Our first Sunday Night Football matchup of the 2026-27 regular season will see the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants renew their long-standing NFC East rivalry. After a disappointing 2025-26 campaign, it was a transformative off-season for New York and Dallas as both of these squads are trying to end multi-year playoff droughts.

The Giants came away as winners of the off-season after they named former Super Bowl champion John Harbaugh the 21st head coach in franchise history on January 20th, 2026. During his introductory press conference, Harbaugh set a high bar for success in the Big Apple.

"They say New York's a different kind of place, and I would say that's probably true, man. This is pretty amazing right here. This is incredible," he said with a big smile. "It's a profound honor to be entrusted with the responsibility of coaching the New York Football Giants... I know the challenges. I understand the expectations. I know the fans are hungry for a winner. We're here with one mission: to earn the right to be called the world champions in New York, and that's what we plan to do."

From there, the Giants set out to completely revamp their roster. They signed 21 new players in free agency and added seven more rookies through the 2026 NFL Draft. With that, there is a new belief that the G-Men will be much more competitive than they have been in recent years.

"The way I look at it is we've used the word 'hope' in the last 10 or 12 years or whatever it might be," owner Chris Mara said during a recent interview on 880 ESPN New York. "The hope now has turned into expectations. At least for me it has. I don't hope we win this year. I expect it. And I think everybody else does, too."

Though New York added so many new pieces, success this season will depend largely on the continued development of second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart. The good news is that John Harbaugh has liked what he has seen during training camp and the preseason from the former first-round pick.

"I think he's come a long way," Harbaugh told reporters on September 1st. "I think he looks really comfortable in what we're doing right now."

It also doesn't hurt that Dart sounds incredibly confident about opening the season against Dallas. While he respects the history between the Giants and Cowboys, Dart explained that he has always had an upper hand in the rivalries he has been a part of.

"I love being a part of rivalries," he said on Wednesday. "Being able to play a team like this on a stage like this, I think that - as a competitor, as a young quarterback, as a guy coming into this league - I think that you look forward to these opportunities... I feel like most rivalries I've totally dominated. I don't know if I've ever been on the other side of a rivalry."

Meanwhile, Dallas went through a lot of changes this off-season as well. They have a new defensive coordinator, several promising rookies, and multiple players who have started meaningful games. The belief is that this team will be much better, especially on the defensive side of the ball, where they were last in points allowed per game during the 2025-26 season (30.1).

"I'll tell you, when you have the challenges we had last year, there's no place to go but up on the defensive side of the ball," owner Jerry Jones said in March. "Had we played a lick of defense last year, we would've had ourselves - I think - a real playoff run."

Though they have yet to play a regular-season game, the vibes have changed defensively, according to Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer.

"I feel very different about this defense going into game one," he told reporters on September 8th. "Doesn't mean that we won't have big plays given up here or an explosive run or a blown coverage. That's going to happen... Early season football is usually that way. But I'm pretty comfortable that, as I'm planning to call the game and even on game day, I have a sense of kind of what's going on on the other side of the ball."

Offensively, the 'Boys look poised for another strong season after they finished with the seventh-best scoring offense in the league last year (27.7 points per game). Quarterback Dak Prescott has apparently even come up with a new phrase to describe Dallas on that side of the ball.

"Dak has a new saying: G.O.T.I. Greatest Offense There Is," explained offensive tackle Tyler Guyton in July. "That's the identity for us."

"There's a name, there's a standard you want to hold – that's what GOTI (Greatest Offense There Is) means," Prescott elaborated during an August interview with CBS News. "That's our standard that we're going for. It's not just the best passing offense, or the best third-down team, or the best red zone team. It's about being the best all the way around."

Even though this will be John Harbaugh's first time experiencing the Giants-Cowboys rivalry, he has already developed an appreciation for what this matchup means. Factor in that it's the first Sunday Night Football game of the 2026-27 season, and it becomes obvious how much will be at stake when these two kick off tonight.

"It feels like a big game. An opening game that we have against a division team. And I'm excited about it," Harbaugh said on Wednesday. "I can't wait to see it. I can't wait to be a part of it. I'm really fired up about it, and I'm looking forward to it."

Prediction for Dallas Cowboys (-2.5) @ New York Giants

As previously mentioned, the Cowboys' defense will probably be much better than it was last season. Though it's fair to expect some missteps along the way, it is way more likely that the Giants' offense has more blunders considering their second-year quarterback is operating in a new and more complex system. Additionally, Dallas is better equipped to stop the run, so most of the pressure for the G-Men to succeed will fall on the shoulders of Jaxson Dart. At the same time, I'm expecting a better showing than last year from the Giants on special teams and on defense. However, New York's biggest weakness is its secondary, which could be disastrous when you remember that the Cowboys have a Pro Bowl quarterback and two Pro Bowlers at wide receiver in George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. Simply put, Big Blue doesn't have the defensive playmakers in the secondary to slow down Dallas' passing attack, and that will be the difference in this game.

Prediction: Cowboys 27 - 23 Giants

How to watch Dallas Cowboys (-2.5) @ New York Giants

Cowboys vs. Giants starts at 8:20 p.m. EDT at MetLife Stadium. You can watch it on NBC or stream it on Peacock.

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