The Giants.com crew members share their takeaways from the season-opening victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.

John Schmeelk: On our two-hour radio postgame show on Sunday night, we spent much of our time praising the Giants' physicality and ability to control the game up front on both sides of the ball. The Giants outrushed the Cowboys 165 to 69 yards, and averaged 4.5 yards per carry versus only 3.8 for Dallas. The Giants controlled the tempo of the game, kept the Cowboys' offense off the field, and finished their drives with touchdowns. The run set up the pass. It was a masterclass in power football.

But when I put on the All-22 on Monday morning, I grew a greater appreciation for how well Jaxson Dart played. The numbers were obviously excellent. He completed 23 of 29 passes for 230 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Dart trailed only Trevor Lawrence in EPA per drop-back and the Giants had the second-best pass success rate of the week behind only the Jaguars, according to Trumedia. But it was the way Dart did it that struck me as truly significant.

While the Giants' running game did help them stay out of many third-and-long situations, Dart converted four from nine yards or more. Those conversions, for the most part, were made with truly difficult throws to Giants receivers hiding within the zones of the defense. He was extremely accurate and on-time. According to Trumedia, he had the third-fastest average time to throw of the week behind only Joe Burrow and Jacoby Brissett.

Only two of Dart's completions came when outside the pocket, according to NextGen Stats. Last year, many of Dart's highlights came on broken plays where he was improvising off-schedule. His best plays against the Cowboys in Week 1 came within structure and from the pocket. Whether it was the out to Malik Nabers right over the flat defender to the left sideline, or the deep out to Darnell Mooney on the right sideline that was thrown before Mooney even got the top of his route, he was precise. His completion to Isaiah Likely in the first half on a deep out to the left sideline before he was blasted by Donovan Ezeiruaku was another highlight throw. His ball placement on the first touchdown to Likely on his first touchdown catch, placing it away from the crashing defender, was also impressive.

That type of success is far more repeatable and is a sign of true growth from a second-year quarterback. If Dart can continue to build on that progress, combined with the power running game, the Giants offense could be a real problem for the National Football League in 2026.

Dan Salomone: It was only fitting that Mike Tomlin was part of the broadcast for John Harbaugh's first game. Only George Halas and Curly Lambeau faced each other more times as head coaches, so Tomlin spotted what was happening right away. And perhaps before the Cowboys could do anything about it.

"It looks like the game is unfolding in the manner in which they wanted to," Tomlin said near halftime. "They're running the ball. They've got 80 yards rushing. It's put them in manageable third downs. They're four for five on third-down conversions. But equally as important as that, they're controlling the pace of the play. They're playing Princeton basketball like we talked about pregame. They're reducing the number of possessions, and that gives them a chance."

Harbaugh followed that blueprint to 193 wins with the Ravens and a 194^th with the Giants.

"It was like watching a movie that I've seen a thousand times," Tomlin said postgame. "I knew what was going to happen next. I couldn't believe that nobody else did. But I've been in that circumstance a lot against Harbs. We're in the same category of Halas and Lambeau in terms of the number of times that we competed against each other. So, I certainly understand his mode of operation, but kudos to him and the rest of the Giants because to have a plan, that's just one component of it. They executed it almost flawlessly. Other than lack of ball security at times, it's not in vogue with what they do … but other than that, they played Harbs Ball. It looked very familiar."

Matt Citak: In order to get a true understanding of my biggest takeaway, I want to take everyone back to January 20, 2026. During his introductory press conference, John Harbaugh opened his tenure as head coach of the New York Giants with the following:

"As we begin a new chapter in New York, our focus is simple, it starts with building a team that is physical and tough, that's capable of overwhelming their opponent from beginning to end, and especially at the end, that understands how to finish, that is smart and disciplined, that plays the game the way it should be played, and that everybody watching it, including those playing it, would be proud of."

Anyone who watched last night's game could see that from the very first play of the game, this is exactly what the Giants did. It began with a quick three-and-out by the defense and continued into the offense's first drive, where they drove 83 yards in 10 plays and finished with a touchdown. This quickly set the tone for the entire game, as the Giants controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

Prior to Jaxson Dart's three kneel-downs in the victory formation, the Giants ran the ball 34 times for 170 yards, good for an average of 5.0 yards per carry. Cam Skattebo led the team with 81 yards on 18 carries, but Dart wasn't too far behind with 59 yards on eight carries prior to the kneels. Both Skattebo and Dart were able to have so much success on the ground due in part to the guys in front of them. The offensive line, along with Patrick Ricard, pushed around a talented Cowboys defensive front all game, which allowed the offense to completely dominate the time of possession. The Giants had the ball for 21 minutes and 33 seconds in the second half, limiting the Cowboys to just two total possessions. That right there is a recipe for success.

On the other side of the ball, the defense limited a high-powered Cowboys offense that ranked as one of the best in the NFL last season. Dak Prescott threw for just 175 yards, but more importantly, the Cowboys could not establish the run game. Javonte Williams was held to 3.4 yards per carry, and as a team, Dallas averaged 3.8 yards per carry. This performance in primetime was an encouraging step in the right direction. Now let's see if they can repeat this performance next week against another talented team in the Rams.