Much of the optimism following Jaxson Dart’s promising first start and the Giants’ first win of the season has dissipated after Sunday’s disappointing loss to the previously-winless Saints dropped New York to 1-4.

This week, they find themselves in the national spotlight on Thursday night as they face a daunting matchup with the 4-1 Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium.

Here are the main storylines to watch as Big Blue looks to upset the Super Bowl champions and improve to 2-4 on the year…

How will Dart respond to adversity?

Dart performed admirably as the Giants upset the Los Angeles Chargers in his first NFL start, but the Saints made the rookie’s life tough for him, and New York ultimately turned the ball over five times, with Dart responsible for three of those.

One concern with Dart getting to start so early on in his career was that the offense would need to be simplified and could become predictable and easy to stop. Defenses may already be developing a good idea of how best to focus their attention to make Dart uncomfortable.

Against the Saints, Dart was once again productive as a runner, racking up 55 yards on seven carries. You can expect the Giants to continue to lean on this aspect of his game, but they need to be wary of him exposing himself to too many big hits.

A measuring stick for how far the Giants have to go

The Eagles had a 10-game winning streak, which included last year’s postseason, snapped by the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Even this one should have been a win, but they blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead. They’ll be expecting to start a new streak against the underdog Giants on Thursday night, but it’s not as if they’ve been dominating teams this year, because all five of their games have been decided by seven points or less.

For the Giants, it could be a good test in terms of how big the gulf is between them and the league’s elite teams. Despite all of their games being competitive, there’s no questioning the level of talent on the Eagles roster and they are an efficient offensive team with only one turnover all season, in addition to having a defense and special teams unit that have made some game-altering plays this year.

Can the Eagles get their faltering run game going?

Saquon Barkley returns to MetLife Stadium again, as the centerpiece of a running game that racked up 270 yards in their first two games. However, they’ve uncharacteristically been limited to 73 rushing yards per game since then, including a season-low 45 against Denver.

New York only has the league’s 24th-ranked run defense, but they did hold the Saints to 88 rushing yards on Sunday, which was the first time they’ve held an opponent under 100 all season long. This will be another good test for them against a sure-to-be motivated Barkley.

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