Hour 2: Jameis Winston Survives the "Experience" as Giants Move to 3-1

Craig Carton (0:00)

Coming up on 3 o'clock, Carton Show with Big Mac. Great to have you here. Hope you had a great Sunday. If you're a Giants fan, you did. Giants get their dub, moved to 3-1, Jameis Winston, 18 of 29, 250 yards, three tutties, two picks, and sacked four times. And then, of course, Malik Neighbors gets his first touchdown of the season, six catches and 112 yards. And I was considering everybody else.

On the first catch, when he went up well-defended, it was kind of a jump ball, came down on that shoulder, and immediately, writhing on the ground, grabbing the shoulder, I'm like, come on, tell me he didn't separate that shoulder again. Yeah. Because that would have been a problem, but didn't miss but a snap or two.

Chris McMonigle (0:40)

Yeah.

Craig Carton (0:41)

Came right back on the field and had, obviously, his best performance of the year.

Chris McMonigle (0:44)

Look, it just feels like he's going to be dealing with that throughout the season.

SPEAKER_5 (0:47)

I think so, too.

Chris McMonigle (0:47)

He's got a little bit of a, he's got a shoulder that's going to hurt if he comes down on it, playing it simple. But he was able to stick through it and played well, and played well. And Jameis Winston, man, oh man.

SPEAKER_5 (0:58)

Up and down and up and down.

Chris McMonigle (0:59)

Oh, the beginning of that game, I was so down on him. And then he, like, we talk about the Jameis Winston experience, and we finally got to see it, because for the first two weeks that he played, there really was no experience. It was just flat out bad quarterback. Yes. At least we did see the ability to move outside the pocket, throw down the field, made a really nice play on the fields touchdown, where he kind of was able to run to the sideline and then put it right on his shoulder to get in the end zone tight in that little window he had. And then the throw to, you know, Theo Johnson's perfect.

Look, he made some plays, but it's still very much up and down. He makes you nervous. That interception, like he makes, he throws interceptions in like the one time you're saying, okay, anything but an interception. Like at the end of that half, at the end of the first half, anything but an interception you'll live with. If you have to punt the ball and put them like at the 10, fine, but you can't give them an opportunity to kick a 60-yard field goal into the half, like you just can't do it. He is so frustrating at times, but he made enough plays to win this football game.

Craig Carton (1:59)

And by the way, and that's all that matters.

Chris McMonigle (2:01)

That's all that matters. That's all that matters.

Craig Carton (2:03)

Because they have, I guess you have this whole line in sports where they win in spite of a guy.

Chris McMonigle (2:08)

Yes.

Craig Carton (2:09)

That's probably fair to say that the Giants are three and one in spite of Jameis Winston being their starting quarterback. Now look, yesterday was his best performance. It's nothing to be thrilled about, but again, it was enough to win.

Chris McMonigle (2:24)

Yeah, but I just, it's hard to have real confidence going into any game when Jameis Winston is your quarterback.

Craig Carton (2:29)

Because the interceptions aren't up for doubt. It's not like a defender made a great play, he threw the ball to the defender.

Chris McMonigle (2:36)

Right to him.

And I know, oh, well, he thought maybe that, you know, likely was going to sit in that spot, and maybe he thought this, and that's like, they're awful throws. They're awful, god-awful throws. And he takes sacks, too, sometimes. Then you're just like, what the hell are you doing? Like, just get rid of the ball. Like, he is an experienced man, and eventually it's going to bite them. There's no doubt in my mind, there's going to be a game where they have a chance to win, and Jameis Winston will be the reason they lose.

Chris McMonigle (3:02)

Yeah, that's probably going to happen at some point.

Chris McMonigle (3:03)

That's going to happen.

Craig Carton (3:04)

But I'll tell you what, though, when you win, again, it wasn't like he was incompetent. He threw touchdown passes yesterday, threw for 200-some-odd yards yesterday. Look, he didn't complete 30 passes, didn't have to again, right?

As long as you win, doesn't matter. But when you do win, even a game like yesterday where it comes down to your defensive stand on your own goal line, it's another week where you don't have to deal with the conversation of, should we start JJ McCarthy?