The Cincinnati Bengals veteran defensive end was talking about the nightmare performance they forced onto Cleveland’s brash rookie quarterback, Johnny Manziel, in what ended up a 30-0 rout of the Browns, Sunday, at FirstEnergy stadium.
Gilberry was also offering a teasing tweak of the exuberant Browns fans who had envisioned Johnny Football as the swashbuckling savior, the kid quarterback who would keep 7-6 Cleveland in the playoff hunt and in the process make Cincinnati pay.
Manziel’s signature move the past couple of years has been to hold his hands up and rub his thumbs over his figures to signify money.
Football’s Richie Rich first started flashing the cash sign when he scored touchdowns at Texas A&M. He did the same when he walked across the Radio City Music Hall stage in New York last spring after being drafted in the first round by the Browns. Since then, he’s done it at parties and clubs from Hollywood and Vegas to the Warehouse District in Cleveland.
Saturday night several of the Bengals players – all of them dressed for a night on the town – went to a downtown restaurant, Cleveland Chop, where they were recognized by Browns fans.
“Everybody was giving us the money sign and yelling at us, ‘Good luck, ‘cause your gonna need it,’” Gilberry recalled with a smile. “They were just fans having fun, but I think maybe we spoiled it for them today.”
Fellow lineman Domata Peko said the Bengals were deluged with the money sign Saturday night and Sunday: “On the way in today on the bus, everybody was doing it and during pregame, fans in the stands were doing it, too.”
Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap said that image was forced on the Bengals all week: “That’s all we heard about for a week – Johnny Manziel and that money sign.”
Manziel is the kind of guy other teams love to whip up on – though few in college ever got the chance.
He’s cocky and shameless and never will be labeled a wall flower.
Since he’s come to the Browns, he’s made a splash on social media , in newspapers and on TV: sipping champagne from the bottle while floating on an inflatable swan in a Austin rooftop pool, clubbing with Drake at Hollywood nightclubs, partying at Justin Bieber’s place in L.A. , partying in Vegas with Rob Gronkowski, hobnobbing with LeBron James at practice and frolicking frat boy-like through several other seen-and-be-seen moments.
As soon as he got to Cleveland, he sought to get trademark and patent rights on the term Johnny Cleveland. He signed with LeBron’s management team and has flashed the money sign to Browns fans everywhere.
Sunday, after 13 weeks as Johnny Clipboard, as one media wag here dubbed him, he finally was the Browns starting quarterback, replacing Brian Hoyer, the hometown quarterback from North Olmstead who had struggled the past three games while the Browns playoff hopes began to evaporate.
Leading up to the game, Cleveland had a holiday feel to it. Everybody was giddy about Manziel’s ascension to the throne. James even got his Cleveland Cavaliers to practice in the morning Sunday so he could come to the game, which he watched from a suite.
“All week long we didn’t listen to the noise,” said Bengals cornerback Adam Jones. “We made it about us, not him.”
Gilberry agreed: “All that stuff that looked good in college for him, we wanted him to know this is the pros. You’ve got big, fast men who play disciplined football.”
Gilberry brought that point home on the second play of Browns’ second possession. Manziel got the snap and as he tried to decide whether to pass or run, the Bengals 275-pound defender roared through and dumped him for a 7-yard loss. As Manziel lay on the turf, Gilberry stood over him and did the money sign.
“I told him, ‘We’re gonna be on you all day,’” he said.
On almost every possession after that, one Bengal player or another victimized Manziel.
Cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick intercepted a late throw by him on the very next possession. When the Browns got the ball again, Gilberry and Dunlap terrorized him on a third-down play and forced him into an incompletion.
Linebacker Rey Maualuga batted a Manziel pass down after that and as he roared with delight, he ran up to the Browns besieged quarterback and did the money sign in his face. That got Cincinnati penalized for taunting.
To his credit Manziel kept his cool. In the preseason, when taunted by the Washington Redskins bench, he gave them the middle finger salute, a gesture that got him a $12,000 fine.
A few plays after Maualuga’s swat, Jones then intercepted a terrible throw into coverage in the end zone.
Before the day was over Manziel would be sacked on separate occasions by Geno Atkins, Dunlap and nose tackle Brandon Thompson.
He ended the day with 10 completions in 18 attempts for a measly 80 yards. His quarterback rating was 27.3.
“We wanted to make him one dimensional,” said Gilberry “We wanted to stop the run so he had to try to beat us with his arm. I think he was stunned out there, just trying to figure out what was happening.”
After a while the hits took a toll Peko said: “At one point I saw him get hit and he got up slow. I could see from his face, he knew it was gonna be a long day.”
Part of the problem was Manziel’s rookie greenness and much of it was the dominance of the Bengals defense, who played their best game of the season.
Afterward there was euphoria the visitors dressing room.
As Thompson was quietly trying to explain his sack – saying he made the money sign over the fallen Manziel on a whim – fellow lineman Devon Still, sitting at the next locker, decided to have some fun:
“Spur of the moment?” You been talking about doing that all week.”
When Thompson tried to explain that was untrue, Still pushed on: “I’m his roommate. He even woke up and said he had a dream about it.”
The one thing all the Bengals truly were dreaming about said Peko was to make a better showing against the Browns, who stunned them, 24-3, on a national showcase Thursday night game at Paul Brown Stadium.
“We knew everybody around the nation would be watching today,” he said. “On TV they said everybody was going to be watching Johnny Football .
“After getting embarrassed by them a month ago, we had a chip on our shoulder. We wanted to show who we really were. We saw this as a chance to show people a lot of things.”
In the process, they showed Johnny Football something, as well, said Atkins:
“We welcomed him into the NFL.”
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