Fitzmagic (Sort Of) Returns After Jameis Winston Gets Benched For Throwing Four Interceptions

Jameis Winston was benched for Ryan Fitzpatrick today after his ass-tastic performance against the Cincinnati Bengals yielded four interceptions and five sacks in just under three quarters of playing time.

Winston’s multi-interception games have become par for the course for the Buccaneers throughout his career—his 21 games with multiple turnovers since 2015 are tied with Blake Bortles for most in that time span—but he hit a new low on Sunday. It didn’t matter if it was an attempt at a touchdown pass:

Or whatever the hell this was:

Winston found new and inventive ways to give the ball over to the other team. The breaking point for coach Dirk Koetter came after his fourth interception of the day, which Bengals safety Jessie Bates took all the way to the house.

In came the Harvard man to relieve Winston of his duties with 2:10 left in the third. He immediately proved to be a significant upgrade completing all four of his passes for 105 yards and a touchdown—a 72-yard bomb to Mike Evans—in his first two drives. Fitzmagic fully returned to life in his final drive of the game when took the Bucs 88 yards down the field for a game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion.

Unfortunately, Tampa Bay’s porous defense allowed Andy Dalton to march right back at his opponents and set up Randy Bullock for a game-winning field goal. But for a brief moment, the beauty of Fitzmagic was back and everything was good again.