MONTREAL -- Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback Johnny Manziel admits he still has a lot to learn in the Canadian Football League, playing under a different set of rules than he's used to. But if there’s one thing Manziel is taking advantage of in the first month of his Canadian football journey, it’s the extra space.
Manziel threw his first touchdown pass of the pre-season in a 30-15 road win over the Montreal Alouettes on Saturday afternoon at Percival Molson Stadium. Manziel came in during the second quarter and played well into the fourth before Dane Evans came on and took his place. Manziel completed 12 of his 20 passes on Saturday, throwing for 88 yards.
And while he was sacked twice, he showed he can still use his feet and escape pressure from the defense, and rushed for 19 yards on four carries.
“A couple times I’ve extended some of these plays,” Manziel said following a 30-15 the victory. “The reason why I’ve been able to make the plays is because the field is longer.”
The former Cleveland Brown used the extra width of a CFL field, nearly 15 yards wider than that of the NFL, to roll out of the pocket on a number of sequences. If he wasn’t trying to run for extra yards, he was trying to complete a passing play along the sideline.
“If I’m on a field that I’ve been playing on the last couple of years, I’m out of bounds,” Manziel said.
Ticats coach June Jones said that Manziel was still “rusty” postgame, and reaffirmed that Jeremiah Masoli was still his starting quarterback. Jones did say however he liked what he saw from the former NFL quarterback.
“He’s a competitor,” Jones said. “You guys can see what he can do. And he can make a difference.”
Manziel entered the game in the second quarter, taking over for fellow backup quarterback Bryant Moniz, who failed to make a significant impact in the offensive series he played. Moniz completed three passes, throwing for just 17 yards.
Manziel almost threw for half his total on his first play, an eight-yard short connection with receiver Alex Green. Two plays later, Manziel rolled out to his left and ran into the Alouettes sideline, only to take a late hit from linebacker Henoc Muamba. The Alouettes were called for unnecessary roughness on the play.
“I wanted to make sure that he wasn’t going to get anymore yards,” Muamba said.
While Muamba said he did not back down from Manziel in the moment, he acknowledged that the hit was an “undisciplined play."
“That’s on me,” Muamba added. “Especially as a leader on this defense, it’s something that I shouldn’t be doing and it’s something that I’m going to fix moving forward."
Manziel, just getting his feet wet in a new league, said he's up for the challenges that presents.
“I don’t want anything but everybody’s best shot,” Manziel said. “I’ve talked to guys on the team about this, about some things I said last week as far not backing down from anybody. I think that’s our mantra for our whole team.
“Sometimes it gets a little pushy and that’s just the way it goes.”
MORE: Johnny Manziel on late hit: ‘I understand I have a target on my back’
A couple plays later, Manziel finished the drive by finding Green in the end zone, Manziel's first touchdown in the CFL.
“I felt like I could’ve thrown it a second earlier,” Manziel said. “But at the end of the day if the ball crosses the goal line and they put the points on the board it counts.”
In his second CFL preseason appearance, Johnny Manziel has his first CFL touchdown! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/D7DX33t3Mt
— CFL on TSN (@CFLonTSN) June 9, 2018
“We had a pass call,” Green said. “It was supposed to go out to the flat. Once the ball is snapped, he has a few reads before me so he looked the reads off and found me in the end zone and delivered. He went through his progression and did his job.”
The Ticats first touchdown of the game brought them within seven points of the Alouettes, who had jumped out to a 14-0 lead. Hamilton went on to score 30 unanswered points, including Manziel’s touchdown pass, and the Alouettes didn’t score again until they picked up a single in the fourth quarter.
Regardless, Manziel did enough to win over some fans at Molson Stadium as he exchanged handshakes, high fives, and signed autographs with a few lucky attendees who hovered over the entrance tunnel to the Tiger-Cats locker room.
“I’ve garnered a lot of fans over the last couple of years and I’m very thankful for that,” Manziel said. “Especially being in a foreign place to get support and love like that. It obviously means a lot, it makes you feel good.”
Both Hamilton and Montreal will begin their CFL seasons with road games on Saturday, June 16. The Ticats will start their season in Calgary against the Stampeders, while Montreal will play the B.C. Lions.