“Johnny Football” exposed as just all hype

Manziel looked like the bust he was in the NFL in first CFL start

Johnny Manziel (#2) warms up on July 5, when he was with the Tiger-Cats.

    Wow, did the bubble sure burst on the Johnny Manziel balloon in record time.

    “Johnny Football” is an NFL bust.

    It appears he will become a CFL bust judging by his regular season debut on that circuit with the Montreal Alouettes.

    The 25-year-old Tyler, Texas product threw four bad interceptions resulting in 24 points for the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats in front of a crowd of 18,576 at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium in Montreal.

    How bad was the game for the Alouettes?

    They fell behind 28-0 with 3:51 remaining in the first quarter. The Tiger-Cats led 38-3 at halftime and cruised to a 50-11 victory.

    Manziel has a huge following making Friday’s game a much anticipated one, because he was a college star in the United States for the Texas A & M University Aggies. He won the Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding player for all of U.S. college football for his performance in the 2012 season.

    He guided the Aggies to a 41-13 victory over the Oklahoma University Sooners in that season’s Cotton Bowl.

    Manziel, who stands 6-feet and weighs 210 pounds, was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the first round and 22^nd overall in the 2014 NFL Draft.

    In two campaigns with the Browns in 2014 and 2015, Manziel went 2-6 as a starter. Overall, he completed 147-of-258 passes for 1,675 yards, seven touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 74.4 quarterback rating.

    To be fair, the Browns have struggled in the NFL for some time with their last .500 or better season coming in 2007, when they were 10-6. With that said, Manziel was plagued by controversies regarding his behavior during his time with Cleveland.

    In the early morning hours on Jan. 30, 2016, Manziel was involved in an alleged incident with ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley in Dallas, Texas. On Feb. 25, 2016, Dallas police said they referred Manziel’s case to a district attorney as a misdemeanor assault/domestic violence allegation.

    The Browns released Manziel on March 11, 2016.

    Before 2016 expired, Manziel reached an agreement that led to the dismissal of the charges which included counselling.

The Alouettes haven’t made the CFL playoffs since 2014.

    If it was viewed Manziel could play in the NFL, one of its member teams would have overlooked the troubled history and given him a chance.

    Fast forward to May 18 of this year, Manziel signed as a free agent with the Tiger-Cats in an effort to revive his football career. Due to the Tiger-Cats sticking with Jeremiah Masoli as their starting quarterback, Manziel was traded to the Alouettes on July 22.

    Manziel and offensive linemen Tony Washington and Landon Rice went to the Alouettes in exchange for Canadian defensive end Jamaal Westerman, receiver Chris Williams and first round selections in the 2020 and 2021 CFL Draft.

    In his first CFL start and league action in regular season play on Friday, Manziel had a forgettable night completing 11-of-20 passes for 104 yards, no touchdowns and four aforementioned interceptions. He carried the ball twice for four yards and was pulled after the third quarter.

    The Tiger-Cats opened the game with a six-play touchdown drive that covered 79 yards. The march concluded with Masoli hitting receiver Brandon Banks with a 17-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead.

    On Montreal’s first series, Manziel’s first CFL pass was an ill-advised throw over the middle that was picked off by Tiger-Cats linebacker Larry Dean. A short 12-yard touchdown drive followed giving Hamilton a 14-0 lead, and it was capped by a one-yard scoring run by running back Alex Green.

    The Alouettes proceeded to have a punt blocked on their next series by Tiger-Cats linebacker Curtis Newton. The ball was recovered by Hamilton running back Sean Thomas Erlington and returned 10 yards for a touchdown giving the Tiger-Cats a 21-0 lead.

    Montreal’s ship continued to sink. Manziel threw his second bad pass that was intercepted by Tiger-Cats defensive back Jumal Rolle. Following that interception, Hamilton drove 48 yards for another touchdown to go up 28-0. That march was capped when Masoli hit receiver Jalen Saunders for a 21-yard touchdown strike.

    The game was effectively over at that point.

    Masoli completed 17-of-26 passes for 300 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

    To be fair, the Alouettes have struggled for some time last making the post-season and advancing to the East Division Final in 2014. They were 3-15 last season and fell to 1-6 with Friday’s embarrassing loss.

    The Tiger-Cats ended a three-game skid improving to 3-4. Under former veteran NFL sideline bosses in head coach June Jones and defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville, the Tiger-Cats have played better than their record indicates.

    Slated to now travel to Winnipeg to play the Blue Bombers (4-3) on Aug. 10, the Tiger-Cats recorded another big offensive explosion they had been looking for since downing the Eskimos in Edmonton 38-21 on June 22.

Jeremiah Masoli won the job as the Tiger-Cats starting QB.

    While Manziel is playing on a weak Montreal side, he looked on the field like he did when he guided the Browns. In reality, Manziel is a dud at the professional level until he can prove otherwise. If there were any visions of grandeur of what he could do, they took a hit of reality on the field on Friday night.
    Being human, you never want to see someone fail and love comeback stories, but it is hard to imagine Manziel pulling the Alouettes out of their doldrums. It is more likely he will become a footnote in this run of Montreal woes.

    Things don’t get any easier for the Alouettes. They return to action on Aug. 11 to face the Redblacks (4-3) in Ottawa. The Redblacks are looking to rebound from a heartbreaking 42-41 last second loss to the Argonauts in Toronto on Thursday.

    For the Alouettes, the worst is likely yet to come unless they start backup signal caller Vernon Adams Jr.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Penalties drag CFL down

Three officials get together to discuss a penalty call.

    The CFL officials deserve a thumbs up.

    The men in the black and white striped shirts have been totally consistent calling the league’s new standard in flagging pass interference and illegal contact on a receiver penalties. Do to that consistency, everyone that watches the CFL has a pretty accurate painting of what the game looks with the strict enforcement of these fouls with four weeks of the season in the books.

    Now, everyone has to decide whether they like how the game looks now or not.

It seems routine now for both teams to record over 100 yards in penalties in each contest and for quarterbacks to complete 80 per cent of their passes.

    You also have to wonder if games now are weighted too much against the defence.

    A signature play to show how much the defence is hampered came from the B.C. Lions 27-24 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday at Mosaic Stadium. Near the end of the third quarter with the Lions on the Roughriders 29 holding a 20-11 lead, B.C. quarterback Travis Lulay threw a deep pass into the end zone to receiver Shawn Gore, who ran a wheel route on Riders defensive back Michael Carter. Carter was flagged for pass interference, which brought the ball to the Saskatchewan two.

    Saskatchewan head coach Corey Chamblin threw the challenge flag in hopes of reversing the penalty call. The call stood up after a review.

    Two plays later, the Lions opened the fourth quarter scoring a touchdown as Lulay connected with receiver A.C. Leonard to make the score 27-11. The Lions ultimately had strategic control of the game that stood up despite a late Roughriders rally.

    In dissecting the pass interference all that helped set up B.C.’s final major, it was clear that minor contact occurred between Gore and Carter halfway through the route. The two ended up hand fighting for a second before Lulay’s pass sailed way over the pair. Gore made a fruitless dive for the ball, but he had no chance of coming up with the pass.

    In Carter’s defence, you can argue there shouldn’t have been a penalty because both he and Gore participated in the hand fighting and the ball was not catchable.

    However, the officials have set the standard this season that any downfield contact on a receiver will be flagged, and the penalty call on Carter was consistent with what has already been called in the 2015 campaign. The referees and linesman grade out high for not swaying from that standard.

    The officials should continue to do what they are doing right through the end of the post-season. When the off-season rolls around, all those involved with league meetings have to decide if they want this standard of enforcement to be maintained. To make a change mid-season would be the biggest thing any league could do to damage its credibility.

An official stands beside Riders receiver Rob Bagg.

    Besides discussing the pass interference calls, the league has to examine how it is calling all infractions. At the start of the 2014 season, it was deemed the league need to call penalties more tightly. That resulted in numerous defensive battles, because the excessive penalty calls helped bring offences to a standstill.

    The highlight or lowlight of the season came in the 102^nd Grey Cup in Vancouver on Nov. 30 between the Calgary Stampeders and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. With the Stampeders holding a 20-16 edge inside of the final minute of the fourth quarter, they had to punt the ball away to dangerous Tiger-Cats returner Brandon Banks. On an electrifying return, Banks ran the ball back 90 yards for the apparent winning score with 35 seconds to play.

    Hamilton linebacker Taylor Reed was flagged for an illegal block on Calgary linebacker Karl McCartney that erased the TD, and the Stamps held on for a 20-16 victory.

    Looking at the video, the call was close. There was an angle that made it look like the block was from the side and another angle where it looked like the block was a bit in the back area. The block also came in the fringe area, where it can be argued that McCartney might not have been able to make a tackle.

    If Bank’s major stood, the 102^nd Grey Cup would be vaulted into classic status. In the end, it was still a good game, but it could have enjoyed a loftier position in CFL history.

    In order to get offences rolling, the league’s brain trust in the off-season decided to get tougher on the interpretation of defensive pass interference and illegal contact on a receiver. In another weird twist, offensive yardage is up all over the place, but the 38-34 style offensive shootout common in the late 1980s and early 1990s hasn’t returned.

    It is safe to say it was hoped the rule changes would greatly increase scoring, but it hasn’t. There has only been two games where both teams have score more than 30 points.

    During that last clash between the Riders and Lions, Saskatchewan was flagged 14 times for 159 yards, while B.C. had 11 infractions for 93 yards. Those types of penalty numbers have been the norm.

    When you viewed Saturday’s battle between the Stampeders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Calgary, it can be argued teams can adjust to how penalties are being called. The Stamps slipped past the Bombers 26-25 in an outstanding game. Calgary was flagged 12 times for 92 yards, while Winnipeg had nine infractions for 61 yards.

Officials sort out a play in a game featuring the Roughriders and Argonauts.

    The Stamps penalty yardage spiked a bit due to procedure calls, because they had to work in a number of backups to replace injured starters.

    With all that said, it would be great to see officials to have the ability to make a no call, if it is deserved. If a pass is not catchable and both the receiver and defensive back are hand fighting for example, don’t throw a flag.

    If the casual fan decides to stay away due to how the game looks, that will likely force the CFL’s brain trust to make more chances in the off-season, which hopefully means calling penalties the way they did in 2013.

    If you have any comments about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.