After Brian Hoyer was benched in favor of Johnny Manziel last week, he vowed to stay ready and assured Browns fans that they hadn’t seen the last of him yet.
He just didn’t know he’d be back in the game this quickly.
Hoyer replaced Johnny Manziel with 1:49 left in the first half of Sunday’s 17-13 loss to the Panthers and after Manziel suffered a hamstring injury and did not return. Manziel’s status for next week’s finale in Baltimore is uncertain.
“I don’t know the severity of it,” said coach Mike Pettine.
He said Manziel could’ve gone back in if he had to at the end of the game when Hoyer took a hard shot and got the wind knocked out of him.
“But he would not have been mobile,” said Pettine. “We probably would have had to hand it off or just catch it and throw it. . .(The hamstring) had really stiffened up on him.
Pettine acknowledged, “It’s tough to lose your starting quarterback and have to switch gears midstream.”
Manziel said he first injured the hamstring on the opening drive of the second quarter, on a pass to Josh Gordon that was reversed. He left the game after scrambling for a 1-yard loss and getting hit by Luke Kuechly and Colin Jones simultaneously two drives later.
“Got up and just felt a little tight in my hamstring,” he said. “As I was trying to go down for that next play, I got up after the hit, felt fine, shoulders feel good, head feels good, just took a hit. I was ready to hop back in, ready to go, just stood up and felt like I was cramping. As I kept walking more and more it just felt like something I hadn’t experienced before and figured I needed to get it checked out. Pretty frustrating.”
He said it was decided at halftime to keep Hoyer in the game.
“I was evaluated and we came to the conclusion, at that time, if I needed to go back in I was 100 percent ready to do that for the team,” he said. “Brian was out there, Brian was in a rhythm so we stuck with that.”
Cam Newton said fans cheering when Manziel went down “was classless. We’re better than that.”
Manziel said he really didn’t expect to come in at the end when Hoyer took the hard blow and got up slowly.
“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 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 it takes a lot to knock him out, obviously.”
He acknowledged that it was frustrating to have to leave the game when he’s finally gotten a chance.
“More than anything I’m gonna continue to use the word frustrated,” he said. “Never done anything like this since I was playing as a kid in any sport, football, baseball, basketball, never had anything like this so it’s really new to me and really frustrating because I think I’ve put in two really, really good weeks of practice and really [have been] working extremely hard to get on top of this stuff and I want to be out there with those guys. It’s frustrating when you can’t.”
Hoyer, who took over with the Browns trailing 10-3, rallied the Browns to their only lead of the game and put 10 points on the board, but the Browns came up short after failing to cash in on a late-game takeaway and giving up some huge plays at the end, including a 30-yard blast by running back Jonathan Stewart.
“I’ve been a backup before so I know how to prepare that way,” he said.
Asked how many snaps he had with the starters during the week, he said “zero.”
The Browns fell to 7-8 and blew a chance to post their first winning season since 2007. The best they can finish now is 8-8 if they beat Baltimore next week. It was the Browns’ fourth straight loss and fifth in their last six.
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