PITTSBURGH — Johnny Manziel probably should have trademarked Johnny Clipboard instead.
Fresh off winning the trademark claim to his more famous Johnny Football nickname, Manziel looks to be bound to the Browns’ bench for a little while longer after Cleveland’s 30-27 loss to the Steelers on Sunday.
After a miserable first half that made you think Manziel might take over at any minute, Browns starter Brian Hoyer nearly led a comeback for the ages before a late defensive collapse let Pittsburgh escape by way of Shaun Suisham’s 41-yard field goal at the gun.
Hoyer completed 9-of-10 passes for 147 yards in the third quarter alone, helping the Browns rally from a 27-3 deficit at halftime to a 27-27 tie early in the fourth. The comeback was so stunning, the capacity crowd at Heinz Field booed the Steelers off the field.
But a textbook final drive by Ben Roethlisberger in which he completed three passes for 33 yards in just 42 seconds set up Suisham and allowed the Steelers to survive their longtime rival’s incredible rally.
It was Cleveland’s 10th consecutive opening-day loss.
“I told the team afterward that this is a pass-fail league, and we failed,” said new Browns coach Mike Pettine, a former Jets defensive coordinator under Rex Ryan. “There are no moral victories in this league.”
Pettine and his staff had hinted all week Manziel, who couldn’t beat out Hoyer in the preseason despite Hoyer’s mostly awful performance, would at least get a few snaps out of the read option as a change of pace.
But that proved to be a decoy attempt, because the NFL’s current runaway leader in jersey sales never even got the chance to put on his helmet during the game.
Not even a first half in which Hoyer looked lost, completing just 4-of-11 passes for 57 yards as the Browns fell behind by 24 points, could get Pettine to look in Manziel’s direction.
“The way the game went, we just never felt the need for him,” Pettine said of the Browns’ celebrated first-round pick.
Asked if he considered starting Manziel in the second half, Pettine was blunt.
“No,” he said.
Of course, Manziel would have had a hard time looking any better than Hoyer did in the third and early fourth quarters.
After punting on five of their six possessions in the first half, the Browns inexplicably came alive behind Hoyer and a rejuvenated running game. They took the second-half kickoff and methodically tied the game by scoring on each of their first four drives, including a pair of TD runs by rookie undrafted free agent Isaiah Crowell.
If not for a near-pristine performance from Roethlisberger (23-of-34 for 365 yards and a TD, with one interception) and the hard running of Le’Veon Bell (21 carries for 109 yards and a score), the Steelers would be having to explain an embarrassing choke job.
Pittsburgh pulled it off, though, which meant players such as Antonio Brown didn’t have to answer for following up a first half in which he caught five passes for 116 yards and a TD (and memorably kicked Browns punter Spencer Lanning in the face) with a giant goose egg in the second half.
“A win is a win,” Roethlisberger said after leading his 34th career game-winning drive. “We can’t apologize for the way we win.”
The sad-sack Browns, meanwhile, were left having to apologize for yet another crushing loss — one that could be costly, too, considering key offensive players Ben Tate and Jordan Cameron both exited early with potentially serious injuries.
But at least Cleveland doesn’t have a quarterback controversy on its hands for the next week.
“It was great, but we can’t put ourselves in that type of hole against a team like Pittsburgh,” Hoyer said. “We got close to earning everyone’s respect, but we have to finish it next time.”