It is not yet getting late early for the Giants. Late, though, arrives soon enough — this Sunday in the home opener against the Bills, to be exact.

The Giants getting thrashed by the Cowboys in Arlington is no shock, considering the disparity in where these teams sit in the NFL pecking order. The home team is a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The road team figures to compete with the Redskins for third place in the NFC East and scrape and claw to approach a break-even record.

Sure, the defensive breakdowns — and even more disconcerting, what looks to be the greatest fears realized about the talent level on defense — made it a brutal way for the Giants to open their season. Losing 35-17 and allowing 21 unanswered points in the first half means the Giants are 0-1, which is hardly unexpected. The Cowboys and Giants are on different levels. Still, it is something to give up touchdowns on five consecutive series on drives of 75, 93, 83, 75 and 89 yards. That’s some massive ball-hogging domination.

The home opener against the Bills is a different story. It is too early, of course, to make any grand pronouncements heading into Week 2, but this much is clear: If the Giants cannot hang with the Bills, it will get ugly too soon.

Imagine the Bills for a second consecutive week invading MetLife Stadium and beating the home team to claim ownership of the New York title (in New Jersey). Their 17-16 victory over the Jets was all about resiliency after falling behind 16-0. Josh Allen is no Dak Prescott, but if he is given the time and open targets Prescott enjoyed, he will do some damage. Playing at home can be a wonderful thing for a young team, but hearing jeers and boos while playing at home can be difficult to process, which is what will happen if Giants season ticket holders see bad football make its way from Texas to the Meadowlands.

More coming out of the Giants opening-day loss:

— We know and understand why the decision was made to alternate cornerbacks DeAndre Baker and Antonio Hamilton, and it turned out to be a case of double trouble. Baker missed extensive time this summer dealing with a strained knee and the coaching staff was not confident he could handle a full workload. So Hamilton started and Baker replaced him from series to series. Hamilton ended up with 36 snaps on defense to Baker’s 31. Neither played well. Moving forward, Baker needs to get on the field and stay on the field. The undrafted Hamilton might soon give way to rookie Corey Ballentine. As for Baker, the Giants traded up to the 30th pick in the NFL Draft to get him. He has got to be a solid-to-good player for them. If not, there are no other answers. Baker does not say much, responding with one-sentence explanations that often do not explain much at all. He said he has to use and trust his technique better than he did in his first NFL game. He got burned by Amari Cooper for a long touchdown, but Cooper is an elite receiver and these things happen. It is the barely competitive busted coverage assignments that Baker must avoid. He did not sound stunned or shaken by his rough outing and that is a good sign. The rookie played in only the first preseason game before his knee issue put him on the sideline. Perhaps this struggle was inevitable. Leave it to Janoris Jenkins, the veteran Jackrabbit, to not overthink this. “Just keep working, baby,” Jenkins said. “You have a lot of talent, a lot of potential. Things are going to turn. They’ll turn.”

— Based on his work against the Giants, Dak Prescott should not only receive a hefty new contract that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is destined to pay him, he should be presented the key to the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. The Cowboys have won five straight against the Giants in an increasingly one-sided rivalry, and in those games, Prescott has 13 touchdown passes and no interceptions. The way he compiled a perfect passer rating in this latest blowout was so effortless, it might have been the easiest great game a quarterback has ever enjoyed. The Cowboys are a run-first team that really did not need to run much, or at all. That is how comfortable Prescott was in a pocket that was so protective, he had time to eat some Texas barbecue while scanning the field to sort through his appetizing array of open targets.

— On fourth down from the Dallas 7-yard line, the Giants needed one yard for a first down and the play call was tough to watch. Eli Manning rolled to his right and immediately there was a sense nothing good was going to materialize for the Giants. His targets were covered. For a moment Manning considered throwing across his body and into the middle of the end zone for Sterling Shepard, but that was a risky pass. He admitted some misdirection on the play would have been helpful. Manning only needed one yard to keep the drive alive, but everyone knows he is reluctant to pull the ball down and run for it. “I didn’t think I could run for it,” he said. “Just try to create and maybe hit somebody scrambling around, and unfortunately weren’t able to get that going.” DeMarcus Lawrence easily glided over to get to Manning and caused a fumble that Lawrence recovered. Not that it mattered. The sack ended the series and once again put on display the difficulty a team has when its quarterback cannot scramble for a first down. Why roll out and cut off half the field if there is not a legitimate run-pass option for the quarterback?

— Saquon Barkley after the game wore a green and black sparkling shirt that shimmered in the light, but his mood was anything but bright. He is so poised and so polished, sometimes it is not easy to remember he is so young (22) and has not been through this before. The Giants cannot allow their superstar running back to get accustomed to losing or come to expect the worst. “It’s not discouraging,” he said. “It’s not like ‘Oh, here we go again.’ It’s how can we do it. Let’s find a way to do it next week against Buffalo.” Here is a suggestion on the best way for the Giants to do it: Give Barkley more than 15 touches. He needs the ball in his hands, and the Giants cannot win unless he is the centerpiece of their offense. Even if they fall behind, Barkley is the best way to come back.

— Another rookie had a quiet first game. Defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence played 28 snaps and the production from the big man from Clemson was negligible: one assisted tackle. He actually played two fewer snaps than his backup, Olsen Pierre, and this will not be the norm moving forward. Lawrence was taken with the No. 17 overall pick and that means he stays on the field. He is primarily a run-stopper, but the Cowboys reversed their usual script and threw it (32 passes) more than they ran it (30 rushes). The run defense actually was fine — the Cowboys gained only 89 yards, averaged three yards per carry and did not have a run of more than 10 yards. Part of that was the rust and part-time usage of Ezekiel Elliott coming off his summer contract holdout.

— Interesting to see rookie LB Ryan Connelly played nearly as many snaps (26) on defense as starter Tae Davis (31). The Giants had only two tackles for loss and Connelly had one of them. It was somewhat surprising to see Connelly paired with Alec Ogletree as inside linebackers and that could be a direction that coordinator James Bettcher is leaning, as Connolly, a heady player out of Wisconsin, might be a better option than Davis.