Johnny Manziel regretted the plays the offense left on the field during Sunday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. --- Johnny Manziel whipped his helmet to the ground in frustration after time ran out on him in the Browns' 17-13 loss to the Chiefs, and if there had been any Microsoft Surface tablets handy, he might've banged himself in the head again.
As it was, he was still beating himself up over the loss by the time he walked to the podium for his post-game press conference. Suffering from a cold, he spoke in hushed tones with a raspy voice and piled on himself.
"I'm definitely shouldering a lot for this loss,'' said Manziel. "This is weighing [on me]. Regardless of what our record is, where we are in the season, it sucks not to win, especially when our coach and the other 10 guys put us in position to try to get in the end zone there at the end. I just felt like I didn't do the right thing in crunch time. That's the moral of the entire story of the game."
Manziel dusted off Johnny Football and bobbed, weaved and darted through the Chiefs' defense for a team-high 108 yards on 11 carries -- the most rushing yards by a Browns quarterback in team history. The previous high was 80 by Frank Ryan in 1962. Eight-four of those rushing yards came in the second half and were part of a season-high 232-yard effort, third most since 1999.
Manziel's ground game -- achieved against a Chiefs' defense minus it's two best pass-rushers -- had everyone from teammates such as Donte Whitner to Chiefs defenders to Hall of Famer Len Dawson christening Manziel the Browns quarterback of the future.
But it was his passing game that was the disaster --- and Manziel was the first to admit it. He completed 13 of 32 attempts (41%) for 136 yards with no touchdowns and one interception for a dismal 40.6 rating. In the decisive second half, he completed only 8-of-21 attempts -- and only 5-of-18 in the fourth quarter when the Browns needed a touchdown and had three chances to get it.
"I just missed too many throws,'' he said. "I didn't feel like I put it exactly where I wanted today. Luckily, we were in it because of the run game because I didn't do enough job in the pass game."
The defense did its part in the second half, shutting out the Chiefs' high-powered offense and forcing them to punt twice in the fourth quarter to give Manziel two last chances to pull it out, but he failed to complete the one or two attempts he needed to triumph.
"You've got to give a lot of credit to our defense in the second half,'' he said. "I thought we put some good drives together but when it came down to it, I don't think I was good enough in crunch time today. I thought I was extremely sub-par and cost us some points.''
With the Browns trailing 17-10 in the fourth quarter, Manziel failed to punch it after a 21-play drive -- on which he scrambled twice to convert third downs. On second and 8 from the Chiefs' 8, he frantically flipped the ball to ineligible right tackle Mitchell Schwartz and was also flagged for intentional grounding. The 10-yard grounding flag moved him back to 18, where he threw behind Gary Barnidge at the 10-yard line.
The Browns -- who fell to 3-12 -- settled for a 36-yard Travis Coons field goal that produced the final margin.
"I saw somebody flash and made a mistake,'' he said. "I had plenty of time and was out of the pocket to throw that ball away. Like I said, that was the play that really sticks out where we gave up points. That's our touchdown drive that we needed right there. Instead we had to got three and had to try and get another one, so I'm pretty upset.''
Manziel took over again at his 42 with 5:35 remaining, but threw three straight incompletions from the K.C. 30, including a third down pass thrown behind Barnidge again in the left flat, and a deep ball in the end zone to a phantom receiver. No one was even close.
"That was just my fault,'' said Manziel. "I thought Trav (Travis Benjamin) had a go ball and Trav had a post. I wanted to give him a chance. Really, Gary was the matchup one-on-one and probably would've kept the sticks moving but it sucks. That's on me.''
The defense bailed him out again with a three-and-out against a team that had outscored its opponents 50-0 in the fourth quarter over the past five games. But again, Manziel came up short, completing 3-of-9 attempts on his final drive.
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Starting at his 30 with 1:52 left and no timeouts, Manziel drove to the 18 -- including another 11-yard scramble -- but ran out of time. He spiked the ball on first down at the 32 to stop the clock, then threw the ball away on second down. He missed Benjamin on a deep post on third down and then with 15 seconds left he fired a 14-yard pass to Darius Jennings to the 18 for a first down. But time expired before Manziel could run another play.
"The refs aren't going to hurry because we need them to hurry,'' said Manziel. "The only thing that probably could've happened is Darius throw the ball back into the middle of the field but still, we're not going to be able to spot it ourselves. There's going to have to be a ref that comes out of somewhere and spots it. So it would've been close anyway. You never know but obviously frustrating there.''
Manziel also lamented his second quarter interception, which came less than a minute after Nate Orchard swiped a pass from Alex Smith and returned it 46 yards -- only Smith's fifth pick of the season. Rookie cornerback Marcus Peters bailed out his quarterback, grabbing a pass intended for Barnidge and taking it back 46 yards.
"Sure, yeah, it's 100 percent (frustrating),'' said Manziel. "I make that throw nine times out of 10 on the deep over to Gary that was intercepted. I hit him on that route all day every day in practice since OTAs, since frickin' last year, and to leave that inside versus a good corner who's speedy, that's a mistake.''
He also kicked himself for overthrowing a wide open Barnidge in the right flat on his second play of the game.
"A little more touch on that ball and Gary scores,'' said Manziel.
In his defense, Manziel didn't have many weapons to choose from. Terrelle Pryor was inactive, Dwayne Bowe was ineffective and Marlon Moore left the game with a concussion. Brian Hartline, who had come on strong late in the season, is on injured reserve with a broken collarbone.
"It was not very good execution by me, so I'm pretty sour about it right now from a personal standpoint, because I think the guys around me played good enough for us to win the game today and I didn't do enough for them,'' he said.
Despite the woeful passing game, coach Mike Pettine saw progress and perhaps a quarterback of the future.
"He battled,'' said Petitne. "The play that he made on the bootleg where the end didn't bite and when he turned and that guy was in his face and delivered a strike to Gary (Barnidge) for a huge first down. I just thought that was indicative of him - he took a major shot, delivered the ball on the money.
"He's a competitor. There's a couple throws he'd want to have back, some reads that he missed. Obviously I have to look at the tape but you can see the competitiveness, the fire in the kid, wanting to get it done. Overall I think he took a step forward."
Chiefs linebacker Dee Ford, who played against Manziel at Texas A&M when he was at Auburn, was impressed.
"He's scary to play against,'' he said. "He's able to extend plays and any quarterback who can do that to a defense kind of frustrates any pass rusher and frustrates any secondary 'cause you have to plaster your coverage."
He saw flashes of the old Johnny Football and believes he'll be successful in the NFL.
"Yes, he can really create some matchups problems, especially any defense that's used to seeing just the dropback pass type of quarterbacks,'' said Ford. "That's what he does. that's what he brings to the table. He rushes the ball. he did a good job."
Whitner believes the future is bright with Manziel behind center.
"I think we have a starting quarterback for next year,'' said Whitner. "Anyone who's seen the things he's done the last couple of weeks can see we have starting quarterback and he's only going to get better with a little more time, a little more work.''
Pettine acknowledged that Manziel is stringing together some encouraging performances, including holding his own against the Seahawks last week. But the Browns must still decide if they need to draft a quarterback with their top pick -- which will likely be in the top two.
"He is,'' said Pettine. "But he'll be the first one to tell you bottom line is finding a way to get the W. But this is on-the-job training, there's no substitute for this. This will only just be a positive when we look back at the foundation and know that he came into Kansas City and wasn't fazed by the defense or the crowd, went into Seattle, two teams that are more than likely playoff teams playing well at the end of the year, less than ideal weather.
"Not a lot of quarterbacks can say that, especially coming into these environments for the first time."
Manziel admitted it felt good to get those old Aggie legs churning again, but it was still of little consolation. He's now down to one more chance against the Steeelers in the season finale next week to prove to the Browns he's the guy. The game is still meaningful for the Steelers, who can clinch a playoff spot with a victory and a Jets loss to the Bills.
"Today wasn't good enough,'' Manziel said. "They may be hostile environments, but we're still 0-2, 1-2 since I've been back in there. We've got a home game next week against Pittsburgh to try and right the ship. It's the last one of the year. What better way for us to than to go out the season with a win. So that's what we're on to now. As disappointing as this is, we'll learn from it. I've got to be better in crunch time next time."