The Giants didn’t try to win Week 1 with finesse, and that was the point. Against Dallas, they leaned into a physical game and kept forcing the Cowboys to deal with it for four quarters.
By the time Jaxson Dart took his three victory kneels, New York had already hammered out 34 runs for 170 yards. The final tally in the 28-20 win was 165 rushing yards, with Cam Skattebo doing the heavy lifting in the middle of it all: 18 carries, 81 yards, and a touchdown.
There was one blemish. Skattebo put the ball on the ground once, though the Giants recovered it. That can’t be ignored, especially with a road trip to Los Angeles ahead, where ball security will matter even more than it did in a Week 1 home win.
Even with that, the message was clear. For years, the Giants have wanted an offense that could get tougher when the moment called for it. Sunday looked like a team that already knew how it wanted to play.
Skattebo’s style fit that message perfectly. He wasn’t waiting around for a perfect crease or dancing behind the line. He got north quickly, made defenders finish the play, and helped keep the offense away from the kind of third-and-long situations that can swallow a young quarterback whole.
That matters for Dart more than anyone. When the run game is moving the chains and forcing the defense to respect it, the quarterback doesn’t have to carry everything. The handoff might not be the flashy part of the offense, but it was the whole idea here.
Of course, one game doesn’t lock in an identity. The Rams are waiting on Monday night, and Skattebo can’t put the ball on the turf again.
Still, the Giants may have found something real in a runner who changes how a defense feels about the game even without a 40-yard burst. That kind of offense travels. The yardage was good, but the attitude behind it stood out even more.
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Lawrences opening performance was statistically quiet, which only sharpened the contrast with the impact he had been capable of producing in New York. For Giants fans, the reaction is likely split between appreciation for what he once gave them and the reality that the return was built around long-term value rather than immediate replacement. The bigger question now is whether Cincinnati will eventually get the dominant version of Lawrence it paid for, because the debut alone did not answer it. [Read more 🡒]