John Harbaugh and the Giants Will Play Their Super Bowl in Week 1

The first big NFL schedule news broke on Monday morning with the announcement that the Giants and Cowboys would be the first Sunday Night Football game of the season. This will mark the sixth time in the last 12 years that these teams have met on SNF in Week 1.

Cowboys-Giants is one of the highest-rated rivalries in the NFL despite the fact that it's been incredibly one-sided in Dallas’s favor. Before the Giants beat the Cowboys in a meaningless Week 18 game last season, the Cowboys had won nine straight against New York. In the midst of that run they played the highest-rated regular-season game in history on Thanksgiving in 2022. When they met again on Thanksgiving in 2024 with Drew Lock and Cooper Rush facing off as the starting quarterbacks, the franchises competed in one of the most-watched regular season games ever.

You can see why the NFL might want to push this rivalry.

Cowboys vs. Giants all-time record

The Cowboys are 78-47-2 overall in regular-season games against the Giants with New York winning the single postseason game during their run to Super Bowl XLII.

The Cowboys have won 21 of the last 26 games against the Giants dating back to 2013.

Cowboys vs. Giants in prime time

The Cowboys have been featured in prime time in Week 1 in five of the last seven seasons. Even when they aren't in prime time, they're usually prominently featured in the late afternoon game on Sunday.

The Cowboys beat the Giants on SNF in Week 1 in 2023, beat the Giants in the late afternoon game in ’19, beat the Giants on SNF in ’17, SNF in ’15 and again on SNF in ’13. They also beat the Giants on a Wednesday season-opener in prime time in ’12. To the Giants' credit, they did beat the Cowboys in the late afternoon game to open their 2016 season.

Last season was the first time since ’21 that neither of the Cowboys-Giants matchups was featured in prime time.

John Harbaugh's Record in season openers

With that in mind, the expectations for the Giants in Week 1 should be as high as they've been in a very long time. Three years ago in 2023, the Giants were coming off their first winning campaign since the Eli Manning era. Daniel Jones and Brian Daboll were entering their second season in New York and the team proceeded to lose to the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football and went on to finish 6–11.

Now Jaxson Dart will enter his first season as the full-time starter. He'll be coached by John Harbaugh who has a 4–1 career record against the Cowboys, including the Ravens’ Week 3 win last season.

Harbaugh went 12-6 in season openers with the Ravens. At .667 that's above his career .614 win percentage as a head coach. That record would have been even better except the Ravens dropped three of their last five season-openers under Harbaugh—SNF against the Bills last year, the first game of the season in ’24 against the Chiefs and Monday Night Football against the Raiders in ’21.

Facing the Cowboys in prime time to kick off Harbaugh's first season in New York should be quite a test. The Giants were just 4–13 last season and 1–2 in prime time.

The Giants have won their Week 1 game just twice since 2010 and in both those seasons they made the playoffs.

Beating the Cowboys isn't a necessity for the Giants to return to the top of the NFC East for the first time since 2011, but it wouldn't hurt. Whatever happens in Week 1 is going to lead every talk show on Monday morning. It would certainly be a good start, which is something the fans aren't used in the Meadowlands.

More NFL from Sports Illustrated

Add us as a preferred source on Google