Johnny Manziel signs $100 bill, slams tablet against his head

There are encouraging signs, to be sure.

Do you think that Johnny Manziel can be money for the Cleveland Browns for the remainder of the season? “That’s no excuse. Maybe we got a little bigheaded and just thought a victory was going to happen”. It was like a whole new defense replaced the one from last week.

The challenge for Manziel – and the rest of the team – is to do it again next week and the week after and the week after that.

Can he be trusted?

It doesn’t have to be that way, obviously, as it is certainly reasonable to acknowledge that Manziel had the best game of his National Football League career against the 49ers, while also accepting that one game does not mean it is time to anoint him the unquestioned answer at a position that has plagued the Browns since 1993.

When will Manziel grow up? He bounced back in the third quarter by throwing a touchdown pass to tight end Gary Barnidge, capping a 78-yard scoring drive.

Questions entering the game for Manziel focused less on money and more as to whether he would be in Cleveland after this season.

Manziel stormed off the field and slammed his helmet to the ground. This season he has completed 61 percent of his passes with six touchdowns and three interceptions. Hartline finishes his season with 46 receptions for 523 yards (11.4 avg.) with two touchdowns.

“He beat me to it”, joked Smiling Mike Pettine, waxing wacky for the first time since the Browns’ last win, which came – let’s see here – um, two months ago.

With the way Manziel was able to move the football against the 49ers defense, you would have never of known that he was making just his fourth start of the year, and his first since mid-November. It’s safe to say that wide receiver is a need, that must be addressed within the first three rounds of next years draft.

Before the the game Sunday, he took a lap around the stadium to mingle with fans.

“It’s getting better”, Manziel said. Or his trade value. But on Sunday, it looked as if the Browns were a different team. Punishing Manziel by not letting him play under the lights on Monday Night Football was probably enough, and the Browns missed a key opportunity to see how Manziel would play against a good team that he had already seen once this season.

“You’ve got to do some really bad things to lose when you have 200 rushing yards – and we didn’t do them”, Thomas deadpanned.

On Sunday the tablet didn’t lie – a touchdown was there for the taking against a busted coverage.

Even when the Niners did something right Sunday, they found a way to out-Brown the Browns – negating success with needless penalties.

ABOUT THE WRITER Marla Ridenour is a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal.