Colt McCoy’s Impressive Performance versus the Colts

Play 21
Situation: 1st and 10 at IND 48
Description: Q2 - (1:06) C.McCoy pass incomplete short right to J.Reed. PENALTY on IND-D.Butler, Illegal Contact, 5 yards, enforced at IND 48 - No Play.
Sideline View

McCoy in shotgun has Jackson and Roberts on the left and Garcon on the right. McCoy snaps the ball and immediately finds Roberts running a slant route over the middle. Watch McCoy’s eyes. He stares down Roberts who predictably is not open since the ILB52 Jackson reads him well to stop the quick slant. McCoy sees the ILB Jackson, so he does not force the ball to him and finds Reed running a crossing route underneath the zone coverage of the Colts.

The play resulted in illegal contact CB Toler for coming over top of Reed. RT Compton should have been flagged for holding on DE97 Authur. Watch as he pulls him down from behind. This play should have been offseting penalties, but the Redskins catch a lucky break.

Play 22
Situation: 1st and 10 at IND 43
Description: Q2 - (1:01) C.McCoy pass incomplete short right to P.Garcon.
Sideline View

McCoy in shotgun starts the play with TE Reed running a slant from the right side. I think McCoy was assuming that one of the ILBs would come up to cover Helu in the flat, but instead they both stay in zone coverage over the middle, so Reed was covered especially after bumping into the referee.

Garcon runs a drag route from the twins stack left and is open over the middle since the ILBs both went to cover Reed. Garcon actually could have turned the corner and possibly made it upfield, but McCoy delivers an inaccurate pass too high so Garcon can’t make the reception. Terrible luck for Garcon here as this could have easily become a large gain on the play since Jackson on the right outside cleared out the safeties and CBs in Cover 3.

Play 23
Situation: 3rd and 18 at WSH 49
Description: Q2 - (:49) (Shotgun) C.McCoy pass short left to D.Jackson pushed ob at IND 47 for 4 yards (D.Butler).
Sideline View

McCoy in shotgun has trips left and TE Reed alone on the right. McCoy starts the play watching Roberts running a deep-out and then settles with Jackson running a hitch route into the middle of the field.

McCoy has great protection but he hestitates throwing the ball. So instead of Jackson breaking upfield for a bigger gain he only gains 4 yards. Helu is wide-open on the right flat, but McCoy never sees him since he is too focused on Roberts most of the play. McCoy needs to do a better job of getting off of his first read and then making a quicker decision with the ball.

This was McCoy’s last play of the half. The Redskins were only down 10-21 by this point in the game, so they still had a fighting chance of coming back into the game.

Play 24
Situation: 1st and 10 at WSH 20
Description: Q3 - (15:00) (Shotgun) C.McCoy pass short right to N.Paul pushed ob at WAS 27 for 7 yards (D.Butler).
Sideline View

The Redskins received the ball to start the 2nd half and start it with one of their package play-action bootleg rollouts to the TE (Paul) in the flat. McCoy in pistol does a good job of selling the play-action to Morris pulling the ILBs out of the play.

Play 25
Situation: 1st and 10 at WSH 31
Description: Q3 - (13:47) (Run formation) C.McCoy pass short right to D.Jackson to WAS 49 for 18 yards (M.Adams). WAS-D.Jackson was injured during the play. His return is Questionable.
Sideline View

McCoy in I-formation has Garcon and Jackson on the right side in twins stack. McCoy runs play-action to Morris before stepping up and launching the ball to Jackson running a deep-out route. Jackson gains excellent separation on the cut. This is one of my favorite throws McCoy makes all game. He throws the ball with such confidence. His footwork is excellent as he steps fully into the throw and actually throws the ball with anticipation!

This is the play where SS29 Adams “falls” into WR Jackson injurying him on the play. It is in my opinion that Adams did it purposely as a cheap shot, but the referees did not see it. See for yourself.

Play 26
Situation: 2nd and 4 at IND 45
Description: Q3 - (12:37) (Shotgun) C.McCoy pass incomplete short right to A.Roberts (C.Redding).
Sideline View

McCoy from pistol snaps the ball and instantly throws to Roberts on an out-route. DE90 Redding reads the pass perfectly and swats the ball down at the line. I like the play call here actually and Roberts probably would have gained the first down, but the offensive line needs to keep the throwing lanes clear for these quick passes.

Play 27
Situation: 3rd and 4 at IND 45
Description: Q3 - (12:34) (Shotgun) C.McCoy pass deep right to A.Roberts ran ob at IND 21 for 24 yards [E.Walden]. Indianapolis challenged the pass completion ruling, and the play was Upheld. The ruling on the field stands. (Timeout #1.)
Sideline View

This play made it on ESPN’s Top 10 for the weekend. McCoy in shotgun has Garcon and Roberts on the right side in twins stack. Roberts runs a stop-and-go route and is actually covered really well on the play. McCoy senses the pressure from the left side as Reed and Helu both miss their blocking assignments so McCoy scrambles to the right. On the run, McCoy throws the ball outside of Roberts on the sideline for him to turn and make an impressive diving catch. Spectacular catch by Roberts and for McCoy extending the play. McCoy gets nailed as soon as he releases the ball by OLB93 Walden.

Play 28
Situation: 2nd and 5 at IND 16
Description: Q3 - (11:34) (Run formation) C.McCoy pass short right to L.Paulsen for 16 yards, TOUCHDOWN [J.Newsome]. K.Forbath extra point is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-T.Way. PENALTY on WAS-F.Kearse, Unsportsmanlike Conduct, 15 yards, enforced between downs.
Sideline View

This play was Sportcenter’s number 1 play of the day.

McCoy in singleback formation has Jackson and Garcon wide left. TE Paul motions across the line pre-snap. The Colts have 8 men in the box assuming the Redskins are going to run or do one of their packaged plays. Just as the Colts predicted the Redskins run a variation of play 24 to the flat with TE Paul so he is perfectly covered by the Colts defense unsurprisingly.

Watch ILB52 Jackson shove TE Paul on the flat route and not knock him down. This is exactly like FS38 Brown’s shove in play 1, but this time it doesn’t work. To remedy this SS29 Adams steps up to cover Paul leaving his responsibilities over the middle. Paulsen finds this hole and sits in it waiting for McCoy to find after he breaks three tackles for the touchdown.

This is an incredible play by McCoy, but also a stupid play by McCoy. First, you see the obvious that McCoy has surprising elusiveness avoiding three tackles. Second, you see that McCoy moves off of his first read TE Paul in the flat to see WR Jackson running a slant route over the middle but he is covered too, so at this point in the play he should have thrown the ball away. McCoy even admitted during his press conference that the smart play is always to throw the ball away, but he felt like he needed to make a play for the team. Gruden has talked repeatedly during his press conferences that players need to just do their responsibilites and not try to be heroes. McCoy makes an incredible play no doubt, but if he was sacked or taken down it would have been 3rd and long, where the Redskins are 1/44 on the season at 3rd and longer than 10 yard situations.

The Redskins make the extra point and are only down 17-21. Three plays later Luck throws a 48 yard touchdown to Moncrief putting the Colts back up by 11 points. Very frustrating for the Redskins offense.

Play 29
Situation: 4th and 1 at WSH 41
Description: Q3 - (7:39) (Run formation) C.McCoy sacked at WAS 34 for -7 yards (E.Walden). FUMBLES (E.Walden), RECOVERED by IND-D.Jackson at WAS 35. D.Jackson for 35 yards, TOUCHDOWN.A.Vinatieri extra point is GOOD, Center-M.Overton, Holder-P.McAfee.
Sideline View

After the quick touchdown, the Redskins start their next drive on the 20 yardline and McCoy drives it to the 41 yard line where play 29 begins.

Sack alert! McCoy snaps the ball from I-formation and immediately gets strip-sacked for a touchdown by the Colts defense.

The Colts have 8 men in the box with 5 defensive line on the line of scrimmage. Immediately after the snap watch LT71 Williams step up and expect to block the RDE, but instead TE82 Paulsen blocks him. This leaves the edge rusher OLB93 Walden with a free run around the outside. Due to the play-action Morris can’t recover in time to block Walden out of the play. This play was Paulsen’s fault and even Gruden admitted so in his press conference. The Redskins were down 17-35 after this play.

Play 30
Situation: 1st and 10 at IND 42
Description: Q3 - (5:19) (Shotgun) C.McCoy pass deep left to D.Jackson for 42 yards, TOUCHDOWN. K.Forbath extra point is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-T.Way.
Sideline View

The Redskins get the ball back and start the drive halfway through the 3rd quarter. In this play, McCoy has trips left and Reed by himself on the right. Jackson runs a go route and adjusts beautifully in air to catch it at the sideline. CB27 Toler did not even see the pass coming.

McCoy does a great job of looking off the safety by watching Roberts and Paul over the middle before finding Jackson.

Immediately after the Redskins score this touchdown, Luck beats the secondary again for another long strike to Fleener for a 73 yard touchdown putting the game out of reach 24-42. The final score of the game was 27-49. The Redskins were able to get one more field goal in the 4th quarter while Luck threw a 5th touchdown on the day with the last one to Moncrief for another 79 yard strike.

As you can see in these plays McCoy starts the game poorly with terrible decision making and by not progressing through his reads. He eventually got into a rhythm and was making great reads and quick passes to his receivers. The Redskins scored 27 points against the Colts, but the defense gave up 42, when you remove the strip-sack touchdown. That is unacceptable play by the defense. Amerson continuously was torched all afternoon, which is very disappointing as he seen as a future piece in the Redskins defense. Definitely expect the Redskins to address the secondary very early in the draft or in free agency this off-season.

The Redskins gave up 6 sacks on the day, so many will blame the offensive line. If you actually watch the film the offensive line was really only responsible for 1 sack by Trent Williams while the others were given up due to Colt McCoy holding onto the ball too long or the runningbacks and tight ends not blocking properly.