The ny giants schedule 2026 opened with a prime-time division game: the Dallas Cowboys will start the season at MetLife Stadium against the New York Giants on Sunday, September 13 at 7:20 p.m. on NBC. That gives New York a home opener against a division rival and puts one of the league’s most familiar matchups on the first Sunday night slate.
MetLife Stadium gets Week 1
This will be the 13th time the Cowboys have opened a season against the Giants, and Dallas has won 11 of those 12 previous openers. The matchup lands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the Giants will again see a familiar opponent in a spot that has often tilted Dallas’ way.
Brian Schottenheimer enters his second year leading the Cowboys after going 7-9-1 in his first season as a head coach in 2025. He went 1-1 against the Giants that year, including a 40-37 Dallas win in Week 2 and a 34-17 loss in the season finale.
Schottenheimer and Harbaugh
The Giants also move into a new era with John Harbaugh, who takes over after 18 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens and a Super Bowl XLVII title there. That changes the look of an NFC East rivalry that already carries weight: the Cowboys and Giants have met 128 times since 1960, with Dallas holding a 78-48-2 edge.
Recent history has stayed tight enough to keep this opener relevant. Dallas beat New York 28-20 in a 2022 Thanksgiving game, and the two teams played the second-most watched game in NFL regular season history. The Cowboys have won 16 of their last 18 games against the Giants.
Dallas already has two dates
The Week 1 meeting is one of only two Dallas games now on the board. The Cowboys will play the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3 in the NFL’s first game in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the full schedule for Dallas and the rest of the league arrives Thursday, May 14 at 7:00 p.m.
For Giants fans, the practical takeaway is simple: the home opener is already set, the opponent is a division rival, and the kickoff time is fixed for Sunday night. The rest of the schedule will fill in later, but the first test comes in prime time at MetLife Stadium.
