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Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

The Giants defeated the Saints in overtime on Sunday and finally notched their first victory of the 2021 season.

We are upon victory Monday in East Rutherford.

The Giants finally found themselves in the win column Sunday after a huge 27-21 overtime thriller against the New Orleans Saints. A phenomenal performance from Daniel Jones and two touchdowns from Saquon Barkley led Big Blue to a humongous win, and one that is incredibly important for a number of reasons.

Jones’ emergence

Some believe Daniel Jones is the long-term answer at the quarterback position.

Others believe that if the Giants land a top-five draft pick in 2022, which is very much still possible, a new quarterback could be coming to East Rutherford.

Regardless, entering Sunday, the Giants had 14 games to unlock Jones’ potential and find out the answer to the lingering question: will DJ be here for the long haul?

The decision has yet to be officially made, but all I’ll say is Jones has made a great case this season for why he should be the future face of the franchise and continued to do so against the Saints.

Jones threw a career-high 402 yards to go with two touchdown passes and a game-winning drive in overtime.

The Giants and their fans needed offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to finally call a great game in order to maximize Jones’ talent, and while it wasn’t perfect, Garrett’s performance was much better than his previous blunders. The Giants gained 485 total yards — by far the most since Garrett earned his current job back in 2020.

Jones required a performance like this and a win to further build his argument for why he should stick around. His 402-yard game is larger than some imagine.

Momentum into Dallas

Next Sunday, the Giants head to Jerry World, where they haven’t won since Week 1 of the 2016 season.

Yes, you read that right. It’s been over five years since the Giants traveled to the Lone Star State for a big win over their division rival.

It’s a huge matchup — Dallas is 3-1 but just 2.0 games ahead of the Giants in the NFC East standings. It’s a long regular season, and despite the Giants’ slow start vs. the Cowboys’ impressive one, a lot could still occur over the final 14 weeks.

Defeating the Cowboys and finding themselves a game back of the division lead would be enormous for New York, especially considering this division race carries the potential to be a tight battle down the road.

This is why the momentum coming out of the Week 4 win is huge. The Giants are in a much better position coming off a huge overtime victory heading into an important week of practice than they would be if they were coming off their fourth consecutive loss.

Instead of having to answer questions about Garrett’s head-scratching play calls or the defense not stepping up in the final two minutes of a half or Joe Judge not going for it on fourth down yet again, the organization can focus on their game plan for Dallas, who’s always a tough opponent.

The upcoming schedule

The Giants need to start stacking up wins given the frightening gauntlet of a schedule they have on deck. Entering this past Sunday, 0-10 was still a possibility.

After Dallas, the Giants play the ever-talented Rams followed by a 3-1 Panthers team whose defense has been strong for much of the season thus far. After that, they face the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs on the road, the Raiders (who are currently 3-0), and the Super Bowl champion Buccaneers.

The aforementioned momentum was so crucial; so was righting the wrongs in the New Orleans game and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. The Giants needed to answer numerous questions about themselves before taking on a portion of their schedule that could further sink them into the mud.

Follow Ryan Honey on Twitter: @RyanHoneyESNY

Listen to ESNY’s Wide Right Podcast on Apple here or on Spotify here.

Ryan Honey is a staff writer and host of the Wide Right Podcast.