John Harbaugh's steady hand guiding Giants through chaotic NFC East
Giants head coach John Harbaugh against the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium on Oct. 11, 2026. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick Smith
The state of the NFC East is worthy of reflection. Oh, how far things have fallen in 35 years.
It was 1991 and the Giants were defending Super Bowl champions. Washington was on its way to a title the following January. The Cowboys were rising before their dynasty took off. And the Eagles? Exciting to watch with Randall Cunningham under center (although he only played one game that year due to injury).
That feels like eons ago. Now, the Giants sit in first place in a terrible division. It’s more like the NFC Least, where only one team is above .500. The Giants’ tie with the Commanders highlighted the weird muck in which these teams find themselves.
Leave it to John Harbaugh’s wife, Ingrid, to sum it up.
“She says the whole NFL is like crazy town right now,” Harbaugh said. “It’s crazy town. It’s like, there’s so much crazy going on in this league right now. That’s what makes it so exciting, I guess. And we were right in the middle of it.”
The NFC East indeed fits that description after last week. The 2000s rap-rock band Crazy Town had a hit called “Butterfly,” but none of those games gave anyone butterflies in their stomach. More like uneasy nerves.
The Eagles took the lead with eight seconds left Sunday against the Jaguars and lost after allowing a long kick return and game-winning field goal. The Cowboys were embarrassed by the Buccaneers, who were starting undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels, last Thursday in Dallas.
As for the Commanders, high school teams have shown better final-drive awareness than they did on Sunday. It was inept and maddening, and perhaps best summed up what a mess this division has become.
The Giants deserve credit for rising above the slop. But they’re not immune to it. They’ve had moments of poor play since Jaxson Dart was hurt in Week 2. Their first half Sunday was another ugly display.
And yet, here they are. Better than the rest because when it’s been time to execute, they’ve done it. They have one loss, partly because of a favorable schedule but also because they are finishing games. As bad as they looked before halftime against the Commanders, they were magnificent while rallying to tie the score in regulation.
Jameis Winston has been both good and bad, but his wild ride as a starter hasn’t ended in a loss. His turnovers are balanced by touchdown passes at the right time.
The Giants also have won two games with defensive stops. It’s all part of the Harbaugh effect — stay disciplined on details and positive results will follow.
“It says a lot about [the coaching staff], the foundation that they’ve built,” said left guard Jon Runyan Jr. “A lot of us as players, we’re sitting 3-1-1 right now. A couple plays here and there, I feel like we could also be 1-4. I still feel like we have a long way to go on this team.”
It’s a credit to Harbaugh’s steady hand as well. The Giants stayed resilient while overcoming season-ending injuries to Dart and Brian Burns. They’ll need more of that, with right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor being described by Harbaugh as “day-to-day” after leaving Sunday’s tie in the second half with a calf injury.
Harbaugh’s experience has the Giants prepared for anything. In training camp, he drilled the team on situational awareness. Even when the team hasn’t been sharp, they adjust and get right without spiraling — save for that loss to the Rams, of course.
It’s too early to say if this bodes well for the rest of the season. The Giants’ plus-three point differential is tied for 13th in the league. The flip side of winning close games is that they were in close games against the Titans and Cardinals, who have a combined 1-9 record. What happens against better teams?
But the point is, anything can happen. If the Giants hold on and do just enough, who’s to say that can’t lead to meaningful games in December?
It’s much better to have hope in this division right now, one rife with chaos. The Eagles are in disarray after trading center Cam Jurgens and seeing right tackle Lane Johnson retire. The Commanders are still the butt of league-wide jokes. The Cowboys just added a new senior defensive assistant, Mike Pettine, to try to fix their leaky unit.
This isn’t the early ’90s anymore. None of these NFC East teams are beasts who scare anyone. But the Giants don’t need to be imposing. Given the mess around them, all they need to do is keep things together, execute more often than not, and they will be fine.
Things might be crazy, like Ingrid Harbaugh said. The Giants just need to embrace it and do enough right, especially since so much is going wrong in this awful division.
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
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