Johnny B Good

This was a team loss.  Johnny sucked, yes.  But so did most of the team around him.  If you think Hoyer would have done better (including ball security) you are insane.

I was unable to watch the game, so I have much of what I have from Jim and Doug, and articles about it.

I do have to say that these referees sucked.  While there weren't that many bad calls, there were far too many of them, and the majority were chickenshit.  This crew seemed determined not to let the players just play.  It was maddening.

Some referees are interpreting wide recievers and cornerbacks bumping into eachother as interference, and that's rediculous.

But back to the game.  Joe Haden made a valiant effort, and a couple other defenders played well, but overall the defense was a seive.  So was the offensive line.

Bernie Kosar has more wrong with him than slurred speech.  Owner Jimmy Haslam is in his third season, and most of the front office is new.  How can there even be any such thing as a "culture", and how can that have anything to do with this loss?

In this article on fansided, Zac Wassink questions both the offensive game-plan and the fact that Manziel was not inserted late in some games that were pretty much over.

I agree with the latter.  Mike Pettine seemed determined not to let Manziel have any reps, even when the outcome was a foregone conclusion.  It baffled me.

As for the game-plan, I wish I could have watched the game.

Wassink asserts that Manziel is not a read-option quarterback, simply because he didn't run a lot of it in college.  That's just plain dumb.  He has all the traits of a read-option quarterback, and if it failed in this game, it's not because he can't execute it.

He says that Kyle Shanahan hardly ran any roll-outs.  If that's true, it's crazy.  Manziel will probably never become a true pocket passer.

Shades of Chris Palmer, who I credit for pretty much destroying Tim Couch.

But Shanahan made RGIII look all-world as a rookie by adapting his offense to his skill-set.  If he made a mistake here, I really doubt that he'll repeat it.

I don't know what Manziel's future in the NFL is yet.  You can't shovel dirt on him off of one game in which the rest of his offense might as well have been playing for the other team.

For sure, he needs to get better in a hurry--but so does the rest of his team.

Anyway, one old pattern from previous regimes could emerge:  Now that the team has pretty much destroyed it's hopes for the playoffs, they can safely beat the Ravens.