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Is there such a thing as a solid but unspectacular Johnny Manziel game?
There might be room for annexation now after his Cleveland Browns lost 31-10 to the Cincinnati Bengals and Manziel did good things followed by bad things, but nothing too terribly Manzielly — nothing mind-blowing or*terribly offensive.
The first half bordered on the former. The second was on the verge of the latter.
[Yahoo Daily Fantasy Football: First place wins $100K in our $500K contest for Week 9]
In the first 30 minutes, Manziel completed 11 of his first 18 passes, including a few drops (we're looking at you, Taylor Gabriel) for 128 yards and a pretty TD-pass-on-the-move to rookie running back Duke Johnson as Manziel bought time with his feet, slid to his right and found Johnson for the score that cut the lead to 14-10 with 19 seconds remaining in the half.
Manziel ran only twice for 11 yards in the first half (and only twice for 20 more yards in the second half) as he avoided the rush well, didn't take a sack and took advantage of Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, who called smart plays that emphasized quick, one-read passes. Manziel used his legs to extend plays and looked to throw, not run.
Considering what he was facing*— starting for the first time since Week 2, with*a short week of practice, on the road, against an undefeated team — it was as much as the Browns could have hoped out of Manziel, who started in place of the injured Josh McCown.
The second half showed how far he has to go to master the Browns' offense and how the unit's limitations — Dwayne Bowe was targeted five times, for instance — are limiting factors. Gabriel had six passes thrown his way, catching one for 3 yards, with the other five representing an incredible array of inefficiency.
For his part, Manziel had one nice scramble early in the third that showed his agility and toughness, faking out Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap and taking a thump from cornerback Leon Hall, but he came up short by a few inches on third down. But Manziel completed only 4 of 15 passes in the second half for 40 yards and took three sacks. More drops, yes, but far more wild, inaccurate throws — the kind of throws he roundly avoided early in the game, and more the kind we got used to seeing his rookie season.
This was not a game where you clearly could say, "It's Johnny's ball now" or "Gotta go back to McCown." It was somewhere in between. And though turnover-free ball is a good thing, Manziel likely didn't do enough to convince head coach Mike Pettine to stick with him if McCown is fully healthy. Pettine doesn't appear to be anti-Manziel as much as he is pro-McCown.
Did we learn much about Manziel Thursday night? We saw that he can go down the field, as he did in a career-long 92-yard drive, and command an offense in an important spot. We also learned that he has yet to string four good quarters together in a single game.*
He's way ahead of where he was when he started against the Bengals last season. But we're no closer to figuring out if Manziel is, or deserves to be, the starter going forward without question.
There might be room for annexation now after his Cleveland Browns lost 31-10 to the Cincinnati Bengals and Manziel did good things followed by bad things, but nothing too terribly Manzielly — nothing mind-blowing or*terribly offensive.
The first half bordered on the former. The second was on the verge of the latter.
[Yahoo Daily Fantasy Football: First place wins $100K in our $500K contest for Week 9]
In the first 30 minutes, Manziel completed 11 of his first 18 passes, including a few drops (we're looking at you, Taylor Gabriel) for 128 yards and a pretty TD-pass-on-the-move to rookie running back Duke Johnson as Manziel bought time with his feet, slid to his right and found Johnson for the score that cut the lead to 14-10 with 19 seconds remaining in the half.
Manziel ran only twice for 11 yards in the first half (and only twice for 20 more yards in the second half) as he avoided the rush well, didn't take a sack and took advantage of Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, who called smart plays that emphasized quick, one-read passes. Manziel used his legs to extend plays and looked to throw, not run.
Considering what he was facing*— starting for the first time since Week 2, with*a short week of practice, on the road, against an undefeated team — it was as much as the Browns could have hoped out of Manziel, who started in place of the injured Josh McCown.
The second half showed how far he has to go to master the Browns' offense and how the unit's limitations — Dwayne Bowe was targeted five times, for instance — are limiting factors. Gabriel had six passes thrown his way, catching one for 3 yards, with the other five representing an incredible array of inefficiency.
Tonight, Taylor Gabriel has tried to catch the ball with:1. shoulder2. facemask3. kneesNone were successful.
— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) November 6, 2015
But Manziel and*DeFilippo both regressed in the second half. There were only 13 called runs in the game, and only one in the second half. That's on the offensive coordinator; the Browns were within one score all of the third quarter, and 94 seconds into the fourth.— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) November 6, 2015
For his part, Manziel had one nice scramble early in the third that showed his agility and toughness, faking out Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap and taking a thump from cornerback Leon Hall, but he came up short by a few inches on third down. But Manziel completed only 4 of 15 passes in the second half for 40 yards and took three sacks. More drops, yes, but far more wild, inaccurate throws — the kind of throws he roundly avoided early in the game, and more the kind we got used to seeing his rookie season.
This was not a game where you clearly could say, "It's Johnny's ball now" or "Gotta go back to McCown." It was somewhere in between. And though turnover-free ball is a good thing, Manziel likely didn't do enough to convince head coach Mike Pettine to stick with him if McCown is fully healthy. Pettine doesn't appear to be anti-Manziel as much as he is pro-McCown.
Did we learn much about Manziel Thursday night? We saw that he can go down the field, as he did in a career-long 92-yard drive, and command an offense in an important spot. We also learned that he has yet to string four good quarters together in a single game.*
He's way ahead of where he was when he started against the Bengals last season. But we're no closer to figuring out if Manziel is, or deserves to be, the starter going forward without question.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm