Cleveland Browns stopgap quarterback Brian Hoyer had an awful first half against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1, leading many Browns fans to believe that Mike Pettine had made a critical error by benching the team’s first-round pick in favor of the security of their more experienced signal-caller. But all of those complains- some quite vociferous- vanished once Hoyer got going, nearly propelling the Browns to victory after an exceptional second half. He followed that performance up with a statistically mediocre outing against the New Orleans Saints, but the always-determined vet put in an incredibly clutch drive to help lead the Browns to a memorable 26-24 upset over a Super Bowl contender.
Factory of Sadness
So what does Johnny Manziel think? Well, he sounds awfully happy for Hoyer, and I’m sure one factor is that he knows he isn’t in a legit competition with Hoyer; he’s getting “his” at some point. But he stated that he is extremely (well, he used a different word) proud of Hoyer, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot, “I’m f—-ng proud of him! I don’t know if I can say that. (But) it’s great. I was extremely happy for our offense to come through in a clutch situation, extremely happy for our team to come out with the win and for Brian to play extremely well on that last drive.”
I don’t blame you if you are skeptical of how genuine Manziel is being, but I’m buying that he’s proud of Hoyer. It was an incredible win for the Browns, though Terrance West, Andrew Hawkins, Isaiah Crowell, and the pass defense deserve the majority of the plaudits, with the running game looking especially impressive. I mean, you can only imagine how good they will be once Ben Tate comes back to make it a standout trio again.