McCoy magic may be needed for upset
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Alfred Morris has a nickname for Colt McCoy: “The Magician.”
McCoy’s last win as a starting quarterback was Oct. 27, 2014 in Arlington, Texas, when his Washington team beat the Dallas Cowboys, 20-17 in overtime, on Monday Night Football.
Morris was Washington’s starting running back that day, when McCoy ran for a 7-yard touchdown, danced out of a sack late in the fourth quarter and directed a game-winning field goal drive in OT.
“He’s a magician. That’s the way I describe him,” Morris, 31, now McCoy’s teammate again with the Giants. “Because you think he’s bottled up or gonna get tackled and somehow he rolls out of it and he’s running down the sideline or throwing it downfield.”
And that’s the Colt the Giants will need on Sunday in Seattle, when McCoy, 34, is expected to start at quarterback in place of the injured Daniel Jones (right hamstring strain), seeking his first win as a starter in more than six years.
Undoubtedly, it will take some magic for McCoy to beat the Seattle Seahawks (8-3) and lift the NFC East-leading Giants (4-7) to a fourth straight win.
But the good news is the
Giants’ offensive plan shouldn’t change much at all with Jones out, continuing to lean on the run game, ball security and opportunistic shots downfield.
Plus, McCoy in many ways is playing with house money. He is making just his second NFL start since he had three 2019 offseason surgeries on his fractured right fibula and wondered if he’d ever get right physically again.
Now he’s back behind center, and he’s relishing it.
“Last year was hard, I was injured. First time I had really dealt with something like that,” McCoy said this week of making just one start last season for Washington, a 33-7 blowout loss to the New England Patriots in Week 5. “That made last year feel like many years. I’m really counting my blessings to be back out here. I had a good training camp. We have an awesome QB room and great coaches. I’ve been very proud to be a part of this football team. Part of the expectation for me is to be prepared to play. If that happens, it happens. I’ll do my best.”
If McCoy somehow manages to pull it off on Sunday, he will become the first Giants quarterback not named Eli Manning or Daniel Jones to start and win a game for the franchise since Kurt Warner on Oct. 31, 2004 at Minnesota, 34-13.
Just keeping Sunday’s game close would be an accomplishment, though, frankly, with Russell Wilson boasting 31 touchdown passes, the Seahawks scoring 31 points per game, and the home team favored by 10.5 points as of early Saturday morning.
And if the Giants do it, it won’t be because of McCoy alone.
They will need coordinator Pat Graham’s defense to continue forcing turnovers, tied for fifth in the NFL with 18 takeaways through 11 games. They will need a 180-degree improvement from their special teams coming off an abomination in Cincinnati that was so bad, Joe Judge didn’t even review a positive play by the unit in his weekly Judge Report.
McCoy also will need to lean on the running game and Wayne Gallman, who has a rushing TD in five straight games.
But McCoy still is going to have to make some plays, with both his legs and arm, to give the Giants a chance. So it falls on offensive coordinator Jason Garrett — the head coach of that 2014 Cowboys team that McCoy beat in his last win — to craft a winning game plan, too.
“You look for things in his past he’s comfortable with, with you or with somebody else (who has coached him in the past),” Garrett said. “Just so when that ball is snapped it’s all internalized in him; he’s just going out there and playing football.”
McCoy has felt revitalized signing a one-year deal with the Giants in the spring, however, on a team where he is wanted, feeling light years better physically than he did a year ago.
“The one thing that Coach Judge and Coach Garrett told me is that we watched all your tape for 10 years and you have started a ton of games in this league,” McCoy said in April. “You also have been a backup and when you were called to come off the bench you have always stepped in and won the game and played well and played up to a standard. We value that and that’s why we want you to come be here.”
Roster moves: The Giants placed RB Devonta Freeman on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Saturday. Freeman (ankle) is still on injured reserve and is not on the Seattle trip with the team.
The Giants also elevated DE Niko Lalos and QB Clayton Thorson from the practice squad — and signed QB Alex Tanney to the practice squad. Thorson was elevated to back up McCoy.