![\"Giants'](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/j-j-mccarthy-18-new-143747629.jpg\")
Giants\u2019 J.J. McCarthy warms up before a game against the Arizona Cardinals at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Sunday, October 4, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\nThe \u201cJ.J. McCarthy Package\u201d existed but was never used.<\/p>\n
The Giants manipulated their special teams Sunday so they could have three quarterbacks \u2014 starter Jameis Winston, backup Jake Haener elevated from the practice squad and the newly acquired McCarthy \u2014 active on their 46-man game-day roster.<\/p>\n
By activating McCarthy instead of declaring him the emergency No. 3 quarterback, the Giants could have inserted him into the game at any point rather than only if their first two quarterbacks were out for the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had enough guys playing special teams, and it just gave us an option in case we wanted to put J.J. out there to run certain plays that we had prepared for him,\u201d head coach John Harbaugh said. \u201cBut to think that he was going to be the backup for the whole game was unrealistic. So we had Jake up, too, and that was our thinking. We just felt like we needed three guys for kind of the two roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants attempted a pair of 2-point conversion plays \u2014 where McCarthy\u2019s legs could have added an extra layer of unpredictability \u2014 but Harbaugh said there was never a consideration of putting him in the game as it unfolded.<\/p>\n
Giants\u2019 J.J. McCarthy warms up before a game against the Arizona Cardinals at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Sunday, October 4, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bryan Hudson replaced John Michael Schmitz as the starting center after Schmitz missed practice time this week because his wife gave birth. Schmitz showed up to the stadium in a \u201cDad\u201d hat.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuddy had been doing so well,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cWe kind of felt like, \u2018He\u2019s got the reps. He\u2019s made the calls, and we were kind of thinking about starting to work him in a little bit here and there \u2014 even some extra line stuff \u2014 if possible. \u2026 JMS didn\u2019t have a lot of rest. It just made sense, and I think it paid off. It\u2019s not a long-term thing. We just have two centers we really like.\u201d<\/p>\n
WR Braxton Berrios (foot), S Jason Pinnock (concussion) and DL Chauncey Golston (neck) were ruled out in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Tyler Nubin, who started the game but was benched for Pinnock after taking a poor angle and then missing a tackle on Tyler Allgeier\u2019s 22-yard touchdown run, returned in Pinnock\u2019s place.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Dominic Zvada has started his career 9-for-9 on field goals and is the first Giants rookie to kick three or more field goals of 50-plus yards in a single season (after Week 4).<\/p>\n
\u201cThat kid\u2019s doing a great job,\u201d Harbaugh said, \u201cbut he\u2019s going to be thinking about the next kick.\u201d<\/p>\n
The much-maligned Giants pass rush finished with seven hits (three by Abdul Carter) on QB Jacoby Brissett. Tremaine Edmunds and C.J. Okoye tripled the Giants\u2019 season sack total from one to three.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you are playing a veteran who wants to stay in the pocket, get the ball out fast, everything is on time,\u201d Carter said, \u201cwhen you disrupt his timing and get him on the ground a few times, it helps a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cJ.J. McCarthy Package\u201d existed but was never used. The Giants manipulated their special teams Sunday so they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1019248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[6050,38606,7,519,1519,1917,56,2321,2469,6,9],"class_list":["post-1019247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-giants","tag-braxton-berrios","tag-dominic-zvada","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-j-j-mccarthy","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkgiants","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117388337731598830","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1019248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}