Johnny Manziel asks Browns to retain all coaches and players

Which brings us, as always, to quarterback Johnny Manziel. Pettine said as much last week while offering a curious qualifier.

Manziel then played his make-you-miss card – the one that has some Cleveland fans so optimistic because few players have such escape-ability in their deck. “We did some good things, but we didn’t do enough of them”. “Absolutely. But I’m not going to sit here and put that just 100 yards after the first drive – I’m not going to hang that on him”.

Manziel stressed that continuity will be crucial for the success of next year’s Browns, à la the developing dynamic between Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. He had some good plays that were just throwaways. The Browns allowed 182 rushing yards, the eighth time this season the defense has allowed more than 150 rushing yards to a team. I don’t know that I can really picture that moving forward. I see that in how they practice. “They get stronger as the game goes on”. I wouldn’t expect to see that happen at Arrowhead this weekend.

“I thought he handled it very well”, Browns coach Mike Pettine said.

“I’m not going to go there”, he said.

He looks prepared when he is on the field, doesn’t try to force plays for the most part, and seems to be growing more comfortable playing within the offense rather than trying to “make a play”.

He added, “the effort, the energy is there, but just the level of consistency that’s required to win is not”.

Consider the recent praise Manziel received from left tackle Joe Thomas as one of the bigger up’s of the year.

Thomas said he hasn’t voiced his feeling to Browns owner Jimmy Haslam.

“You’ve got to take a positive away from it, so it’s another start against a really good team”. And he echoed Manziel’s postgame comments that he’d like the coaching staff retained. “I think we’ve shown what we can do on offense”. When he faces bad teams (Tennessee and San Francisco) he puts points on the board (an average of 21 per game). “We just have to get rid of the miscues we have, and everything will be alright”.

The defense couldn’t get off the field, allowing the Seahawks to convert nine of 12 third downs. He sustained a knee injury on the opening drive last week. “We hate getting scored on, even field goals”, Seahawks safety Kelcie McCray said. Trailing by 17 in the fourth quarter, the Browns again settled for three after a blown protection on a blitz led to a third-down sack. “We can’t say we didn’t get down there and give ourselves a chance”.

“It comes down to executing in the red zone, we didn’t do that today”. This means, like it or not, Erving will be the starting right guard for the remainder of the year. Pettine and his teammates believe Manziel continued the positive momentum of his previous two starts. “You kind of get a feel of what they’re going to do for the rest of the game, and you adjust from that point on and make the plays you’re supposed to make”, said Seattle defensive end Cliff Avril. Overall, Johnny did a lot of positive things.

“That pass rush is relentless from the beginning of the game”, Manziel said.

“What I have noticed is his sense of urgency this entire season”.