Terrific atmosphere for Giants fans, but will it last?
Fireworks explode over the stadium during the national anthem prior to the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium on September 26, 2022. Credit: Getty Images/Elsa
Getting way too excited way too early in the season was the way to go for Giants fans on Monday night.
They deserved every bit of seeing their team play on national television against the shiniest opponent possible – the Dallas Cowboys.
That is what happens when your team has spent a decade being mostly awful, then suddenly finds itself one of three remaining unbeatens in the NFL.
But win or lose, Monday’s big-game atmosphere at MetLife Stadium potentially was a mere preview of things to come, in part because of the Giants’ schedule.
Forget for a moment whether said schedule is difficult or easy, because that sort of calculation is notoriously fluid in the unpredictable NFL.
What we do know for sure is this: If the NFC East race is at all close, the last seven weeks of the season are going to be all gas, no brakes. (Oops, sorry. Wrong team.)
The Giants do not play their second game in the division until Thanksgiving, and by then someone who was notably absent from the field Monday should be back.
That would be Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who missed the game because of a fracture in his throwing hand but is due to return relatively soon.
Prescott should restore some balance to the division, with many already dubbing the undefeated Eagles a heavy favorite.
But barring an extended slump after their quick start, do not count out the Giants being a factor down the stretch – or at least playing some relevant games.
Over the last seven weeks, they play five games against the NFC East, including four in a row starting with the Thanksgiving game.
They finish at Philadelphia on Jan. 8.
Is it too much to dream of that being an old-fashioned showdown for a division championship, perhaps with Daniel Jones riding a wave to a contract extension?
Sorry. Again: Way, way too early, no matter the result on Monday night. But at least it is OK to think such thoughts again.
Or at least wild-card thoughts, with the Cowboys and Giants battling it out for the second-best team in the division.
Monday night began with a party atmosphere.
Fans entering the game were given white rally towels to go along with the white attire the team requested that they wear - and to go along with the Giants’ white “color rush” jerseys.
But pulling off a true monochrome look in New York sports has traditionally been a challenge.
Having thousands of Cowboys fans in the house – some wearing blue – did not help.
White Out games are a specialty at Penn State, where Giants running back Saquon Barkley played collegiately.
“If it’s anything like State College, it’s unbelievable,” he said last week. “Words really can’t describe it. Literally, when I found out we were going to do that, went right back to memories of playing in State College.
“I had a lot of good memories in the White Out. Hopefully, that can rub off this Monday too.”
It was the first home Monday night game for the Giants with fans in the building since Nov. 4, 2019, a 37-18 loss to the Cowboys.
Entering Monday night, the Giants had lost six Monday night games in a row and eight of their last nine.
Their last home victory on a Monday night was in November of 2016, against the Bengals.
Adding to the celebratory vibe on Monday was the addition of seven names to the team’s Ring of Honor, increasing the number of members to 50.
They were Joe Morris, Ottis Anderson, Rodney Hampton, Leonard Marshall, Jimmy Patton, Kyle Rote and Ronnie Barnes, the team’s senior vice president of medical services.
The greatest Giant of all, Lawrence Taylor, was in the house along with other past franchise stars, who lined up on the goal line for photos before the game as fans streamed into the stadium.
It was fun, at least as everyone looked forward to as big a late September game as one could want.
The trick for the Giants is staying in the division race at least until Thanksgiving, setting up the kind of race down the stretch we have not had enough of around here.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
