If you’re a New York Giants fan, you’re still buzzing after Sunday Night Football, when Big Blue defeated the Dallas Cowboys 28-20 to start the John Harbaugh era 1-0. It felt like the franchise’s biggest victory of the last decade and a statement that this season may be different.
From the player introductions, where we saw Odell Beckham Jr. run out of the tunnel to a roaring MetLife Stadium crowd for the first time since 2018, to the fireworks in the sky and on the field, everything underscored how electric and important the moment felt for the G-Men and how much they needed a night like this to believe the season could change.
For the first time in a long time, this felt like a real team win for the Giants, who saw contributions from everyone. Obviously, we know the impact Jaxson Dart and Isaiah Likely had on this game, but let’s not forget Malik Nabers, who was a game-time decision and reminded everyone what the expectation is from Big Blue this season.
Malik Nabers says that the expectation for the NY Giants in 2026 is to win
First, we have to give credit where credit is due: Nabers was questionable all week leading up to Sunday Night as he still recovers from a season-ending ACL injury suffered last season, and nobody knew until warmups whether he would be active for this game.
In fact, Nabers told his family not to come to the game because he didn’t think he'd play; however, he felt it was the right time and went on to play a major role in Matt Nagy’s offense.
After the game, Nabers met with the media, where he was asked about the message that Sunday Night’s game sent, and he said, “It's not really a message we sent to anybody - just ourselves. We expect to win...it's a new team this year. And everybody knows it, everybody feels it.”
It’s amazing to think about how much coaching matters, and you really saw that in this game. Not only was the play-calling terrific, but you can tell everyone has bought into this new brand of football that Harbaugh and his coaching staff have implemented.
Dart looked calm, cool, and collected in this game, and on his first pass of the game, the second-year signal caller went right to No. 1 for a nine-yard grab, which had Big Blue fans fired up, and if there were a roof at MetLife Stadium, it would’ve come off in that moment.
Although Nabers was on a snap count, his impact can’t be ignored, as he had six catches on nine targets for 69 yards, averaging 11.5 yards per catch, which was special to watch after everything he went through mentally and physically last year.
It makes you wonder: if Nabers continues to recover the way he has, the G-Men use this as momentum, and everyone keeps buying into Harbaugh’s physical, hard-nosed style of play, they can beat anyone. We could be looking at a similar leap to the Patriots last season, who made a run to the Super Bowl.
Add us as a preferred source on Google