Harbaugh: Giants' victory vs. Cowboys in debut ranks as No. 1 win right now — SkimNews
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- John Harbaugh won his debut as New York Giants head coach, beating the Dallas Cowboys 28-20 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night, and ranked it No. 1 among his 205 career victories.
- The Giants outrushed Dallas 165 yards to 69 and ran out the final 5:16 of the game to preserve the win, executing the physical, run-first blueprint Harbaugh laid out from day one.
- Owner John Mara presented Harbaugh with the game ball after the victory, and players cheered him in the locker room where he later celebrated with his parents, who arrived Friday.
- The Giants started a season with a win for just the second time in 10 years, breaking a stretch in which Dallas had beaten them in 16 of the past 18 matchups.
- Cam Skattebo led the Giants with 81 rushing yards, while quarterback Jaxson Dart said the team "will do whatever [Harbaugh] says" because the team's identity "starts at the top."
- Harbaugh cited his father Jack Harbaugh, a former longtime Western Kentucky coach, whose lifelong advice — "John, you never had a better win than that" — Harbaugh said might actually be true this time.
Why it matters: A Super Bowl-winning coach delivered a Giants rushing attack that gashed Dallas 165-69 and closed out the final 5:16, ending a pattern where the Cowboys had beaten New York in 16 of the prior 18 meetings. For a franchise that had started a season with a win only once in the previous nine years, the debut result puts an immediate physical stamp on the Harbaugh era — and quarterback Jaxson Dart's public buy-in shows the locker room is already aligned with it.
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