Johnny Manziel is not Cam Newton. He is not Denard Robinson or Tajh Boyd or Marcus Mariota. He is only Johnny Manziel.
Manziel entered the college football world last season as an unknown and became a king. He made countless plays with the ball in his hands and another where the ball left them – only to return moments later like magic.
It’s a play Alabama fans remember all too well and served as the headline play from a superstar performance in the Crimson Tide’s only loss of the year.
But Alabama will get another shot at Manziel this year. Head coach Nick Saban has had all summer to rack his brain and try to answer the burning question that the entire college football world has:
Just how do you stop Johnny Football?
“He’s going to make some plays,” Saban said. “Athletically he extends a lot of plays, but he extends a lot of plays to pass. It’s not like he’s just a runner that only extends the play scrambling and takes off running. He did that a few times and is capable of doing it. He will do it if he needs to do it. And he’s very instinctive of when he should and shouldn’t.”
Manziel awed the college football world with his arm and his legs, both of which are equally effective. He’d spin, twist, juke, twirl and shake his way for a long touchdown run one play, then get flushed out of the pocket and make a pinpoint throw on the run the next.
And Alabama wasn’t ready for it.
The Aggies jumped out to a 20-0 lead in Tuscaloosa and never looked back. Manziel led the Aggies to scores on their first three drives, shocking the Alabama fans in attendance.
“Alabama was not prepared for Johnny Manziel at all,” Barrett Sallee, lead SEC writer for BleacherReport.com, said. “They were not prepared for just how great he is and how dangerous he is when he does escape the pocket. And it cost them. Because in one quarter, Johnny Manziel basically beat Alabama. For the final three, A&M just held on.”
But Alabama won’t be caught off guard Saturday. The Crimson Tide has had all offseason, plus a bye week, to get ready for the most dangerous player in college football.
There isn’t a formula for stopping Johnny Football or else everyone would have done it by now. But Texas A&M’s two losses last season, as well as the final three quarters of the Alabama game, gave teams some sort of blueprint.
Now, it’s up to Alabama to put it all together.
Contain, contain, contain
As much as Vinnie Sunseri knew he couldn’t look, he just had to. When Manziel seemingly lost the ball in the first quarter of last year’s game, the junior safety took a glance at Manziel.
Then, it was too late.
Manziel got the ball back, spun outside, Sunseri lost his man and the Aggies scored.
Sunseri stressed the importance of not worrying about what Manziel was doing in the secondary and instead focusing on the receivers.
“It’s not your problem to deal with,” Sunseri said. “You’ve got to look at your receiver and make sure that you cover him. Because if you don’t do that, then that’s where the problem starts. If you do that, then everybody else has to do everything that they need to do by containing Johnny Manziel.”
But containing Manziel is easier said than done.
“When he gets out on the perimeter, sometimes he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Really, it’s like a kid with ADD playing football. ‘Oh! There’s a guy open!’” said Dennis Dodd, a national college football writer for CBSSports.com. “You want him to be structured, where he has to go through a progression, and break him down. You still might not beat him. But you definitely want him in the pocket. Problem is, I haven’t seen anyone do that yet.”
The Tide kept Manziel contained for the most part in the second half of their game last year.
“In the second half, [Alabama] didn’t even rush,” Sallee said. “They basically just stood up and arm jockeyed with the offensive linemen a little bit, and when he came to that side of the field, they’d make a move and keep him inside.”
Junior defensive end Jeoffrey Pagan said the team is working on containing Manziel.
“Our strategy is to keep Johnny Manziel in the pocket as much as possible and try and keep good pass rush lanes, try and keep him as a traditional quarterback,” Pagan said. “When he gets outside the pocket, that’s where he makes the most plays.”
Keeping him off the field
For Alabama, the best defense for Manziel could be a good offense. Simply put: He can’t score if he can’t get on the field.
Last year, the Crimson Tide’s first three offensive drives went like this: three-and-out. Interception. Three-and out. And then it was 20-0 Aggies.
“The best defense against A&M is a ball control offense, and Alabama certainly didn’t have that last year,” Sallee said. “They’re going to need that offense to go on 10-, 12-, 14-play drives to allow the defense to rest, to allow the defensive coaches to adjust and implement adjustments. You can’t go three and out against this A&M offense.”
But Alabama’s offense struggled to maintain drives in its season opener against Virginia Tech.
It’s certainly a point of concern and an area in which the Crimson Tide put extra emphasis this week.
“When you play a team like this, you’re playing the team,” Saban said. “Every part of the team has to play well – not just one part or the other. You have to play well on offense – you have to control the tempo of the game with your offense. You have to play well on defense so that they can’t hit big plays and score a bunch of points.”
Putting it all together
Saying something and doing something are two very different ideas.
Alabama has a game plan put together to contain Manziel and sustain drives, but with the pressure of nearly the entire college football world watching, there’s no telling what players will do in the heat of the moment.
One look away from a receiver, one missed assignment on the offensive line, one failed contain could blow the game wide open.
Execution will be critical.
“Don’t take your eye off your man,” Sunseri said. “Or Coach Saban gon’ kill you.”
