For this one Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, a dead zone in pro football for far too long, the Giants were them.

The Eagles have been consistently successful, unlike the Giants. Yet, it was the Giants that showcased the top quarterback of the night, their rising star Jaxson Dart, rather than the Eagles’ Super Bowl MVP, Jalen Hurts. The Giants also boasted the standout running back of the evening, another promising young talent, Cam Skattebo, as opposed to former standout Saquon Barkley, whom you might recall once played for the Giants.

In a surprising turn, the Giants’ defense dominated the Eagles, particularly in the second half, reminiscent of what the Eagles’ defense had done to the Giants after the Giants’ last playoff victory. That was a game where the Giants were hammered by a 38-7 loss following their win against the Vikings several seasons back. That unforgettable match highlighted the vast disparity between the franchises, much wider than the distance separating their home fields.

On Thursday, the Giants overpowered the Eagles just as the Eagles had overwhelmed the Chiefs in the recent Super Bowl, effectively shutting them out and neutralizing them in the second half.

Giants fans witnessed the most electrifying football performance their team had delivered in years. It was reminiscent of their triumphant Sunday night in Indianapolis against Belichick and Brady in a Super Bowl, giving them a much-deserved moment of pride in the game their team just played.

We were them. They were us.

Who could have anticipated this after the Giants’ rough 0-3 start, kicking off one of the harshest schedules known in recent memory?

While the Yankees faced defeat to the Blue Jays, marking the end of their season, Dart and Skattebo embodied what the Giants once hoped to achieve with Daniel Jones and Saquon. Skattebo dazzled as a dynamic force, scoring three touchdowns, covering 98 rushing yards, and exhibiting impressive back-flips, matching the shocking nature of the upset. The storyline wasn’t just about claiming victory over the defending champions; it was the comprehensive dominance in the second half, across all facets of the game, except perhaps questioning Saquon about adding an extra scene to his Netflix series.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier. It just doesn’t. The next game is in Denver against the Broncos, even though you have to say the Broncos had a much rougher time getting a game off the Eagles last Sunday than the Giants did on Thursday night. But it is fair to look at who the Giants are now with Dart at quarterback, and the charge he and Skattebo have thrown into the team and the fan base, and see how close this team — one that came into the season with such low expectations — is to being 4-2 right now instead of 2-4.

It took a 64-yard field goal from Brandon Aubrey to tie that Giants-Cowboys game at the buzzer a couple of weeks ago. Then Russell Wilson (whatever happened to HIM?) threw a ridiculously bad deep ball in overtime that seemed to hang in the air longer than the Goodyear Blimp before being intercepted. Not long after that Aubrey kicked another field goal to turn the thing into another heartbreak loss. It’s the kind of loss we’ve been watching from the Giants for years, no matter who has been coaching the team.

And last week against the Saints? The Giants did turn back into the Jets — our two teams still have the two worst records in the league over the past eight seasons — with turnovers on five straight possessions, kicking away a game they absolutely should have won. But with everything that happened in New Orleans, including the way Dart himself gave the ball away, the Giants were going to win that game if Skattebo didn’t fumble on his way into the end zone.

Still: When they had the Eagles coming to town and could easily have gone straight to 1-5, you know what they did? They won easily. And for all the good things that happened, the way the guys on the defensive line played and the way Cor’Dale Flott picked off Hurts and nearly turned the play into a pick-six; and the way Skattebo gashed the Eagles all night long, the headline is still the way Dart played.

There have been three great Ole Miss quarterbacks who have played — and won — for the Giants. One was Chuckin’ Charley Conerly. And then two decades ago, along came Eli Manning to win two Super Bowls for the Giants and turn himself into the greatest Giants quarterback of them all. No one is saying after a handful of starts that Dart is going to be either one of them. But what he has shown you so far, with his poise and flair and arm and the way he can run, is that he has a chance. And has given the Giants a chance.

For now, Dart has become somebody to watch and made you want to watch his team again and has truly made Giants fans feel excited again, after all the dreary seasons when their team became part of the permanent underclass of the NFL along with the Jets. You can see, with only the flashes he has given us so far, why Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll thought he could be somebody to watch.

The kid has now started three games since Daboll took the ball away from Wilson, who not only threw that interception against the Cowboys but then finished the Chiefs game the next week by acting as if he saw open receivers in the stands when the Giants got to the red zone.

On Thursday night Dart was 17-for-25 and 195 yards and one passing touchdown and 58 rushing yards and another rushing touchdown. It was Bill Parcells — yeah, him again — who once talked about not rushing to anoint young quarterbacks, and no one should be doing that yet with Jaxson Dart. But again: The Giants really might have something here, if he is blessed with good health and good luck. But there are no guarantees about either one, we all saw what just happened with Malik Nabers, as talented an offensive player as the Giants have ever had.

Listen, Aaron Judge is the biggest sports star in New York right now. Not if Dart is the one who brings the Giants back.

LEAVE THE DOC ALONE, YANKS JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH & BAKER LEADS MVP TALK …

Rooting for Brian Daboll to make it.

But stay away from the team doctor, and away from the tent, OK Coach?

We good?

We can all agree that you can only play the teams the schedule says you have to play, in baseball or anything else.

Nobody would ever dispute that.

But in the shadow of the Yankees’ season ending the other night against the Blue Jays, we heard a lot about how the team came together down the stretch, and started to show its true pinstriped, true-blue colors.

We also heard so much on the postgame shows about the way the Yankees after mucking around for so much of the summer finished 32-12, as if that was a big marker of big things to come.

Except:

Except that 24 of those victories came against the Twins, Cardinals, Rays, Nationals, White Sox, Orioles.

The Yankees were 24-4 against those tomato cans.

None of whom they were then allowed to face in the playoffs.

The bottom line on the Yankees, really, is this:

Brian Cashman took a team that was clearly not good enough at the trade deadline and made it into a better not-good-enough Yankee team.

A Jets fan friend of mine texted me after watching Justin Field’s performance against the Cowboys last Sunday, pointing out that his team is once again looking to take a quarterback high up in the first round of the next NFL draft.

“I feel like I’m on a hamster wheel,” he said.

Things appear to be going gangbusters for Coach Belichick down there in Chapel Hill.

My favorite take on his current circumstances came one day on X, when somebody had Bill’s girlfriend entering the transfer portal.

Too soon?

Baker Mayfield is the MVP so far, just because of the way he keeps winning all those close games.

And Josh Allen will always be in the conversation as long as he’s still throwing it around and running it.

But say it again:

Daniel Jones isn’t far behind.

With a little bit of luck, and without a couple of bonehead plays, the Colts could be the last unbeaten team in the league.

I’m guessing the Red Sox would be happy to take Pete Alonso off David Stearns’ hands if he thinks it’s time for the Polar Bear to move on.

And here’s the deal on Kyle Schwarber, also about to become a free agent after 56 home runs — only Cal Raleigh hit more — and the most RBI in the whole sport:

He’s a year younger than Aaron Judge and only a year older than Shohei Ohtani.

You look back at the night the Red Sox had a chance to close out the Yankees, and see these four names in Alex Cora’s batting order:

Rob Refsnyder, Romy Gonzales, Nathaniel Lowe, Nate Eaton, Nick Sogard.

The Yankees must have thought they were still playing the Royals and the Guardians.

Here’s an interesting question:

When was the last time the Knicks came into a season looking like they were our best bet to win a title?