Johnny Manziel missed out on an opportunity to show what he can do when he injured his hamstring in the first half against the Panthers.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Johnny Manziel sounded like a man who very well might be done for the season during his press conference after Sunday's 17-13 loss to the Panthers.
He also sounded like a quarterback who was trying to make a strong case for himself to come back next season and be the hard-working, dedicated, play-making franchise quarterback the Browns expected him to be when they drafted him No. 22 overall.
If you didn't know any better, you would've thought you were listening to his exit interview for the season. But coach Mike Pettine wasn't ready to write him off just yet despite the fact he pulled his left hamstring with 1:49 remaining in the first half and couldn't finish the game. He left Manziel's status for next week's finale Baltimore up in the air.
"I don't know the severity of it yet,'' said Pettine.
With Manziel sidelined, Brian Hoyer rallied the Browns to a 13-10 fourth-quarter lead on an 81-yard TD pass to Jordan Cameron. Panthers quarterback Cam Newton spoiled it by throwing the gamewinning touchdown pass to Jonathan Stewart with 7:07 left to produce the final margin.
Now, those plans of seeing Manziel start the final three games of the season so the Browns know which way to go in the offseason might have gone out the window.
And just in case the lasting memory of Manziel for the 2014 season is the sight of him walking off the field gingerly with a towel draped over his head, he stepped up on his soap box and delivered a message to the Browns and to the fans that he's going to be back, and stronger than ever. It came in the form of a long-winded soliloquy when asked a very simple question: Did you feel more comfortable this week?
"Sure, yeah,'' he said. "I mean last week didn't go very well for us in the first half anywhere. So this week we got three points on the board, we got into their territory and into a situation where if I don't slip on that play and get a better ball to Josh (Gordon), he can run and get us down into a position to score some points. So, it's really unfortunate right there but this was a learning process for me and regardless of what happens moving forward into this last game of the season this has really been a great thing for me.
"A very positive thing for me to get in here with these guys and this week going through the walkthrough and going through everything I was a lot sharper and a lot more on top of this stuff, and I think these guys see me and see that I'm in the building really putting in a lot of work and I want to be the guy.''
Manziel seemed to be responding to all the heat he's taken over the last two weeks for not putting in enough time to be great. Maybe, just maybe, he's realized now how much work it takes to study a defense, know the gameplan and execute it at lightning speed.
"And that's what I want to do and that's what I want to be for this organization so for me, if anything, this has motivated me more to head into this offseason,'' he continued. "We had a better team than we have had here in years past, and we need to capitalize on these guys that we have coming back next year and the talent that we do have on this roster that our coaching staff and our management has put on this team.''
Wait, he wasn't done yet. After all, Pettine admitted last week that the Browns will still have doubts about Manziel even if he were to "hit it out of the park'' in the final two weeks and "a ton of doubts'' if he didn't play well.
"So if anything it makes me more hungry to work in this offseason and get with these guys and stay on top of this stuff and come back next year and come out and try to have some success early in the season and sustain that through a season,'' he said.
"That's obviously a long way from now but just the way my mindset has flipped from being a guy that you never know when you're going to get a chance to go in and trying to stay on top of your stuff to being the guy for a couple weeks -- I felt like I'm making progress throughout the weeks, felt like I'm making more progress throughout this game and to be sidelined by that, it's tough.
"It hurts me and eats at me to not be out there with those guys.''
If that was Manziel's last action of the season, the Browns have precious little tape off which to try to christen him their quarterback of the future. In this game, he completed 3-of-8 attempts for 32 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions for a 50 rating. And one of those passes was a 28-yard strike to Andrew Hawkins --- albeit a fine play -- meaning that his other two completions netted four yards.
In his 13 plays, he managed just two first downs, one of which came by way of defensive penalty. All told, that's seven first downs in his 12-plus possessions -- and three came courtesy of a yellow flag.
Against the Panthers, Manziel went three-and-out on two of his three full drives, with the lone sustained drive producing a a field goal. The 10-play scoring march featured the 28-yard pass to Hawkins on third down in the face of pressure, and a 15-yard personal foul after Hawkins absorbed a frightening helmet-to-helmet blast. Manziel also ran twice for three yards in the game.
Even Pettine struggled for something positive to say about his struggling rookie.
"I just know as an offense we weren't very productive,'' he said.
En route to his 0-2 record as a starter, Manziel has produced one field goal on 12 drives. He has completed 13-of-26 attempts for 112 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions.
Throw in all the rest of his stats from the season -- including his promising 80-yard TD drive against the Bills when he came off the bench to provide a spark -- and he's completed 18-of-35 attempts for 175 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions for a 41.9 rating.
And now the Browns might have to make their offseason quarterback plans without another start on which to decide if Manziel can cut it at this level or if they'll have to go hard after Oregon's Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota or some other potential starting quarterback.
"Offensively, not nearly good enough to win in this league,'' Pettine said. "We made the one big play. Other than that we never seemed to get into much of a rhythm.
Manziel explained that he actually pulled the hamstring on the play right before the second-quarter field goal, with 13:39 left in the first half. It happened on a low 6-yard pass to Josh Gordon that would've converted a third down, but it was reversed after a Carolina challenge.
Manziel ran four more plays before succumbing to the pain on a scramble for a 1-yard loss after which he was hit hard on the sidelines by Luke Kuechly and safety Colin Jones.
"I threw a quick slant (to Gordon),'' he said. "I don't know if you guys saw that. My foot kind of slipped about three, four, five inches and I ended up falling down. Got up and just kind of felt just a little tight in my hamstring. And then as I was trying to go down on that next play, I got up and after the hit, felt fine. Shoulders feels good, head feels good, just took a hit.
"I was ready to hop back in, ready to go and just took off and felt like I was cramping, and as I kept walking more and more it just felt like something that I hadn't experienced before and figured I needed to get checked out. And you know, pretty frustrating."
Manziel made the slow trek to the locker room with the towel over his head as some Panthers fans cheered his exit. At the break, he was examined and doctors determined it was best if he didn't return.
"We came to that conclusion that not at that time,'' he said. "If I needed to go back, I was 100 percent ready to do that for the team. Brian was out there. Brian was in a rhythm so we stuck with that. But I wasn't 100 percent so I wouldn't have expected to be out there unless I absolutely had to be."
For a brief moment, after Hoyer was crushed for a 7-yard sack in the fourth quarter and struggled to breathe, it looked like Manziel might have to trot back out. But the Browns called a timeout and Hoyer finished the game.
"Well, just watching the other 14 games that we had this year, I've seen Brian take big hits and lay there and really get my helmet on and get like I was going to go out there,'' he said. "Brian is an incredibly tough person. I really let things get to a further point before I do really get ready for anything with Brian because in the past he's shown that it takes a lot to knock him out, obviously.''
Hoyer completed 7-of-13 attempts for 134 yards with one touchdown and one interception for a 83.5 rating.
"I want to go out and play and play for my teammates and do whatever it takes to win,'' he said. "I don't know what will happen going forward but we still have a chance of going 8-8 and to go .500,'' said Hoyer.
"I'm going to do whatever I can whether I'm playing, whether Johnny playing, whatever it is. The guys in that locker room, we've all worked so hard we have to go out and finish this strong and not just give up on it. There can be a lot of distractions with Christmas, everything involved. I don't know what the situation is or is his status is but you have to go out and it's a division game, play Baltimore and try to get to 8-8.''
Hoyer put 10 points on the board despite taking a backseat in practice all week to Manziel. Asked how many snaps he had with the starters, he said, "zero.''
Manziel came back out in the second half and the played the role that Hoyer did for him last week: helper, assistant coach and student of the sideline photos. But it was evident how anxious he was.
"I've never done anything like this whether it has been playing since I was a kid in any sport – football, baseball, basketball -- never had anything like this, so it was really new to me and really frustrating because I think I put in two really good weeks of practice and worked extremely hard to get on top of this stuff and stay down,'' he said. "I want to be out there with those guys and it's frustrating when you can't.''
He was encouraged by the strike to Hawkins, by producing a field goal and generally feeling like the lights were coming on.
"There's nothing catastrophic in my first half that really hurt us,'' he said. "We felt like we still had a lot of things that we wanted to put together and do. We were really excited about plays that we still had left in the game plan, so more than anything I'm going to continue to use the word frustrated.''
For the second straight week, Manziel didn't get much help from his supporting cast. The defense surrendered another 200-plus ground game, with Jonathan Stewart rushing for 122 yards and Newton finishing second with 63. Conversely, the Browns struggled to run again, with Isaiah Crowell managing 55 yards and the Browns 84 overall. Terrance West was benched again for having a bad week of practice.
After the game, Newton (18-of-31, 201 yards, one TD, one INT, 74.8 rating) talked to Manziel and told him to keep his head up.
"I'm a fan of his just like a lot of people are,'' Newton said. "But there's a lot of things he has to learn, and it's just a learning curve. I told him I was pulling for him and I hope in the offseason we can link up.''
For the second straight week, Manziel didn't get much help from his supporting cast. The defense surrendered another 200-plus ground game, with Jonathan Stewart rushing for 122 yards and Newton finishing second with 63. Conversely, the Browns struggled to run again, with Isaiah Crowell managing 55 yards and the Browns 84 overall. Terrance West was benched again for having a bad week of practice.
"Early when (Manziel) was in there, I think he felt a lot more comfortable this week than he did last week,'' said Hawkins, who left the locker room with a brace on his injured right thumb. "We've seen Johnny every day all year. So we know what Johnny's capable of. He has great talent and he can be a great quarterback in this league.''
It's great that Hawkins is so sure of that, because after Manziel's two starts the Browns certainly aren't -- and he might not a get a third to ease their doubts.