Browns at Redskins final score: Johnny Manziel struggles with 1’s; Washington tops Cleveland 24-23
In the final preseason game of the weekend, the Washington Redskins topped the Cleveland Browns 24-23. The Browns had a chance to win the game on the final play but rookie Connor Shaw’s two-point conversion pass fell incomplete.
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The big story of the game, as expected, were the quarterbacks. The Cleveland Browns planned to give the polarizing Johnny Manziel reps with the first team while Redskins’ quarterback Robert Griffin III is trying to come back from another series of injuries. However, neither player performed as well as they’d probably hoped. Griffin got off to a hot start and finished six-of-eight for 112 yards and rushed for 24 yards on four carries, usually very good numbers, but he did not lead the Redskins on a scoring drive (although he did get them to the one-yard line) and threw an interception. The highlight was a 49-yard completion to Andre Roberts, who the Redskins signed away from the Arizona Cardinals this offseason. Kirk Cousins was the star for the Redskins, completing 12-of-21 passes for 145 yards with one touchdown and one interception. His 14-yard touchdown pass to veteran running back Ryan Grant in the third quarter made it 14-3.
Manziel was seven-of-16 for 65 yards, numbers that are hardly anything to write home about but he did throw his first career touchdown pass, an eight-yard toss to running back Dion Lewis early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 14-10. However, Manziel’s biggest highlight came when he was caught flipping off the Redskins’ side line in the second half (you can see the GIF here). On the ensuing possession, safety Jim Leonhard returned a Cousins’ interception 19 yards to make it 17-14 Browns.
Brian Hoyer, who is battling Manziel for the job, may have been even worse. He was just two-of-six for 16 yards.
After a field goal, the Redskins got a 30-yard touchdown pass from former Browns’ quarterback Colt McCoy to wide receiver Nick Williams, making it 24-17 Browns.
The Browns got the ball back on their own nine-yard line with 2:01 to go and pulled off a bit of magic. Shaw completed a tipped Hail Mary pass to tight end Emmanuel Ogbuehi with no time left to make it 24-23 before his final pass of the night fell incomplete. Shaw was impressive, completing eight-of-nine passes for 123 yards.
The Browns will be back in action Saturday night when they host the St. Louis Rams while the Redskins will make the short trip over to Baltimore to take on the Ravens Saturday night.