In the grand scheme of things it was a miniscule sample size.
But what we saw from new Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback Johnny Manziel in his CFL debut on Friday night was encouraging.
Manziel entered the game with 3:36 left to play in the first half and Hamilton trailing the Toronto Argonauts 13-6 in their first game of the preseason.
In five offensive possessions, Manziel played 22 snaps and completed nine of his 12 pass attempts for 80 yards. He also ran twice for 10 yards.
He didn’t throw a touchdown or an interception, and despite being sacked twice he did not fumble the ball.
Apart from his stats, Manziel didn’t look out of place.
He wasn’t frazzled by the 20-second play clock, which is half the amount of time offenses get in the NFL, and he didn’t have that deer in the headlights look either.
All things being equal, Toronto didn’t run a complex defense either, so you also have to take that into account when judging Manziel’s — or anyone else’s— play on Friday.
For his first real game action in the Canadian Football League, Manziel showed that he belonged.
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