Maybe it was the Canadian air. Maybe it was the Canadian rules. Whatever it was, Johnny Manziel's CFL career got off to a disastrous start on Friday. 

In the first regular season action of his Canadian career, Manziel threw four interceptions as his Montreal Alouettes were routed 50-11 by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Manziel threw an interception on his first pass of the game, and things only got uglier from there. 

All four of Manziel's interceptions came in the first half as Hamilton quickly jumped out to a 38-3 lead. Things got so bad for Johnny Football that Alouettes coach Mike Sherman ended up pulling him from the game after just three quarters. 

After the loss, Manziel didn't make any excuses, but the quarterback did say that he felt like he was being humbled by the football gods.  

"I think we got beat so bad, things went so bad, so quick, that, even throughout the game, even when I was in there, I just kept telling myself that this is a test, this is just the football gods humbling me," Manziel said, via TSN Sports.

Three of Manziel's four interceptions came on passes that he had no business throwing. On his first pick, he seemed to throw it directly to Hamilton defender Larry Dean. 

Of course, Manziel might have just had the jitters there; after all, that interception came on the first regular season pass of his CFL career. However, that doesn't explain his other interceptions. On one pick, Manziel under threw his receiver by a good 10 yards. Also, two of the interceptions came on offensive drives where the Alouettes were threatening to score. 

You can see all four of Manziel's interceptions below. 

Manziel finished the game 11 of 20 for 104 yards and no touchdowns.

With a slightly lower talent level than the NFL, Manziel had been expecting to succeed right away in Canada, but that's not what happened.  

"You come up here, it's not the NFL, it's the CFL, it's different. You expect to do well," Manziel said. "It's what I've been accustomed to from college and had some moments in the NFL and then you come up here and it's not what you expected or what you're used to and it's a different place. This game humbles you. It's crazy."

Some of the main differences between the NFL and the CFL are that you only get three downs to try and get a first down in Canada (as opposed to four downs in the NFL). The dimensions of the field are also different with the Canadian field extending 110 yards, compared to 100 yards for the NFL. The Canadian field is also roughly 12 yards wider. 

Although we saw some shades of vintage Manzie on Friday, for the most part Johnny Football looked like a quarterback who probably shouldn't have been thrown into the starting lineup just yet. It's almost like Sherman didn't completely think through his quarterback decision before naming Manziel the starter earlier this week. 

For one, Manziel had only been on the Alouettes' roster for 10 days before making Friday's start. Also, Manziel had to go up against the only team in the CFL (Hamilton) that really had any familiarity with his playing style. The former Heisman Trophy winner had spent the first two months of his CFL career with the Tiger-Cats before being traded to Montreal on July 23. 

Starting a quarterback who's unfamiliar with your playbook against a team that practiced against him for two straight months is basically a recipe for disaster, and disaster is exactly what happened. 

Despite the four-interception performance, Sherman has already said that Manziel will be the starter for the Alouettes' next game, and Johnny Football has made it clear that his rough debut won't be hanging over his head the next time he takes the field. 

"These things happen," Manziel said. "You either bounce back and come back with a vengeance or you sit here and let it kill you," 

In an odd coincidence, Manziel's CFL debut was shockingly similar to his NFL debut. In his first game as a starting quarterback for the Browns, Manziel finished 10 of 18 for 80 yards and two interceptions in a game that Cleveland lost 30-0 to the Bengals.