in undergrad. Then that first test comes and you bomb. It’s not that you weren’t doing the work, but you didn’t realize how much MORE work you actually need to do in order to compete.
I missed out on complaining yesterday so I’ll keep it short as smarter people probably have already said as much: Manziel clearly was in over his head and looked like a rookie on Sunday. That said, I’m putting the lion’s share of the blame on Kyle Shanahan and his game plan. I’m starting to worry that he suffers from smartest-guy-in-the-room syndrome. If I had the time and the ability, I’d like to go back play by play to see which calls actually gave Manziel (or any QB, for that matter) a realistic chance to do something.
True to the old saying, Manziel is getting most of the blame for Sunday, but the whole team stunk. Pettine said during his Monday press conference that the loss to Indy really took a lot our of his team mentally. It was a crushing defeat, and they didn’t bounce back from it. Understandable, I guess.
Pettine also said something like, “We’ve lost something, and we’ve got to get it back.” His candor is amazing. I hope he never lets circumstances beat it out of him.
I’ve been wondering and asking this same question here for a while. This seems similar to the struggles experienced in Washington in year two of RG3. Shanahan seems to have an idea of what the player (s) should be able to do and keeps designing schemes and calling plays based on that should rather than accepting what is actually happening and adjusting accordingly. “I am the smartest guy in the room if everyone else would just play their damn part…”
You may want to lubricate a bit pre-game…
Yeah, despite their record, I thought NO was playing decently this year so I was shocked to see this Panther team destroy the Saints a couple weeks ago. Last week wasn’t as impressive against the Bucs, but 7-8-1 might be enough to win their division, so you know that they are going to go full out to win this game.
Hopefully, we are so embarrassed (and not technically eliminated) that we also play with full energy.
For all the talk about how JFF will sink or swim based on his ability to pass from the pocket, Shanahan didn’t give him many opportunities to do so (at least that’s how it seemed to me). Pistol formations, read-options (was that even an A&M thing?), goofy designed QB keepers…. just no.
I feel like that was a completely different offense than the one we played the last three months. And it showed as all the personnel was having trouble with it. AND… it didn’t help Manziel at freaking all. F-, terrible.
Not sure if he suffered from ‘smartest guy in the room’ syndrome or just didn’t trust Manziel to play that game.
Opening series:
Pistol handoff to West for 6yds
Pistol handoff to West for 2yds
(Under center) 3-step drop, fake pass, QB-sneak up the middle
2nd series:
Completion to Cameron on 4yd out pattern against LBer (easy play w/ LBer playing over)
Untouched sack up the middle (7yd loss)
Manziel being Manziel then floating the ball to Hawkins who drops it when Nelson lights him up.
They all looked unprepared from the head coach down!
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/zomg.gif
Then they should have started Hoyer.
According to Pettine there were only two designed keepers, the rest apparently were Manziel trying to make things happen because he couldn’t execute the play as called. He also said there 4 read-options called and again apparently the remainder were Manziel being unable to execute the plays.
That’s still six calls that were, imo, horrible.
Still, that’s very disturbing. I don’t think most people expected Manziel to light the world afire, but I do think we expected him to at least run the offense. Seems like all those red flags regarding maturity and his dedication to the game are now becoming manifest.
Can Manziel play so poorly over these last three games that we look else where for a QB for 2015?
I agree. Let him play out the next two games before running him out of town. He either wakes up and shows some improvement, or he doesn’t and it’s time to move on.
I think if the last games look approximately as bad as the Cincy game that you can.
I would be flabbergasted if that came to pass, but I suppose it’s possible.
I had that exact thought watching the game on Sunday – that it was like my first semester in grad school.
I think there are probably a lot of us who shared that experience!
As I watched the game, the tin foil hat part of me thought the offense threw the game on purpose. With Joe Thomas publicly pushing for Hoyer and December games with meaning, it’s not a far stretch to think the reason there were Bengals in the backfield before Maziel could take a step backward is because the team leader and his O Line wanted it that way. Did I see an offensive lineman smack a low five with a Bengal D lineman? I think I did.
I know I’m crazy, but it seemed like Maziel never had a chance. Like everyone, I’m discouraged that he showed no signs of ability. At least this week won’t be on TV here on the west coast.
I know I’m wrong. I just wanted to vent.
I’m assuming Jim Donovan has pretty good sources in Berea, and he said on a radio show yesterday that the Browns Wednesday practice with Johnny was horrible, and the next practices only good by comparison. So if Johnny thinks the practice week went well, maybe he actually doesn’t know what legit preparation for an NFL defense looks like.
They only had the ball for 21 minutes and 38 plays. I realize he threw it away twice but for those commenting on the 6 plays that were designed for him to run, then that was one of every 6 plays! The rest of the time he appeared to be running for his life. That whole team sucked on Sunday and I guess he might have been the major reason, but it still doesn’t say much for the rest of the leaders – if they have any – on that team. Trust me when i tell you that as a Jets fan I am very familiar with QB’s that can’t get their offense in synch, can’t stay on the field, keep committing dumb penalties, and turnovers etc. Bottom line is Cincinnati owed the Browns a beating and everybody in Cleveland should have been ready for it – including the coaches. Manziel may be a bust but I wouldn’t base it on these last 3 games. He barely worked worked with the first team all these months and you wonder why they were out of synch? The week before, everybody was questioning/excusing Gordon being out of synch with Hoyer because of their lack of time together – how about the same rationale for the back-up this week? Whoever said he was unprepared needs to blame the coaches. That’s their job – to get guys ready and NOBODY was ready last Sunday – not just JFF! And if he wasn’t putting the time in at practice they had no business starting him. Reminder – Peyton lost his first 4 games in the league with 3 touchdowns and 11int’s in those games, and they finished 3-11 his first year.
The only thing that has become clear to me is that this game was the official Rorschach test of this season. Everyone is seeing what they want to see, and your perspective says more about you than it does the Browns.
Bernie sees the same uneducated front office even though they are new and receiving positive reviews all year until we lost this week to a better team. Johnny allegedly saw a great week of practice, but Jim Donovan apparently saw differently. According to this article Johnny turned the wrong way on a hand off, but the announcers at the time said it was clearly on the (other rookie) running back, based on the blocking. Also funny how Shurm was responsible for teams looking unorganized out of time outs in the past, but now it’s because of the rookie QB. Do QBs assign personnel from the sidelines? Maybe they do, but I’ve never read that on this site. Was it Hoyer’s fault that Joe Thomas had 3 false starts (making the offense look very unorganized) that one game? Maybe it was, but again I never read that on this site. Oh, and bringing up the Vegas stuff from the off season even though you yourself said it’s “ridiculous”, well I’ll let you speak for yourself.
In the meantime, I’m bummed that JFF looked terrible, the o line looked bad, the D line looked bad, the coaching looked bad. Not good for JFF for sure, but not good for anyone, really. Heaping savior status (unfair, he is no savior) on a rookie in his first start, and then heaping more blame (much undeserved) on him again says more about those placing blame than it does on him.
Ok , stepping off of virtual soap box. I’m just gonna do my best to enjoy the last 2 games, while trying to appreciate all the very positive things coming out of this year. That’s what I’m seeing.
I wanted to see a playoff team 😉
Well, you might need some meds for that 🙂
Very good post.
I’m confused by this article. The things you are referencing, the false starts, messed up personnel after a break, offense looking disjointed, and the broken play (pretty sure the replay confirmed everyone but the back went that other direction) none of this has much to do with Manziel. There were plenty of things to point to with Manziel and whether or not he was prepared, and it seems like every example you picked wasn’t to your main point.
This was a fantastic post.
I would have sent a receiver deep on every play until the defensive tongues were laying on the stadium turf!