The legendary Vince Lombardi, who once served as an assistant coach for the Giants before his historic tenure with the Green Bay Packers, is often cited for the saying, “Hope is not a strategy.” Yet, it appears that hope is precisely what the Giants are relying on as they prepare for their clash in Denver, aiming to build on their recent success against the Eagles. For the first time in a long while, there’s a palpable sense of optimism surrounding the Giants.

The question now is whether this hope can sustain the Giants for years to come, rather than just the upcoming weeks. The showdown in Denver will serve as a litmus test against a Broncos team that narrowly avoided defeat by the Jets in London last Sunday. It’s here where Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo have the opportunity to prove their potential is more than just a fleeting moment of brilliance.

This game will reveal whether the Giants’ impressive performance against the Eagles — a matchup where they surpassed expectations by overwhelming the defending champions — was the start of a genuine turnaround, even without Malik Nabers. We’ll see if Dart can replicate his success against Sean Payton’s defense and whether Skattebo can continue to defy expectations about the Giants’ historically lackluster running game. Additionally, the Giants’ defense faces the challenge of stopping Bo Nix at Empower Field, just as they did against Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley at MetLife.

As we watch Dart attempt to secure his third win as a starter, the Giants could potentially match their total victories from the entire previous season by the end of October. After finishing 3-14 last year, they now have a chance to leave Denver with a 3-4 record. Having already toppled one AFC West contender in the Chargers, they’re now set to challenge one of the league’s top defenses in a tough environment, following their most significant regular-season triumph since their last Super Bowl victory over the Patriots.

Dart and Skattebo dismantled Vic Fangio’s defense in their last outing on a Thursday night. Now, they face the task of overcoming Vance Joseph’s formidable Broncos defense, which recently rattled Justin Fields. Regardless of the outcome in Denver, Giants fans are experiencing a level of enthusiasm not seen in years, despite the team’s struggles over the past eight years, sharing one of the league’s worst records with the Jets.

The young quarterback from Ole Miss, Dart, is certainly making waves. Giants fans recently witnessed Skattebo electrify MetLife Stadium in a way reminiscent of Saquon’s untouchable performances. Furthermore, they relished seeing the Giants’ defenders pressure a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback, evoking memories of the days when the Giants’ defense relentlessly pursued Tom Brady.

Will this last even to the end of October? There is no way of knowing that. Do a few hot games out of the blocks mean that Dart is going to do, at least in the short run, what Jalen Brunson did for the Knicks? Well, we are about to find out. But what matters for now is that people are talking about the Giants again. People want to watch the Giants again. Even a few weeks of Dart throwing it around and running around have made the football season around here feel like something more than a speed bump between the end of baseball and the beginning of the Knicks.

And imagine what people would be saying and thinking about these Giants if they hadn’t blown that lead against the Saints, after the upset of the Chargers and before the upset of the Eagles. Imagine what the record might look like if Russell Wilson had managed to close the deal against the Cowboys a few weeks ago.

But the Giants are where they are. We find out against the Broncos more about who they are, after a period around here, for Giants fans, as bleak as the ’70s once were, as they became as dreary a product in pro football as the Knicks were in pro basketball for so much of this century before Leon Rose got here and Tom Thibodeau and, blessedly, Brunson and the other kids from Villanova. You know who the Giants have largely been since the last Super Bowl? They have been what the Yankees once were when Stump Merrill was the manager; what the Mets were back in the ‘90s when they were the Worst Team Money Could Buy.

The Giants have been what the Jets still are.

Oh, sure. That game the Jets lost in London last Sunday? Giants fans know all about losses like that, under Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge and even Brian Daboll once things got sideway for Daboll after he got the Giants into the playoffs that one time. It feels as if Giants fans have endured an entire decade of losses like that, when they were the ones with quarterbacks who couldn’t come close to hitting what they are aiming at even when they had the time.