ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Giants were soundly defeated in every facet of the game against their hated rivals on Sunday, showing a jarring lack of playmakers on both sides of the ball that likely will doom another season, but there is some good news from this 35-17 loss to the Cowboys.

Their culture was FANTASTIC!

That was the mission, wasn’t it? To rid this proud franchise of the distractions, the headaches, the off-the-field nonsense. GM Dave Gettleman, with the full endorsement of ownership, has made it clear that he knows what a team winning looks like -- just check his resume -- and he set out to remake the roster accordingly.

“I think some people are still missing it,” he told me this offseason. "Football is the ultimate team game. There’s more to it than just collecting talent. There is a cultural thing to it that’s critical. I have not been on a team that’s gone to a Super Bowl that’s had a culture problem.”

When I pressed him if the Giants have a culture problem, he flashed a wide grin and declared, “Not anymore."

He is absolutely right, too. The Giants fell behind the Cowboys, 35-10, as quarterback Dak Prescott torched the overmatched defense that Gettleman assembled. But look at the complete picture. The behavior on the sidelines was exemplary, the postgame interviews were conducted with the right mixture of cliches and promises to improve, and everyone made it back to the team buses on time.

No one laid a hand on a kicking net -- or, for that matter, on Prescott.

“This team is different [than] in the past,” tight end Evan Engram said as his teammates dressed in a quiet, orderly fashion. “We played a good team that had our number, but it’s only one game. The mentality in this locker room is where it needs to be.”

Mentality. That’s one category where the Giants owned the Cowboys this summer. Dallas’ star running back, Ezekiel Elliott, was embroiled in a nasty holdout that lasted until the 11th hour. Prescott, too, has been vocal about wanting a contract extension. Those ugly headlines clearly had an impact on, uh, well nothing at all.

The Giants, however, avoided them entirely. They traded Odell Beckham Jr., the human distraction factory, to Cleveland. They let Landon Collins leave in free agency, and the safety made it clear that he believed culture was the reason he and several other big-name defensive players were sent packing this offseason.

“I think we were too vocal, and that platform was bigger than the Giants and our words stood out more," Collins told ESPN. “And, if it’s not good media, they don’t want that kind of media.”

Beckham spent the offseason trashing the Giants to anyone with a tape recorder, then showed up for the season opener wearing a watch that cost “several hundred thousand dollars” as the Browns lost by 30 points. The watch made it out of the game unscathed. The Browns, the embodiment of bad culture, took the L in humiliating fashion.

The Giants also lost, but did so without any unnecessary flashiness or me-first attitudes. Saquon Barkley broke off a 59-yard run on the team’s first possession but then carried the ball just 11 times in the game, and no one even had a problem with that.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to help my team win games,” Barkley said. “If it happens to be 11 carries, I’m a team player.”

Let’s face it: To let him run the ball down the Cowboys’ throats would have just been rude.

Barkley is the Giants only top-level playmaker on either offense or defense, and it helps that he is also a perfect representation of the franchise. People like him, however, are extremely rare -- the best player in Giants history, Lawrence Taylor, was a flawed human being. The Lombardi Trophies he helped win count the same.

The Patriots jumped at the chance to sign troubled receiver Antonio Brown, a player who fits in no team’s culture. Maybe that will backfire. They do, however, seem to know something about winning championships.

Gettleman says he does, too.

“Building a roster is not just about collecting talent," Gettleman said. “It is not just about how fast, strong or talented a player is, but does he fit athletically, intellectually and culturally into what you are trying to accomplish, that is to win a Super Bowl.”

The GM is right. It isn’t just about how fast or talented a player is. But as sure as hell is mostly about that, because -- radical hot take coming here -- the teams with the best players generally win more football games than they lose.

The Giants, in Week 1 at least, don’t appear to have nearly enough of those. They did, however, leave Dallas in a polite and an orderly fashion, without creating a single headline unrelated to their poor performance as a football team.

Culture for the win!

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.