New York Giants quarterback Colt McCoy was put in an unenviable position on Sunday night against the Cleveland Browns.
Not only did McCoy have to wait until Saturday to find out he would be the Week 15 starter, he was without offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who is absent from the team after testing positive for COVID-19. That meant Freddie Kitchens would call the plays for the first time this season, which left McCoy and the Giants little time to prepare and adjust.
But McCoy isn’t interested in excuses or what-ifs. He feels the offense had multiple opportunities to score throughout the game and believes he let his teammates down.
“You know, I take responsibility because we should’ve punched it in on third down,” McCoy said of the team’s first offensive drive. “We had lots of trips down there in the red zone and it was frustrating to only come out with three points in the first half. That was sort of my frustration.
“I think if you want to point the finger at anybody you can point it at me, I need to be better, I need to get us lined up right, I need to make sure I’m pinpoint with my throws down in the red zone and we’ve got to score more points.”
McCoy also acknowledged some bumps in the road with Kitchens calling the plays, but credits the coach for stepping in on the fly.
“You know, there were some ups and downs there, but I think Freddie did a really nice job there,” McCoy said. “The communication was good. I think my frustration lies in we just have to be better in the red zone. That’s the bottom line and I think I can do a much better job, but I think collectively as a group we’ve got to figure it out when we get down there.
“Like I mentioned, coming out of this game that’s my frustration is we didn’t do enough down in the red zone. A lot of that’s on me and I’ve got to be more detailed, I’ve got to be better down there. Again, I think all of us can really be better in what we do. It’s tough. That’s frustrating, not scoring in the red zone is frustrating. That’s where we have to be better and if we were better in that area today things would’ve been different.”
It’s noble for McCoy to shoulder the blame and avoid throwing anyone under the bus, but he was far from the only reason New York lost on Sunday night.
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