J.J. McCarthy’s first real audition with the Giants started about as poorly as it could've: with his team already down 34-10, he had one completion, two misses, and an interception. Then, just about 11 minutes later, New York was throwing into the end zone with a chance to tie the game.

It’s a wild sequence, but it also captures the McCarthy experience pretty well. The Giants lost 34-27 to the Saints on Sunday, yet they went from looking completely lifeless to making New Orleans sweat until the final snap. McCarthy gave them that spark. He also reminded everyone that the throws that make him exciting and the ones that get him into trouble can show up about 30 seconds apart.

By Wednesday, Jeremy Fowler was reporting that McCarthy would start against Houston. After watching that fourth quarter, it’s easy to understand why.

From 34-10 to an Actual Game

For a while, this looked like one of those especially annoying Giants losses. New York led 10-0 late in the first half, then gave up 34 straight points — including 10 in the last 78 seconds before halftime. A fumbled kickoff helped the Saints tie the game, and New Orleans came out of the break and kept piling it on.

Jameis Winston’s second interception of the day gave the Saints a short field in the fourth quarter. Then Tyler Shough hit Chris Olave for an 18-yard touchdown, making it 34-10 with 11:31 left. Winston finished 14-of-26 for 152 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions. That’s when John Harbaugh turned to McCarthy.

It wasn’t exactly an instant movie scene. McCarthy found Devin Singletary for 19 yards on his first pass, missed his next two throws, and then put one right in Martin Emerson Jr.’s hands. If New Orleans had just taken care of the ball, we might’ve been talking about a young quarterback whose first real opportunity lasted one ugly series.

Instead, CJ Donaldson fumbled two plays later. The Giants got the ball back near midfield, and suddenly, the game had a pulse.

McCarthy hit Malik Nabers for 27 yards over the middle. A short completion to Malachi Fields moved New York closer, and Tyrone Tracy Jr. ran it in from five yards out. McCarthy found Isaiah Likely for the two-point conversion. That 52-yard drive cut the lead to 34-18 with seven minutes left.

After a Saints punt, McCarthy opened the next possession with a 49-yard shot to Charlie Jones. Another throw was initially ruled an interception by Emerson, but replay overturned it and made it an incompletion. Two plays later, McCarthy connected with Likely for a 24-yard touchdown. New York went 73 yards in 48 seconds. The two-point try failed, leaving the Giants down 10, but the Saints still couldn’t stop making things harder on themselves.

McCarthy’s next drive started at his own 8-yard line. He found Fields and Nabers underneath, then ripped a 46-yard completion to Nabers. A false start and an eight-yard sack nearly killed the possession, so the Giants settled for a field goal after a 69-yard march. It was 34-27 with 2:04 left.

New Orleans got the ball and ran three straight times, and punted. McCarthy got the ball back with 57 seconds on the clock. He scrambled for 28 yards, hit Likely for 20 more, and found Nabers for nine. The Giants got all the way down to the Saints’ 14-yard line. On fourth-and-1, McCarthy tried to find Likely in the end zone.

The pass fell incomplete.

Game over. Somehow, though, it had become a game again.

The Fun Part and the Scary Part

McCarthy threw for 243 yards in the fourth quarter, along with a touchdown and an interception. That tied the most passing yards by a Giant in a quarter since at least 1991. He also completed just 11 of 21 attempts. Those two numbers go together.

The big throws were real. So was the 28-yard scramble that kept the final drive alive. McCarthy got the ball to Nabers and Likely in spots where they could make something happen, and for a few minutes, the offense looked like they could score in a hurry. But he threw one interception, had another wiped out by review, and made a few other decisions that could’ve ended the comeback sooner. Harbaugh was right to call it “desperation time.” A defense protecting a huge lead gives you a very different game than one facing a quarterback for four quarters.

The Saints helped, too. Donaldson’s fumble gave the Giants another chance right after McCarthy’s pick. New Orleans then punted three times, and their offense managed just 20 yards over those last four possessions. McCarthy orchestrated the comeback. But the Saints made it possible.

That’s why one electric quarter can’t answer every question about him. Minnesota used the 10th pick in the 2024 draft on McCarthy, but his rookie season vanished because of a knee injury. In 10 starts last year, he completed 57.6% of his passes and threw 11 touchdowns to 12 interceptions. The Vikings traded him to the Giants for a 2027 fifth-round pick after New York lost Jaxson Dart for the season. His arm and mobility were never the mystery. The real question is whether he can make good decisions consistently.

McCarthy didn’t pretend one wild box score fixed everything:

I’m not pleased when you lose.

Why the Giants Have to Find Out

Starting McCarthy doesn’t mean pretending he’s going to throw for 243 yards every quarter. He won’t. It means looking at what the Giants need with Dart out and deciding which quarterback gives this offense more ways to fight back.

Winston deserved a fair look. But he had already gotten it. He already helped New York win games before Sunday, and Harbaugh said Monday that the staff would consider his full body of work. But against New Orleans, two second-half interceptions helped turn a 10-0 lead into a 24-point hole. When McCarthy came in, the Giants could suddenly attack downfield, and a play breaking down didn’t automatically mean the drive was over.

That doesn’t mean the Giants should copy Sunday’s frantic no-huddle attack for an entire game. Harbaugh said Monday that playing that way every week wouldn’t be sustainable. McCarthy will have to run the regular offense, handle defenses that have had time to prepare for him, and not let every aggressive throw turn into a turnover waiting to happen.

Houston will tell us a lot more about that than 11 minutes of comeback mode.

Still, the Giants traded for a 23-year-old former top-10 pick because there was something worth finding out. They’re 3-2-1 and still have a season to play. They can’t treat Sundays like open tryouts. But they also can’t ignore what happened when McCarthy took over: Nabers got involved, the ball started traveling, and the team had life.

Maybe starting him leads to more wins. Maybe it leads to another afternoon where a beautiful deep ball is followed by a throw everyone wishes he could take back. Either way, the Giants will learn something useful. And for a team staring down the rest of the regular season without Dart, giving themselves more chances to make a big play feels like a pretty easy call.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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