CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Scribbles in my Cleveland Browns notebook after their 17-13 loss to Carolina:

1. There were several distressing aspects to the two starts by Johnny Manziel. The bottom line for his six quarters included three points and only five first downs not from penalties. But the biggest surprise was his lack of speed.

2. Part of the reason the Browns drafted Manziel was his quickness. At Texas A&M, he could run away from pass-rushers. He created first downs with his fakes and fast first few steps. But in seven rushing attempts in the last two games, he has accounted for only 16 yards. At least twice, he has been pulled down from behind. He was sacked three times in the 30-0 loss to the Bengals.

3. If the 6-foot Manziel can't run, he's in huge trouble. He showed the speed when dashing 10 yards for a touchdown in a 20-10 loss to Buffalo. He relieved Brian Hoyer in the fourth quarter of that game. But that one play has really been it. Manziel ran for 2,160 yards and 30 touchdowns in two college seasons. And yes, those fears of him being hurt while running came became a reality when he pulled a hamstring late in the second quarter.

4. About the only difference between Manziel's first and second start is that he had the linemen more organized. They didn't have all the false starts and wasted timeouts. The only timeout called to correct a problem was when Josh Gordon lined up in the wrong spot for a play.





5. Who knew that Hoyer (coming off ACL knee surgery) would run for more yards than Manziel? He had carries of 11 and eight yards. Manziel seemed to stumble twice when taking the handoff from under center and dropping back to pass. That is not his comfort zone, and it shows. He will need to learn that to survive in the NFL. Manziel threw out of the shotgun 99 percent of the time in college.

6. Karlos Dansby came off his knee injury to play his first game in a month, and he had 12 tackles. But the run defense remained horrible, allowing 209 yards on the ground. That comes after 234 last week in the loss to the Bengals. The Browns entered Sunday ranked No. 31 against the run.

7. Part of the problem is that so many defensive linemen are injured. Others are playing hurt. But there also may be some trouble with the defensive scheme. The Browns gave up a lot of yards rushing early in the season when most players were healthy. It's just more pronounced now.

8. Gordon has played four games since returning from his 10-game suspension. He has a modest 20 catches, none for a touchdown. He's averaging 12.9 yards per reception. He continues to struggle with the plays and running the right patterns. He looks nothing like the Josh Gordon who was a Pro Bowl player last season.

9. Manziel mentioned his frustration: "I've never done anything like this ... playing any sport since I was a kid -- whether it's football, basketball, baseball ... never had anything like this. It's so new to me, so frustrating."

10. Football has always come naturally to Manziel and Gordon. My guess is Gordon is thinking something like what Manziel mentioned ... they both can't believe they are struggling. And that's when a player's confidence takes a major hit and his character is tested.

11. Clearly, Mike Pettine is having some problems with his players. He mentioned that rookies Terrance West (zero carries) and Justin Gilbert (played sparingly) did not practice well last week. So they played very little in this game. Fourth-rounder Pierre Desir started in place of cornerback Joe Haden (injured), rather than first-rounder Gilbert. Desir played pretty well. But Desir had not played any regular defense all this season -- until last week's game against the Bengals. He was inactive and/or used only on special teams before that.

12. It's not a second guess, but I was sitting with a few media people and we all thought the Browns should have tried to convert on the fourth-and-13 situation with 3:33 left in the game. They were on the 50-yard line. They were losing 17-13. Their defense had trouble against the run all day. Yes, getting a first down on fourth-and-13 is a long shot, but they needed to take it. The Browns defense never did stop Carolina, which ran out the final 3:33 to win the game.

13. I thought the Browns played hard in this game. You could see the determination in Travis Benjamin running down defensive back Josh Norman. Benjamin ran more than 50 yards after Norman picked off a pass ... and made a tackle to force Norman to fumble.

14. But the Browns lost because the talent level is thin. Also, this was a huge game to keep Carolina in the playoff race.

15. The Browns still struggled to run the ball. Isaiah Crowell had a 28-yard run. He had only 27 yards in his other 15 carries. The Browns used no other running back. They had 84 total yards rushing. To open the season, they ran for more than 100 yards in 4-of-5 games. In the last 10 games, they have been over 100 yards only three times. Pro Bowl center Alex Mack has been injured for the last 10 games.