It had the look of a perfect start for the Giants.
Perfect start to the night.
Perfect start to the 2023 season.
The Giants had the ball first on offense against the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium and they were humming.
Running back Saquon Barkley looked fresh and explosive, gaining five yards on his first carry of the season, then eight on his next touch.
Quarterback Daniel Jones had the Dallas defense off balance with a couple of keepers.
In nine plays, the Giants moved the ball to the Dallas 8-yard line, from where they faced a third-and-2.
That’s when the night began to unravel, ending in an utterly embarrassing 40-0 loss at home.
First came a false start by dependable left tackle Andrew Thomas, who in the offseason signed a five-year, $117.5 million contract extension that included a guaranteed $67 million.
Third-and-2 became third-and-7.
Then came rookie center John Michael Schmitz Jr. rolling a shotgun snap on the turf past Jones, who desperately dove on the ball to retain possession at the Dallas 27-yard line.
The 14-yard loss resulting from the bad snap left the Giants with a 45-yard field goal attempt by Graham Gano. No problem.
He’d been absolute money wearing Giants blue, making 91.8 percent of his field goal attempts in three seasons with the team, including 24 of 25 from 40-49 yards.
That’s when Cowboys safety Juanyeh Thomas darted past Giants offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu with an inside move and blocked the Gano kick.
The ball ended up in the arms of Dallas cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, who raced 58 yards into the end zone for a 6-0 lead.
The game was never the same.
“You hope you don’t have plays like that,’’ Giants coach Brian Daboll said of the messy end of that first possession. “When you give up seven [points] on special teams and you give up seven on offense, that’s 14 points right there. We could never really string it together, really in any area.’’
A 12-play, 47-yard drive that ate the first 6:57 off the clock was wasted and so was the Giants’ night, their anticipated season opener after a promising 2022 that included a surprise playoff berth and a postseason victory.
So much more would go wrong for the Giants after that blocked field goal — including a 37-yard Gano field goal attempt that was pulled badly to the left.
That opening possession was followed by a host of negative events:
After the Cowboys had taken a 9-0 lead with a field goal on their first offensive possession, Jones threw a pass to Barkley, who was blasted by Dallas cornerback Trevon Diggs as soon as the ball arrived.
The ball deflected right into the arms of Dallas corner DaRon Bland, who returned it 22 yards into the end zone for a 16-0 Dallas lead.
Early in the second quarter, as Jones was chased out of the pocket toward the right sideline, he tried to force a pass into traffic to Darren Waller that was picked off by Dallas cornerback Stephon Gilmore.
Five plays later, the Cowboys made it 26-0 on a Tony Pollard rushing TD.
By the second half, many of the rain-soaked Giants fans were well on their way home having seen enough and chants of “Let’s Go Cowboys’’ rang through the building from the remaining Dallas fans reveling in the rout.
Insult to injury on a night that turned on one sequence of plays so early in the night. The Giants’ only hope is that play ruined only the night and not the season.
“We’ve got to do a better job — starting with myself and the leaders — to stop the bleeding,’’ Barkley said. “And we didn’t do that.’’
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