The goal has been the same for Colt McCoy since he entered the NFL with the Cleveland Browns in 2010. It just happens that it’s been a long time since he’s been able to achieve it.
“I want to be a starter in this league, and I have that opportunity right now,” McCoy said Wednesday. “I think the biggest thing for us is to come together as a unit and make these last four games the best games we can possibly play.”
McCoy, now the Washington Redskins’ top quarterback, will make his second consecutive start on Sunday, one game after returning to that role in a 49-27 loss at Indianapolis.
Barring a catastrophic meltdown — one similarly sustained earlier this year by Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins — McCoy will also be the Redskins’ quarterback through the remainder of the season, which continues Sunday against St. Louis.
That affords McCoy several opportunities, none of which may be more important than the chance to continue to build upon his performances and rectify past mistakes. After leading the Redskins to a come-from-behind victory over Tennessee on Oct. 19, when Cousins was pulled at halftime, McCoy earned the starting nod the following week at Dallas.
He performed fairly well, coming alive in the second half to help Washington claim an overtime victory against a team that had won six of its first seven games.
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A week later, however, he was relegated to the bench, with Griffin deemed healthy enough to return to the role he vacated when he dislocated his left ankle on Sept. 14. Three consecutive miserable starts forced Jay Gruden’s hand, with the coach finding it impossible to justify continuing to play Griffin when McCoy had played so well in practice and over those six quarters earlier in the season.
“With more reps come more confidence, and he’s obviously gaining a head of steam right now — and that’s important for the quarterback position,” Gruden said. “You’d like to have stability there, obviously, and he’s had limited reps all through camp and he had the majority of the reps just before the Dallas game. [That] was really the only time he got a full load of reps — now, last week, and this week, of course — so you could see that he’s taken ownership of the position and that’s what he’s got to do to be successful.”
In parts of three games this season, McCoy has completed 75.3 percent of his passes — a figure that would easily be the highest in the league if he was a full-time starter. His 113.5 quarterback rating is second only to Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, and on Sunday, his three touchdown passes and 392 passing yards were single-game career highs.
There are blemishes, however. The Redskins have been stagnant in the first half of McCoy’s two starts, which McCoy said is probably the sign of “maybe a little rust.” The Redskins’ offense began its first two drives within Indianapolis territory because of turnovers, yet managed to gain a combined four yards and only scored on a field goal.
In McCoy’s two starts, the Redskins have scored 13 points in the first half and 34 in the second half and overtime. He has completed 38 of 49 passes for 485 yards after halftime of his two starts.
“I would certainly like to start a little faster — not just me, but everybody,” McCoy said. “I feel like we were kind of flat, I guess, coming out in the beginning of the game. When you get a turnover, it’s nice to get a touchdown instead of a field goal. Maybe our approach this week [in practice] is we do a little bit more things that we feel like we’ll do earlier in the game.”
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Of particular concern to Gruden, especially on Monday, was the tempo of the offense between plays. In McCoy’s two starts, the Redskins have been flagged twice for delay of game — including once on Sunday, when, with 9:30 remaining and the offense on third-and-24 following an 18-yard loss because of a sack and fumble, they were unable to get a play off.
Washington ran 75 plays that weren’t nullified by penalty, 58 that began with 12 or fewer seconds on the play clock and 22 that started with five or fewer seconds remaining.
Gruden said that was something he planned to address with the team this week and have it work on in practice.
“When we have a decent play or we run a play and receivers are down the field, they’re not coming back to the huddle fast enough, and our linemen aren’t getting back to the huddle,” Gruden said. “We’re not breaking the huddle with any sense of urgency. It’s just what I felt. And too many times I’m looking at the shot clock, and we’re down to 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, so I just felt like our tempo was not very good.”
Not since late in the 2011 season, when McCoy was benched by Cleveland, has he been able to start two consecutive games. It’s an opportunity he has earned — but, clearly, one he values, knowing how fleeting they have been.
“I don’t want to look too far ahead,” McCoy said. “I’m just focused on this week. But, with each start, I think naturally you gain a little more confidence, you gain a little more bit of a leadership role on the team and you just have to continue to focus that way. I feel like that’s the only way to go for me.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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