The start of the John Harbaugh era could not have gone much better.
The revamped Giants wore down the Cowboys on opening night, racing to a 1-0 start on the season and wearing down their NFC East rivals. It is the first time the Giants beat Dak Prescott in a game that he played from beginning to end.
The Giants made an early statement by taking a 7-0 lead, as Cam Skattebo ran in the first touchdown of the season and capped it off with his trademark celebratory backflip. There was some uncertainty if the Giants running back would continue doing the move after offseason concern regarding his backflips following season-ending ankle surgery last year, but Skattebo was clearly feeling like his peak self in his first game back from that gruesome injury.
Skattebo's touchdown capped a 10-play, 83-yard drive that alerted the NFL world from the get-go that the new regime under John Harbaugh was going to have the Giants looking like a different team.
It also helped that Jaxson Dart looked the part, throwing for 230 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 57 yards. He is now 2-0 against Dallas as a starting quarterback.
Isaiah Likely, one of the team's big free-agent signings of the offseason, had a monster debut with the Giants, hauling in a pair of touchdowns as the Cowboys had little answer for a Big Blue offense that boasted a level of creativity and efficiency rarely seen by the franchise in recent years. Even when New York kept it simple, the Cowboys had no answer, as the Giants seemingly put the game out of reach late in the fourth when Jaxson Dart connected on a flare to Devin Singletary out of the backfield for another touchdown, the fourth time in that drive alone that the Giants went to that play.
The Cowboys responded with a touchdown of their own, but Jaxson Dart connected on multiple 3rd-down passes to keep the ensuing drive alive, securing a win in which the Giants never trailed. It also put New York above the .500 mark since the end of Brian Daboll's first season as head coach.
That was quite the start to the John Harbaugh era.
That was quite the start to the John Harbaugh era.
