DETROIT — Detroit Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes knew there would be questions about his coverage — or lack of it — on the fourth-quarter trick play the New York Giants hit them with on Sunday afternoon.
With 12:16 left in regulation, the Giants led the Lions 20-17 and had the ball at Detroit’s 33-yard line on first-and-10. After the snap, Giants quarterback Jameis Winston faked a handoff to Devin Singletary before handing it to receiver Gunner Olszewski on the reverse.
From there, Winston leaked into a route as Olszewski — now acting as the quarterback on the play — pulled up and launched a pass back to Winston. The veteran quarterback shook off Barnes, who had dropped into coverage at the snap, slipped multiple tackles, and took it in for a touchdown to push New York’s lead to 27-17.
Getting beat by a quarterback on a throwback trick play is never a great feeling. But Barnes — who had already seen and heard plenty of discussion about it before speaking with reporters — was eager to walk through exactly what he saw as the play unfolded.
“I was actually supposed to be rushing. (The) The tackle was on me. I just felt— smelled some BS,” Barnes explained. “I see (Winston) leak out. No quarterback rolls out that far unless they’re getting a throwback. So the tackle was holding me, and I was like, ‘I got to get off this block, go catch him.’ So I was chasing him. He kind of raised up, and then I was ready to go make a play on the ball, and he kind of stopped, and I was running full speed, had to control myself, turned back around, didn’t see anybody.
“So I’m like, ‘Man, this is crazy.’ Then, my biggest thing was just to get him down, whatever, and we move to the next play. Went and thought I had good leverage on him, kind of— he had tried to stiff-arm me a little bit and knocked that down. Tried to gator roll him a little bit. He hit the sideline, and I clipped him up. I mean, I thought he was going to fall, and he just kind of slipped out of there and kept his balance.”
Fortunately for Barnes and the Lions, the play didn’t end up costing them. Detroit rallied for a 34-27 overtime win, [sparked by Jahmyr Gibbs](https://www.mlive.com/lions/2025/11/dan-campbell-took-over-to-fix-his-offense-now-he-needs-to-hand-jahmyr-gibbs-the-keys.html) and a defense that made the stops that mattered down the stretch.
For Barnes, moving to 7-4 with a short turnaround against the Green Bay Packers is what matters most. Still, he tipped his cap to Winston, acknowledging that the quarterback simply made a great play.
“This is the NFL, man. Everybody gets paid. So I mean, you got athletes out there,” Barnes said. “He’s an athlete. He’s a good quarterback. On my end, I know I got to make that play, but at the end of the day, man, you’ve got to move on from stuff like that and not let it get into your head.
“And then I had coaches and players— even my coach was like, ‘Man, don’t worry about that (expletive).’ And it is what it is, man. Obviously, we want you to make that play, but man, for me, I’m proud of myself for even reading something like that just through the game. But at the end of the day, I got to make that play. And you know what I’m saying— thank God it didn’t bite us in the tail. We came out with a win. So once again, that’s all that matters to me.”