Colt McCoy thought he was going to enter Friday's game after Kirk Cousins, but the Redskins wanted to see how he'd respond with a late notice to start. He responded with two touchdown passes.

In his position as the Redskins' backup quarterback, Colt McCoy always has to be ready at a moment's notice.

During Friday's game with the New York Jets, McCoy went through pregame warmups as if he was going to be the second quarterback to come in for Washington, just as he did during the preseason opener against the Atlanta Falcons.

But even though Kirk Cousins went through his entire pregame routine in full uniform, McCoy was told at the last moment he'd be the starting quarterback for the evening.

"I was walking out of the tunnel," McCoy said of when he was told he'd be starting the game. "[Redskins head coach Jay Gruden] did that to a few guys. …For me, hey, that's best case scenario. In my role I've got to be counted on at any point so I thought I handled it alright."

Gruden also wanted to see how McCoy would respond to facing a unit that ranked fourth-overall in total defense last season.

"We have a lot of good players in this locker room and I wanted to make sure our backups were ready to play at all times," Gruden said. "We had a lot of our backups step up into starting roles last year and I thought it was important for Colt to get some quality work and quality defense, along with some of the other guys that played, in first-team roles."

On the first drive of the game, McCoy was able to drive the Redskins to what was originally ruled a touchdown completion to Jamison Crowder.

An offensive pass interference call on Maurice Harris, though, negated the scoring play. Two snaps later on 3rd-and-goal, McCoy was intercepted by Darrelle Revis after an attempted throw away stayed in for the All-Pro cornerback to grab.

"We came out to a really good start, and then I was trying to throw the ball away," McCoy said. "My knee kind of buckled and the ball stayed in bounds. That was just an embarrassing play by me, but I think if you take that away we were pretty efficient."

Outside of that blemish, though, McCoy was effective throughout the entire evening.

During the second quarter, McCoy would connect with Rashad Ross for back-to-back touchdowns, the second of which was a 39-yard completion.

"I thought Ross played outstanding," McCoy said. "I left the ball a little bit outside on the first deep shot we tried to take and I told him if I get the look that I want again, I'll come back to him. He did a really nice job of stacking the defender and made a nice play. Ross brings speed to the table and that's a big asset. When he uses it that way it's good for our offense."

McCoy would finish the evening 13-of-16 for 159 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.

"I'll go back and watch it," McCoy said of his performance. "I felt overall pretty efficient."