Johnny Manziel makes his Browns debut against the Bills
November 30, 2014AJ Price returns to the Cavs; team waives Will Cherry
November 30, 2014So, is there anything you guys want to talk about after the Browns game today? Really? What is it? The Browns lost 26-10 to the Buffalo Bills on the road. What else could you possibly want to talk about? Oh, that’s right. Johnny Manziel made his Browns debut.
Johnny Manziel made his debut as a Cleveland Browns player, and that’s all we’re going to talk about. The real question is, how long until the Browns announce their starter for next week, and will they stick with Johnny Football or not? It’s going to be difficult based on Johnny Manziel’s opening drive.
Manziel took the Browns 80 yards for their first touchdown of the day. After putting up three points in the first half and only eight yards in the third quarter, Manziel not only drove the team, but scored a TD. He did it by completing passes. He did it by moving the pocket. Ultimately, he scored the TD himself rushing up the middle for 11 yards. Ultimately, that opening drive wasn’t the only thing Manziel put on tape.
On his second opportunity after the Bills extended their lead to 23-10, Manziel looked very much like an inexperienced rookie. Manziel wasn’t ready for the snap at the Browns’ 15 yard-line or so, watched it bounce off his hands and eventually got hit and fumbled. The Bills recovered in the end zone for a defensive TD. Jerome Boger – who might have had a worse day than the Browns – ruled that it was an incomplete pass. Manziel and the Browns failed to convert on fourth and six anyway. Bills took over with a 13-point lead with 2:39 left in the game and the Browns had no timeouts left.
So the Browns end up losing 26-10. Brian Hoyer had a day so bad that the Browns went to Manziel for a spark. Now, do the Browns think that they are better off going forward with Brian Hoyer as the starter for this season, or is it worth it to them to have Johnny Manziel under center with a full week of prep? I can’t even answer that at this point, personally, but I trust this group – between Farmer and Pettine – to pick absolutely whichever guy they think gives them the best chance to make a playoff appearance this season.
As for the rest of the game…
The Cleveland Browns had a miserable day, but I don’t want to take all the credit away from Buffalo’s defense. They held the Browns running game almost completely in check while making Brian Hoyer look probably the worst he’s looked all season long. That starts with their defensive front. You know how you know the Bills’ defensive front is good? Joe Thomas had an awful day. You can count those types of games in Joe Thomas’ entire career on one hand.
And then the wheels fell off in the third quarter. The Browns gave up a touchdown to go down 7-3. Not the end of the world, but the Bills had some momentum. Then a couple plays later, Terrance West put the ball on the ground and the Bills defense returned it for a touchdown. All of a sudden the Bills were on a 14-0 run in about 12 seconds. They scored two touchdowns at 8:08 and 7:54 remaining in the third quarter respectively. Anyone who was feeling good about a 3-0 halftime lead, needs to re-evaluate their philosophies on football.
#Browns had 8 yards in the third quarter.
— Marla Ridenour (@MRidenourABJ) November 30, 2014
At the half the Cleveland Browns were winning 3-0, but it didn’t feel much like it. Hoyer threw an interception late in the first half that gave the Bills a really good shot at a field goal. Joe Haden erased it with a big highlight block of the kick, but it was weird even before that. I hate wasting words on referees in these posts. I really do because it’s a waste of time to talk about it, but Jerome Boger’s crew had a first half that was pretty abominable.
Before the Bills tried their field goal to end the half, the Bills faced a fourth and two, which they decided to go for from the Browns’ 38. Kyle Orton threw short to Sammy Watkins and it was extremely close to a first down. The play ended with seven seconds to go and the refs ran in to spot the ball as fast as possible without seemingly addressing whether it was a first down at all. Then the ref put the ball a full yard in front of the first down marker, nowhere close to accurate, and the Bills spiked it with two seconds to go on first down. But was it even a first down? We’ll never know for sure.
Thankfully Joe Haden blocked the field goal and it didn’t matter in the end, but this was an awful performance by Jerome Boger and his crew. Out-of-place officials threw flags when in-place officials did not. They missed a giant, illegal hit that knocked Gary Barnidge out of the game. Again, I hate wasting time on officials because there are questionable calls all the time and it’s a really difficult game to officiate, but this one was bad on any reasonable scale.
So the Browns drop to 7-5 and that’s not good. The only solace? The rest of the AFC North struggled too. The Ravens dropped a game to the Chargers. New Orleans beat Pittsburgh 35-32. The Bengals, however, did not lose taking their record to 8-3-1 as they eeked out a victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Browns playoff conversation isn’t over, but they’ll have to do some more winning, obviously. Not-so-obvious is who will be playing quarterback as they go for it.
74 Comments
that 4 game win streak was running the ball and then running it some more. had nothing to do with QB play. in fact, it was Mangini throwing his hands up at the QB play that won us those games.
The schedule will be brutal next year. Seattle. Denver, KC, SD, San Fran, Arizona, and even St. Louis. The saving grace, of course, is that the rest of the AFC North has to play this slate too. All 4 teams won’t be 3 games over .500 at thanksgiving next year, lol. So the division will be won head to head next year. Good thing this team seems to turn it up a notch inside the division with Pettine.
Oh, and whoever wins the North this year draws NE and Indy as their extra AFC opponents too. Brutal!
this year is the stepping stone and next year will tell us if we are a real competitive team. SD and KC have proven themselves this year with a brutal schedule, so it can be done. obviously, it won’t be easy.
At this point, Johnny should know the playbook. If Hoyer isn’t getting it done (and he hasn’t been), then we aren’t losing anything by letting Manziel get real playing time. He “might” give us a spark by those extension plays especially with Gordon deep. It’s at least worth a shot at this point.
I hate this line of reasoning. Either the coaches think Johnny is better or Hoyer is better. Whoever they think is better is the one who starts. End of story.
Johnny “Football” is a self entitled piece of crap. Rarely do I cheer for someone to fail but can’t wait for Johnny “Hollywood” to get planted for good. He won’t be more than a back-up ever in the NFL.
“That’s why I’d wait until the playoff chase is over.”
I hate to be the cynical guy, but the Browns are now in 10th place, pending the Dolphins tonight which could put them in 11th place. With the schedule the Browns have coming up and the injuries they have, I’m going to go ahead and say the Browns are probably out of it.
It also helped that they played teams that were almost as hot garbage as they were.
In their defense, this all started when a fumble was prematurely blown dead a few years ago between Denver and San Diego, I think. It completely changed the outcome of the game, and so they changed the rule to review ALL turnover plays and the refs swallowed their whistles EVERY time the ball comes out. Because, it’d be better to call it a fumble, let it go to automatic review, and get the call right than have another quick whistle decide a game.
How odd that, if the Browns go 9-7 or even 10-6 and still somehow finish last they draw the worst non-divisional AFC opponents. That won’t happen, though, because Browns.
I’m painfully aware of Marvin an Andy prime time woes, Pittsburgh is the one team on our schedule that the front office will get crucified for not beating lol, besides he had his worst day as a pro that Thurs game and fought through a horrific first half and flu lol a gutted out a win, Peyton isn’t nearly as good in the cold, btw optimistic doesn’t mean confident
but hey, it got us another full year of a mismatched Mangini-Holmgren pairing from hell. so, we had that going for us, which was ugh.
I disagree with your statement partially. In the game against Atlanta Hoyer threw to spots where Gordon was supposed to be but he messed up the pattern and they ended up being picks. Despite throwing the picks he still moved the team down the field in the last two minutes to get the team in field goal range. Still how empty were those 300 yards passing in the Atlanta game?
as inept as that offense was during that second half where mangini won 4 straight, we still finished the second half better than the first. and that hasn’t been done since. likely wont happen this year either.
ya blew it!
first, it’s not true. in 2012, we went 3-5 games 9 – 16 after a first half of the year at 2-6. while not much better, it is improvement and Weeden’s play improved from a 70 QBrating to a 75 QBrating in that time.
Give me a break. Hoyer Shmoyer or Manziel Shmanziel. Browns won’t make the playoffs.
You have nerve. Burfict is a dirty player. And Iloka flopped to win the game against the Ravens.
I want to see Johnny Football in week 17 running around when the Ravens need to beat the Browns to win the division. Their secondary is crap, but their front seven will feast on Johnny football.
i wasn’t chalking up that win streak to qb play. just trailing off about the overall regression i seem to see, team-wise, each and every year
Larry. LARRY…ya blew it. Capisce?
fair enough and apologies. again though, in 2012, we were so completely inept at the start of the season that we did improve in the 2nd half.
a big part in why we seem to trail off many/most years though is likely due to the constant churn of FO/coaches/players. With the system constantly changing (3-4 to 4-3…power-run to WCO, etc.) we never have been able to develop the depth of needed players to sustain the play through a season as injuries occur (and every team gets hit with injuries in the NFL).
it really is pretty remarkable that Pettine and staff have been able to sustain the defense with the injuries hit on that side of the ball (the offense has been less hit overall though Mack was obviously huge but also haven’t been able to sustain).
good enough for a poke!
Give Hoyer the start against Indy. If the Browns lose and are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs then give Johnny the last 3 games of the year to see what he’s got.