New York Post, Thursday, December 3, 2020
nypost.com
T
HE ROAD to a home playoff game
for the Giants is littered with teams
with winning records these next
four weeks, meaningful December
games at last for a baby-stepping team
that has beaten only tomato cans with
losing records.
The road to the NFC Least title begins
in earnest in Seattle on Sunday, against
Russell Wilson and Megatron-like mon-
ster DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett and
Jamal Adams. And with Daniel Jones not
practicing Wednesday and clearly ham-
strung, Joe Judge and the Giants cannot
risk playing him and will be riding Colt
McCoy over the first and largest pothole
in their path.
It means that the time is now for all
the Giants around their backup quarter-
back, in all three phases, to show up as
the Real McCoys.
It’s 4-7 David versus 8-3 Goliath on pa-
per, but the Giants are keeping the faith
that Colt McCoy will at the very least
give them a chance.
And a man who spent the better part
of two years in the huddle with Colt
McCoy believes that he will.
“The Giants are in great hands,” NFL
Network analyst Joe Thomas told The
Post.
“You can expect an efficient, profes-
sional, prepared approach from your
quarterback. He’s
gonna make sure
they get lined up,
he’s gonna throw
the ball on time
when it’s supposed
to be thrown. He’s a
great leader, you
can see that in the
huddle, and I think
Giant fans are gonna be surprised with
how well Colt plays. When he gets the
opportunity, he’s always made the most
of his opportunities, and I think this
Sunday will be no different.”
He had been a celebrated college star
at Texas, a two-time Heisman Trophy fi-
nalist, and he was supposed to redshirt
his rookie season with the Browns in- But Jake Delhomme and Seneca
Williams were suddenly sidelined, and
Eric Mangini was forced to turn to
McCoy in Week 6 at Heinz Field, of all
places.
“He stood up in front of the room, de-
livered a great message, was very moti-
vating, and he really just commanded
the huddle right away like few rookies
that I’ve ever been around,” Thomas re-
called.
Thomas, then in his fourth season and
already a three-time Pro Bowl left tackle,
sat captivated as McCoy told a funny
Texas hunting story.
“Just the way he held the room with
his presence and his ability to keep ev-
erybody’s attention, and then kinda turn
the message to, ‘Hey, we’re the under-
dogs, follow me, we’re gonna win this
game,’ ” Thomas
said. “I think it re-
ally resonated with
the guys in that
locker room, and
the guys in that
meeting room. It
just showed right
off the bat what
type of a leader he
was and the type of vision that he kinda
saw for himself but also the team that
was around him.”
McCoy didn’t win the game against a
Steelers team that would reach the Su-
per Bowl, but he was never scared or rat-
tled, either.
“When he was a rookie, he would step
in there and they would give him little
opportunities in training camp to run
with the 1’s, and a lot of times when a
young player gets into that huddle, he’s
very nervous, a lot of trepidation in his
voice, the plays don’t come out the right
way it’s supposed to,” Thomas said, “but
not with Colt.
“He stood right in that huddle, and he’s
like, ‘Give me your eyes.’
“That was a big thing I remember him
saying. And everyone’s like, ‘Oh, OK, hemeans business.’ He just had that air
about him that he was waiting for that
moment, waiting for that opportunity
and you knew he was gonna have suc-
cess.”
A decade later, Judge is confident that
the players around him will give Colt
McCoy their eyes.
“I always talk about you want a quar-
terback who is going to step in the hud-
dle with 10 sets of eyes looking at him
knowing this guy is going to give them
the answer. I think Colt is that guy and
Daniel is that guy,” Judge said.
Pat Shurmur replaced Mangini in 2011.
McCoy’s leading wide receivers were
Greg Little and Mohamed Massaquoi.
The Browns drafted strong-armed 28-
year-old Brandon Weeden in the first
round in 2012.
Asked if he thinks McCoy got a fair
shake in Cleveland, Thomas said: “No,
he didn’t, because I think he did enough
to prove that he should be given an op-
portunity. And then they drafted
Weeden before they gave Colt an oppor-
tunity to flourish with good pass catch-
ers. They really never gave him an op-
portunity with talent around him to see
what he could do in that offense.
“He always struck me as kind of like a
Drew Brees type, where he was short
and he didn’t have a huge arm, but he
was very accurate, very smart, very in-
telligent, and he could anticipate where
the ball needed to be thrown.”
McCoy (20 TDs, 20 INTs) finished
6-15 in Cleveland as the starter. His com-
pletion percentage in the West Coast of-
fense fell from 60.8 percent to 57.2 per-
cent under Shurmur.
It is easy to root for a football gym rat
who has fashioned a comeback from a
broken leg in Washington in 2018. Over
the last eight seasons, McCoy has
started seven games.
“I just need to go out there and exe-
cute, just be myself,” McCoy said.
“That’s the expectation, is if your num-
ber’s called, whether it’s quarterback, re-
ceiver, on the other side of the ball on
defense, when you gotta step up you
gotta step up. I just gotta be mentally
prepared for whatever happens.”
Judge raves about McCoy’s savvy, in-
stincts, competitiveness and physical
and mental toughness.
“He is the consummate professional,”
Thomas said. “He’s a great teammate.
“Those guys are excited to go out
there and play with him, I guarantee it.”
Time for the Real McCoys.
[email protected]Backup QB knows how to be leader
SteSteveSerbSerby
NEW BOSS: Quarterback Colt
McCoy took the first-team reps at prac-
tice Wednesday with Daniel Jones
sidelined. N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg (2)