QB Manziel quick to put lousy debut Behind him
In CFL debut, former Heisman winner picked off 4 times in 50-11 loss to Ticats
Four days removed from the Friday Night Massacre — one of several the Alouettes have endured this season, but the first of Johnny Manziel’s career in Montreal — the quarterback said it’s ancient history.
And the 25-year-old Canadian Football League rookie believes he still has the faith of his teammates. He certainly has head coach Mike Sherman’s, who announced following the game Manziel remains the team’s starter.
“I feel this team has faith in me. I hope they continue to have faith,” Manziel said on Tuesday, the first time he has addressed the media this week. “It’s not easy. You sit there and watch your quarterback throw four (interceptions), especially with all the hype and buzz that was surrounding everything. You flush it and move on.
“I stood in front of the guys after the game. I put a lot of that on myself. I take pride in what I put on film, the way I play the game. It wasn’t a good day.”
No, it wasn’t. The Als were obliterated 50-11 by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — Manziel’s former team — while the former Heisman Trophy winner and first-round NFL draft choice threw four first-half interceptions, including his second CFL regular-season pass.
Montreal was down by four touchdowns barely 11 minutes into the game, and Manziel was on the bench by the fourth quarter, having completed 11 of 20 passes for 104 yards — less than the length of a CFL field. Now it will be interesting to see how he responds, moves forward and, the organization hopes, improves as the days and weeks pass.
In Manziel’s first career NFL start for the Cleveland Browns, he completed 10 of 18 passes for 80 yards, while being intercepted twice in a 30-0 loss to Cincinnati. He started eight games, winning only two, over two seasons before being released. He passed for 1,675 yards and seven touchdowns, while also throwing seven interceptions.
Three seasons later, Manziel has gone from a bad NFL team to one in the CFL equally as challenged to display some competence. The Als are 1-6 this season after ending 2017 with 11 consecutive defeats. They are on track to miss the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.
“What happened Friday happened to our team. It didn’t happen just to him,” Sherman said. “Friday’s debacle was on a lot of fronts, not just our quarterback. The whole team has to move forward from Friday, not just John.”
While Sherman announced immediately following the thrashing that Manziel would start this Saturday night at Ottawa, the decision became academic when backup Vernon Adams suffered a foot injury during Friday’s blowout. He was in a walking boot Tuesday and could miss up to six weeks. He becomes the fourth Als quarterback, after Drew Willy, Jeff Mathews and Matt Shiltz, to be injured.
Montreal has re-signed quarterback Antonio Pipkin, who played a portion of the final 2017 game at Hamilton, but was released after the first game this season.
Starting after only two weeks’ practice many — including Manziel’s agent, Erik Burkhardt, who called it “insane” — thought Sherman’s decision was premature. Manziel, conversely, said he has never wanted to win a game so badly, adding he put in the necessary work, and was prepared to win, although he has been criticized by U.S.-based writers for neither preparing or putting in the necessary time while with Cleveland.
Sherman said he doesn’t know how early Manziel arrives at Olympic Stadium, since he’s usually in his office, watching tape. CFL rules stipulate no player is obligated to spend more than 4½ hours daily at the stadium, between meetings and practice. Any additional time is the player’s prerogative.
“Any time you spend in the building, on the field or in the meeting rooms, you want it to be productive,” Sherman said. “We’re looking for productivity in everything we do.”
Manziel said he slept little, if at all, Friday night, reiterating how humbling an experience it was. He had never thrown four interceptions in a game.
“For the first 24 hours, it’s a tough pill to swallow. From there, what can you do about it?” he said. “Hamilton’s over. It’s done. It’s not ideal, how we wanted to start, especially my first game here.
“It couldn’t have got much worse. You look at it as a test,” Manziel added. “I’ve been away (from the game) for two years. It’s a test for our team, being in the hole that we’re in and the record we have. There’s going to be a lot of people who write us off because of that game. Not me. I look at it as a test and challenge. I prepared to win the game. It didn’t go our way. It’s hard to swallow that and move forward (when) you get beat up like that. You take it like a man.”
There were dropped passes in the game along with miscommunication between Manziel and the receivers. And he frequently was running for his life behind the Als’ porous offensive line.
“How can it fall on Johnny? You (media) want it to fall on Johnny?” tailback Tyrell Sutton said. “We had drops. He made bad plays, trying to do too much. We didn’t do enough. It’s a team effort. Did you expect him to come in here and put up 70 points? That wasn’t going to happen.”
In other news, veteran rush-end John Bowman suffered a partially torn biceps muscle that could sideline him up to six weeks.
It’s not easy. You sit there and watch your quarterback throw four (interceptions), especially with all the hype and buzz that was surrounding everything.