Browns coach Pat Shurmur has been pointed of late in his opinion on quarterback Colt McCoy.
"He needs to just get better," Shurmur said to the media Wednesday. "I don’t think there’s any one thing. I go back to footwork all the time, it’s footwork, timing, accuracy and we just continue to work on it."
So now it's not only opposing defenses putting the pressure on the second-year quarterback, it's also Shurmur.
"If you’re going to win games, the quarterback needs to play well," Shurmur said. "I really believe that. What ‘well’ means is that he’s got to play well throughout the game or if early in the game he’s not playing well, find a way to get on track and finish the game strong."
McCoy has certainly had enough chances in the past two weeks (both losses) to get himself back on track. Against the Titans and the Raiders, McCoy threw a combined 106 passes. The likes of Drew Brees, Philip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers have never had that many attempts over two games at any point in their careers.
If there was a bad passing game equation, it would look McCoy's stat line this season. McCoy is second in the league to Brees in pass attempts per game, but only 32nd in the league in yards per completion. McCoy is completing just 55.8 percent of his passes, a significantly lower amount than the 70 percent he had in college at Texas.
On the positive, though, is the lack of interceptions. Among starting quarterbacks with at least eight touchdown passes, only Alex Smith of the 49ers has fewer than McCoy's three. So maybe the struggles of the passing game go deeper than just McCoy's ability.
According to Shurmur, at least, McCoy's work ethic hasn't been affected by the losses and all the incompletions.
"He’s dealing with victories and losses the way I would anticipate a quarterback that’s developing and learning how to play in this league does," Shurmur said. "He comes in after each game, he’s very critical of his errors, he tries to build on the things he did well and then he tries to put that improvement in the play against the next opponent and I think that’s what he’s doing."