John Harbaugh’s Giants didn’t just beat the Cowboys on Sunday night. They put a stamp on the opener.
In his prime-time debut in East Rutherford, N.J., Harbaugh’s team handled Dallas 28-20 at MetLife Stadium and looked every bit like a group that had been coached to control the game from the opening snap to the final kneel-down.
Jaxson Dart was sharp throughout, completing 23 of 29 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns. He also led three straight touchdown drives across the final three quarters, the kind of steady command the Giants have been searching for. Cam Skattebo added 81 rushing yards and a touchdown, while Isaiah Likely hauled in eight catches for 78 yards and two scores.
The game turned on details, and the Giants owned them.
Abdul Carter kept Dak Prescott uncomfortable. Jevon Holland picked off Prescott late in the half to set up a touchdown before the break. And a sell-out crowd turned MetLife into the kind of noise-filled pressure cooker the night called for.
“Couldn’t even tell you the last game where it was this loud or the crowd was this into it,” one season ticket holder texted the News. “My uncle had to take his hearing aids out!”
The Giants improved to 1-0, giving them a season-opening win for the first time since 2022 and a Week 1 home victory for the first time since 2010.
The finish wasn’t clean for Dallas, but by then the Giants had already done the damage. Prescott found Javonte Williams for a 17-yard touchdown with 5:21 left, pulling the Cowboys within 28-20 after Brandon Aubrey’s missed extra point. That was as close as they would get.
By that point, Dart had already delivered the decisive strike: a 9-yard touchdown swing pass to Devin Singletary with 7:26 remaining, the score that ended up standing as the game-winner. The Giants then finished in victory formation without giving Prescott another shot.
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy leaned into a physical, run-first approach with plenty of misdirection, and Dallas never seemed fully comfortable with it. The Giants’ two second-half touchdown drives both lasted longer than eight minutes, a sign of how firmly they had seized control.
The first half had its share of chaos, but the Giants answered it better than they usually do. Dallas tied the game 7-7 on Prescott’s 1-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb with 5:44 left in the second quarter, and then the Giants put the ball on the ground twice in quick succession around the two-minute warning.
Left guard Jon Runyan Jr. fell on Dart’s fumble after a sack by Caleb Downs. Then Shavon Revel recovered Tyrone Tracy Jr.’s fumble after Quinnen Williams punched it out.
For plenty of recent Giants teams, that kind of stretch would have unraveled everything. Instead, Kayvon Thibodeaux forced Prescott into a downfield interception to Holland at the Giants’ 45 with 49 seconds left, and Dart responded with a poised 5-for-6 march that ended in a 15-yard touchdown to Likely and a 14-7 halftime lead.
That sequence mattered as much as anything else in the game. It showed a team that didn’t blink after getting hit.
The Giants opened with a three-and-out on defense, then punched in their first score on the next possession. Ricard helped lead the way on the goal line, and Nagy’s misdirection call left Skattebo untouched on the left side of the end zone for a 6:40 first-quarter touchdown. It was the Giants’ first touchdown in a season opener since 2022.
Dallas did find some early success through the air, with George Pickens drawing a 38-yard pass interference call on Greg Newsome II and Jake Ferguson drawing a 19-yard pass interference call on Dru Phillips. Those penalties helped set up Lamb’s score against Deonte Banks.
But even with three first-half fumbles, including an early Likely fumble that Ricard recovered, the Giants never lost their grip on the night.
Dart and Skattebo pushed the Giants 74 yards and burned eight minutes off the clock before Dart hit Likely again, this time from 2 yards out, to make it 21-7 with 6:59 left in the third quarter. From there, the Giants controlled the pace and the mood.
Los Angeles awaits next, with the Rams coming to face the Giants on Monday Night Football in Week 2.
For one night, though, the message was already clear. The Giants were louder, sharper and tougher than Dallas, and Harbaugh’s first one in blue looked like a statement.
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