Cleveland State outslugs Loyola, Gary Waters gets 350th career win
December 17, 2015Joe Haden discusses his disappointing 2015 season (Audio)
December 17, 2015The Cleveland Browns ended their seven-game losing streak this past Sunday, beating the San Francisco 49ers, 24-10. The team played perhaps its best performance of the season, playing well on both sides of the ball versus the 49ers. On offense, the Browns scored 24 points in quarterback Johnny Manziel’s first start since his short-term benching. Manziel played very well, showing improvement from earlier in the season. In my opinion, Sunday was Manziel’s best game as a Cleveland Brown.
Today, we will examine some of Manziel’s bigger plays of the game, both positive and negative.
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10-yard completion to WR Brian Hartline
This play shows the improvement Johnny Manziel has made in terms of the nuances of the quarterback position. On this play, receiver Travis Benjamin is running a slant from the slot position, while receiver Brian Hartline is also running a slant route lined up outside of Benjamin. Manziel uses his eyes perfectly on this play. Manziel’s eyes control middle linebacker Gerald Hodges in the middle of the field. At the outset of the play, Manziel looks to the right away from Hartline. His eyes draw Hodges to move toward the right and follow Benjamin the first player running a slant. This opens up the middle of the field for Hartline. Manziel quickly takes his eyes back to left and delivers a sharp pass right to Hartline, who almost scores a touchdown. It was a great use of his eyes to control the defense.
30-yard completion to TE Gary Barnidge
This play shows Manziel’s ability to create extra opportunities with his legs. The Browns have three receivers, a tight end and a running back lined up in this passing play. As you can see, the Browns receiving options cannot get open for Manziel, causing him to hold onto the ball and have to evade the pass rush. He evades the pass rush, but rather than run for yardage, Manziel keeps his eyes down field. In looking down field, he directs tight end Gary Barnidge to go back and get over top the defenders. Barnidge does just that, allowing Manziel to throw a very good touch pass to the tight end for a big gainer. This play shows his evolvement to not always look to run when scrambling.
Two-yard touchdown completion to TE Gary Barnidge
This play shows Manziel’s quick decision-making and ball placement. The Browns run a run route on the outside, with receiver Travis Benjamin running a slant inside and tight end Gary Barnidge running a flat route to the sideline. The play works perfectly because of Manziel’s timing and ball placement. Manziel throws at the right time, delivering the pass when Benjamin and Barnidge cross paths. The other key was that the pass was on the outside of Barnidge, where only the tight end could catch it. It was a play made by timing, route running and ball placement.
Interception by S Jaquiski Tartt
This is Johnny Manziel’s one big mistake in the game. In this play, Manziel falls back to some of his old tendencies that get him in trouble. The play has three receivers and a tight end lined up outside with a running back in the backfield. The first mistake by Manziel comes when he decides to scramble out of the pocket, rather than stand tall and deliver a pass from the pocket. Manziel had a wide open Gary Barnidge down field on the right, but Manziel gets happy feet and leaves the pocket instead of passing it to Barnidge. The other mistake is his horrible decision to throw across his body and the field. This is one of his wild, unconventional plays that he used to do in college that he just cannot do in the NFL. He knew right after the play that this was a dumb decision.
Highlight of the Game
The offense and defense are the highlights of the game this week. It was actually fun to watch the Browns on both sides of the ball. On offense, the team scored 24 points and had total of 481 yards of offense. The run game was working, along with the passing game of Johnny Manziel. On defense, the pass rush had an amazing nine sacks on the day. But, more amazing is that the unit only allowed 10 points after allowing more than 30 points over the last five games. It was fun to be a Browns fans for at least one Sunday during the season.
Lowlight of the Game
The lowlight of the game is the Browns field goal team. The team suffered yet another blocked field goal in the game. The problem is two-fold. The biggest problem is the blocking, specifically Danny Shelton and Cameron Erving. The two rookies have been blown back on multiple occasions, allowing the rush to get a chance to put a hand up to block the field goal. The other problem is kicker Travis Coons low trajectory kicks. He is kicking the ball way to low, allowing the defense to have a better chance to block it.
5 Comments
The guy just gets better every start. Really looking forward to see how he plays against the Seattle D.
good stuff JOE … on the INT , it would’ve been hard for anyone to “stand tall” in the pocket on that play. the 49ers had a good pas rush on the play … i think he has to learn to throw the ball away every now & then instead of forcing it.
also , shelton & erving should not be on the FG unit … either put some starting O-linemen , or at least some of the back-up PO-linemen in there.
erving has been getting pushed around & abused this year & shelton has probably never had to block in his life.
Joe
I’ve not commented on this particular feature before but want to say thanks for doing this. I’ve learned more about the nuances of football reading these posts than I did in all of my 5 years of pee wee football (and the many many years since leaving the pee wee leagues).
it’s more fun to read what the Browns did right but definitely high density learning to see what they do wrong.
So thanks and kep up the great work.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate the kind words