Jameis Winston‘s epic 33-yard touchdown catch Sunday in Detroit immediately became a candidate for one of the NFL’s plays of the year.
“Pretty sweet play, wasn’t it?” Gunner Olszewski, the wide receiver who threw the pass to Winston, said after Sunday’s 34-27 Giants overtime loss to the Lions. “It’s called Bullseye.”
Here is how Mike Kafka’s offense brought the fireworks to Ford Field with 12:28 remaining in the fourth quarter:
They ran the play three times in practice this week. Guess how many times Olszewski completed his pass to the quarterback?
“Three,” Olszewski said. “If it [doesn’t] go three for three, it [doesn’t] get called in the game.”
There is a good chance at least one of those practice reps featured Jaxson Dart as the quarterback catching the pass, not Winston, since Kafka was preparing Dart as the starter for most of the week.
Come Sunday, when Kafka dialed up ‘Bullseye,’ Olszewski lined up to the left of the formation. Wan’Dale Robinson, the other wide receiver, was to the right of the formation.
Tight end Daniel Bellinger started wide to the left of Olszewski and then motioned inside, behind and alongside tight end Theo Johnson and left tackle Andrew Thomas.
When Winston lifted his foot and took the shotgun snap, Bellinger bolted to his right across the formation to block.
Winston play action faked a handoff to running back Devin Singletary. Olszewski curled back inside behind the quarterback. Then Winston flipped the ball with his left hand to Olszewski, slipped out covertly past Thomas up the left sideline and raised his left hand in the air.
As Winston escaped on his route and the offensive line did its job, Olszewski still found himself in some trouble in the backfield. But Singletary got just enough of charging Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone with a block.
And that’s when the play went from fun to electric.
Johnson (deep post) and Robinson (out) were both running routes to the right side of the field, but Olszewski already had decided where he was going to put the rock.
“If they give me a chance to throw the ball to a Heisman Trophy winner, that ball’s going up no matter what,” Olszewski said with a smile, referencing Winston, the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner at Florida State. “There are other guys on routes, and they say, ‘Jameis or nobody.’ But I went through my reads, and I got back to Jameis.”
So Olszewski stepped aggressively forward past Anzalone and Singletary, sprinted a few steps, jumped off his right foot and threw the ball about 20 yards to just outside and left of the numbers of the 20-yard line.
What was going through Olszewski’s mind during the chaos?
“Nothing, man,” he said. “Just let it rip.”
It turned out to be an effective back shoulder throw by Olszewski, the Giants’ punt returner who has only played sparing offensive snaps this season.
Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes had alertly peeled back off of Thomas’ block to chase Winston downfield. But when Winston turned and saw the ball in the air behind him, he alertly stopped as Barnes blew by and caught the ball in his gut.
“I like to consider myself an athlete,” Winston said. “I believe that I can make plays like that for this team. If I need to play tight end, I can. I do whatever it is that’s required for this team to have success.
“I’m grateful that [Kafka] gave me an opportunity and Gunner … gave me a chance,” he added. “Sometimes that’s all you got to do at the quarterback position: get your guy a chance.”
That’s another reason Olszewski felt obligated to throw the ball to Winston no matter what else had happened: that’s what Winston does for his receivers.
“He was gonna get a chance, for sure,” Olszewski said. “He’s the man. He puts the ball up for us, so I was like, ‘It’s comin’ up, Jameis!’”
Olszewski said with a smile that he knew Winston would make the play on Barnes because “Jameis is a better athlete.”
Once Winston made his first career NFL reception, he elevated the trick play from electric to magnificent.
Winston put the ball in his left hand, turned outside, ran toward Barnes, stutter-stepped inside briefly, then cut back out to the sideline.
Then he used his right arm to stiff-arm Barnes in the face as the Lions linebacker tried to bring him down.
For a moment, Winston was striking the Heisman pose in real time.
“Russell Wilson sent me a picture of doing the Heisman, in like a little GIF. I think it’s called a GIF,” Winston said. “And I did the Heisman, and we got in the end zone.”
Barnes ripped at Winston’s right arm and then made one last diving attempt to tackle Winston by his right leg. But the quarterback spun with his back to the end zone at the 6-yard line, kicked Barnes’ hands off his right foot and stumbled as he continued spinning forward.
Then he crossed the goal line, jumped off his left foot and did a leaping, left-handed finger roll with the football as Robinson jumped on top of him to celebrate.
“Those are morale boosters,” Winston said. “And you could see the sideline, man. We were pumped. We were excited, and we need that. We need that energy.”
As if the play weren’t epic enough, Winston immediately found the FOX camera in the back of the end zone and strutted towards it.
Then, in unison, Thomas and running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. joined Winston strutting towards the camera. And they all pretended to throw dice right into the living room of every fan watching across the country with huge smiles on their faces.
Tracy hadn’t even been on the field for the play. He had sprinted off the sideline directly into the middle of a fantastic moment and celebration.
The entire Giants bench was running down the sideline. The Lions’ Barnes remained on the turf with his head down, dejected.
The vibes were sky high. It will undoubtedly be a candidate to become the NFL’s Play of the Year.
It’s just a crime the Giants couldn’t make it stand as the signature moment of a victory.
“It sucks we didn’t win,” Olszewski said. “That’d be an even cooler play. But yeah.”
The vibes are definitely high on the offensive side for us, so.
NO MORE KICKS
The Giants terminated the practice squad contract of Irish kicker Jude McAtamney and signed German tight end Maximilian Mang to an international practice squad contract in his place. McAtamney, 25, missed two extra points in the Giants’ catastrophic Oct. 7 collapse in Denver, a 33-32 loss to the Broncos that the Giants had led 19-0 with 2:41 remaining in the third quarter and 26-8 with 10:14 to play in the fourth. Joe Schoen’s mismanagement of the kicker position has been one example of his inability to field a winning roster.
