Pettine: Manziel has improved, not guaranteed to start

One of the most enjoyable parts of the season is watching how divisions sift out in the early going. After throwing four touchdown passes and finishing with a flawless quarterback rating in Week 1, the Titans looked primed to steal another win on the road.

Rivers’ 22 straight is a Chargers record and ties for third-longest in National Football League history. I think it’s going to take some combination of opening up the playbook and, frankly, better luck, to put more points on the board in the future. With the team holding on to a 21-14 lead and big 3 down, Johnny Manziel showed a little bit of his college razzle dazzle in finding Travis Benjamin for the game-clinching touchdown. The first half was ended on a Travis Benjamin punt return touchdown, his second score of the day. Offensive the individual coordinating John DeFilippo, gave up, accepts. When the team finally made the move to Manziel as the starter, things went badly. As Benjamin crossed the goal line, Manziel ran the length of the field, pumping his fist the whole way before celebrating with his teammate.

“Let’s get those cleaned up so we can become the team we have the potential to become”, Whisenhunt said. That was an area that we have to get better with. But that didn’t stop Benjamin from lighting up the crowd with an explosive play.

But in beating the Tennessee Titans as the starting quarterback for the Browns yesterday, Manziel looked anything but a “practical joke”.

The Titans knew Benjamin was fast.

“He might not be allowed in Nashville ever again”, Pettine said.

Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota walks off the field… All that said, I’m actually pretty encouraged by what I saw from the offense, especially on the ground.

After his team’s 24-20 victory over the New York Giants, Atlanta receiver Julio Jones was asked to “go through that fantastic catch in the second half”. The Florida-born player posted 269 combined yards -resulting from 115 receiving and 154 yards from punt returns – which now officially ranks as the “the seventh-most in a single-game” in Browns’ plays. It wasn’t an unforgettable performance by the first-year pro, but he brought an entirely different dimension to an offense that hasn’t been seen in Cleveland since Jeff Garcia in 2004.

When the Buccaneers signed him to be their starter last offseason on the strength of a Marc Trestman-aided five-game stretch of brilliance, he rewarded them with a 1-11 nuclear meltdown in which he failed to stave off the immortal Mike Glennon.

In between the Benjamin touchdowns, Isaiah Crowell scored on an 11-yard run. Speaking of Benjamin, he and Manziel have developed some chemistry together that is promising.

Pettine also said that the coaching staff will be taking up the question on Monday night regarding whether Manziel should keep the job even if McCown gets the green light. “He knew he had gotten above the defender and it was just a matter of outrunning him with the football”. We got to the point in the game with the lead where we were more pass conscience than we were run so we were willing to concede some yards later, but early in the game there were several plays that need to be better.”.