The last time the Giants took the field at MetLife Stadium, home fans booed them after only one drive. But after winning Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, Big Blue will return to its turf Thursday night with something to prove in primetime against the Cowboys. “Honestly,” left tackle Andrew Thomas said Monday, “just give them something to cheer about.” That’s life in the NFL. All that matters is what happens on the field, and attitudes toward teams can change overnight. So the Giants are preparing to alter the perception of the franchise further with a win against a division rival to get back to .500, which seemed inconceivable a few days ago when the team was 0-2 after a dreary loss in Washington. In their first short game week of the season, the Giants aren’t conducting any physical practices — only walkthroughs (mental reviews of plays at slower speeds) and meetings while letting their bodies recover from Sunday. The Giants opened the week as 4.5-point underdogs against the Cowboys (1-2), who have the same record but are trending in the opposite direction. Dallas has lost two straight games to the Saints and Ravens. But the Cowboys surely view this as a “get right” game for them against the team that they’ve owned. The Giants lost this matchup in Week 1 last year — also a primetime game — by the score of 40-0. They have lost 13 of the last 14 matchups and haven’t beaten Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott since his rookie season in 2016. “It’s a new day,” safety Jason Pinnock said. “That’s the only thing I can really say. With that, my analogy goes towards my big brother. We joke about this all the time. It’s sort of like, he probably beat on me for 12 years, but that 13th, I’m going to bust your ass. It is what it is.” One of the major challenges for the Giants will be slowing down the Cowboys’ passing game with three of their top-four corners battling injuries. Outside corner Adoree’ Jackson and slot corner Dru Phillips both suffered calf injuries in Cleveland, while outside corner Nick McCloud did not play because of a knee injury. The Giants listed McCloud as a projected “limited” participant in walkthroughs Monday and Tuesday while Jackson and Phillips “did not participate,” suggesting that at least Jackson and Phillips are unlikely to play Thursday night. Dallas leads the NFL with 269.7 passing yards per play, and Prescott has 27 touchdown passes to only eight interceptions in 14 career games against the Giants. All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb has 52 catches for 722 yards and four touchdowns in eight games against the Giants. “Our personnel, we believe in all of our depth, really,” Pinnock said of the possibility of facing Lamb with a banged-up secondary. “I don’t have too much on that.” The reality is that it will likely be a huge mismatch, even if McCloud plays aside the Giants’ top corner in Deonte Banks, and it places an extra emphasis on the Giants to generate a strong pass rush against the Cowboys’ offensive line, which Pro Football Network rated last week as the 10th-best unit in the NFL. That part of the equation is more feasible for the Giants. They created a whopping 36 pressures in their 21-15 win against the Browns, which is the most the franchise has had since Pro Football Focus began charting pressures in 2006. They also tied for first in the NFL in Week 3 with eight sacks including two sacks and four QB hits by All-Pro nose tackle Dexter Lawrence. Of course the game flow helped, too, as the Giants built a 21-7 halftime lead and called more blitzes. Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson had 37 pass attempts. But this is what the Giants envisioned when they traded for outside linebacker Brian Burns to create a formidable front seven that could alleviate stress on the secondary. The key will be not falling into another big hole early against the Cowboys like at MetLife last year. Thomas injured his hamstring trying to chase down the Cowboys after they blocked the Giants’ field goal attempt on the driving down, and New York was down 26-0 by halftime. “That game was embarrassing. Home opener, that’s a tough way to lose,” Thomas said. “But it’s a new season, a new team. Some guys carried over from last year, and like I said, it’s a divisional opponent, so even if we won that game, it’s the same mentality. I’m sure they have the same mentality on the other side. You want to win that game, so that’s what we’re looking forward to doing.”