OXFORD, Miss. -- Johnny Manziel left the game. Texas A&M missed a field goal. Ole Miss tied the game. Johnny came back in.
The No. 9 Aggies' reigning Heisman winner gave Texas A&M a scare in the first quarter of Saturday's game at Ole Miss. -- an eventual last-second 41-38 win.
Manziel was scrambling to his left on a third down when he jumped to throw a pass. He appeared to clutch his left leg in mid-air and was helped off the field.
"It was quiet. Well, sort of," Aggies receiver Travis Labhart said. "The crowd was pretty excited."
Two plays later, Josh Lambo missed a 36-yard field goal. After Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace tied the game on a 7-yard touchdown pass to Vince Sanders, Manziel reentered -- with a wrap around his left knee. He proceeded to drive the Aggies 75 yards for a touchdown on Trey Williams' 18-yard run.
Know exactly what Johnny Football hurt on the play?
"No. And if I did, I wouldn't tell you," A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said, then laughed.
What he didn't hurt was his team’s big picture, now 5-1, 2-1 -- or his chances to repeat his Heisman pose.
Hurt or not, Manziel completely devastated an Ole Miss crowd of nearly 61,000 fans. Forget the game-winning drive. He also drove a dagger into a team trying to climb out of a two-game losing streak, an Ole Miss squad with its nationally heralded freshman class. But when Ole Miss fell flat on its chance to show America it belongs, Manziel relished the spotlight, again.
No one knows what to make of Johnny. He's loved and hated. He's good. He's brash. He's a pain in the SEC's side. He's the most polarizing figure in college football since -- dare we say it, Tim Tebow. But some of the same fans who ferociously booed him all night were waiting in droves near the A&M player exit. He signed -- insert joke. He grinned for photos.
He's a magnet. He scored on a 5-yard run in the third quarter to give the Aggies an 11-point lead and flashed his now-known money sign to the Rebels' student section.
"Week in and week out, we can expect greatness from him," Lambo said moments after kicking the game-winner from 33 yards away as time expired. "It's so awesome to be a part of the team he gets to lead. I'm always expecting to get a one-pointer. If I'm going out to get a field goal, I'm kind of surprised. Everyone on the team has complete faith in him."
The only thing he didn't do was talk with media.
It's the Manziel effect. He made the final drive look easy, seven clock-devouring plays. Already the SEC leader in total offense, his final line: 459 total yards -- 346 of them on 31-of-39 efficient tosses. He didn't throw a touchdown pass and his top target Mike Evans only caught four balls for 46 yards. Oh, and he was visibly limping off the field at the half.
"He's one of the greatest competitors I've ever been around," Sumlin said. "Yeah, he takes chances. He plays a little bit on the edge, but that’s what makes him him. If you know him, if he couldn't go 100 percent, he wasn't going to go."
Manziel led A&M to convert 8-of-13 third downs, five straight in the first half. One was a 35-yard pass to Labhart on third-and-7. On third-and-14, Manziel rushed for 24 yards.
He later juked Ole Miss DB Mike Hilton out of his pants on another third down and two plays later on third-and-7, LB Denzel Nkemdiche came out of his shoes as Manziel reversed course for a first down. Manziel even took out the Rebels’ prize recruit, the nation’s top overall player Robert Nkemdiche. Nkemdiche gave chase when older brother Denzel missed, but strained his hamstring and didn’t return. It was the third major defensive lineman Ole Miss was without. But would it have mattered if J.J. Watt and circa-2008 Ray Lewis were in Ole Miss gear?
"We were watching the Texas-OU game in the hotel room, just kind of laughing. He just flips a switch when he gets to the stadium. He's unreal," Labhart said. "One of the best players in the country, if not the best."
Ole Miss had its moments, two momentum-shifting touchdowns in the fourth quarter, one a 50-yard pass from Wallace to I'Tavius Mathers for a 38-31 lead with with only 6:05 left to play.
Cue Manziel, who needed less than 3 minutes and eight plays to set up his 6-yard touchdown run to tie.
Wallace then threw three straight incompletions, and even though Manziel was booed when he ran onto the field with 2:33 to play, everyone knew what was about to happen. He rushed for 25 and threw for 13 yards on the 56-yard drive and Lambo closed it out, a near replay of A&M's three-point win here last season.
It wouldn't have happened without Manziel.
A&M isn't invincible. But it sure seems like Manziel is. He threw a pick and lost a fumble, but made both seem trivial. His summer of turmoil just kind of went away. But Johnny Football isn't going anywhere, except back to New York to pick up another Heisman.
