There were stretches where you gazed out on the field in the first half on Sunday and the Giants were dominating and moving the ball up and down the field and you had to ask yourself: Where the heck did that come from?

“When you execute it’s a great feeling,” left tackle Andrew Thomas said. “We did a good job of that. If we did that more throughout the season who knows where we would be.”

Well, if the Giants did a whole lot more of this they would not be where they are, which is done with football.

It is safe to state that the Giants saved their best for last, ending a dismal and disappointing 2023 season with a Week 18 showing that provided a temporary sweetener to what has been a bitter season.

In front of a sparse crowd on a wet and wintry afternoon, the Giants took a 24-0 lead into halftime at MetLife Stadium and went on for a 27-10 victory that ended a stretch of futility against the rival Eagles.

“We didn’t have the season we wanted,” Saquon Barkley said, “but we were able to control this last game and how we go out and we all made up in our minds that we wanted to go out on top with a win and we were able to get that.”

Barkley rushed for two touchdowns in what might have been his final game with the Giants, the franchise that made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

He does not have a contract for next season and said “I have no idea” when asked if he believes he will be back for a seventh year with the Giants.

This ended the Giants’ five-game losing streak to the Eagles in a series that had the Eagles winning 17 of the past 20 games.

This rare victory allowed the Giants to snap a three-game losing streak down the stretch of the season and give their beleaguered fans who decided to show up something to feel good about in an otherwise dreary season.

“It’s fun to win, any time you win, regardless of how you get the win, it’s fun,” said Darius Slayton, who hauled in a 19-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. “Any time you can win against a division opponent it’s fun to win and any time you can win against the Eagles, specifically, it’s even more fun.”

Fun has not been experienced in abundance. This was quite a comedown for the Giants, who ended the season at 6-11 a year after going 9-7-1 and winning a playoff game.

Sure, the Eagles, eyeing next weekend’s playoff game against the Buccaneers in Tampa, pulled quarterback Jalen Hurts and several starters in the second half.

The Giants were in no position to throw back any hint of success.

Tyrod Taylor started at quarterback, but was forced out late in the first quarter after hurting his thumb on a sack.

Tommy DeVito came out of the bullpen, but got roughed up. He was sacked on his first play, and after a three-and-out, looked in discomfort on the sideline.

Taylor, who completed 23 of 32 passes for 297 yards, returned for the next series and his 26-yard pass to Wan’Dale Robinson set up Barkley’s first touchdown run to put the Giants ahead 10-0.

A Dane Belton sack of Hurts for a loss of 14 yards gave the Giants the ball near midfield and they went to work.

Taylor lobbed the ball to Darren Waller for a pickup of 23 yards and then sprinted out and found Robinson for 19. Barkley took it in from 3 yards out and the Giants piled up a 17-0 lead — the largest lead for the Giants in a game against the Eagles since the 2012 season.

A sack by Bobby Okereke ruined the ensuing Philly possession and then the quick-strike Giants offense — you read that correctly — struck.

Taylor can surely throw the deep ball and he found Barkley sprinting down the right sideline for 46 yards — Barkley’s longest reception of the season — and Taylor then rolled to his right and located Slayton, who glided into the end zone to make it 24-0.

That completed a four-play, 73-yard drive that took only 69 seconds — an uncommon occurrence for the Giants this season.

Hurts played one more series and then, after injuring a finger, took a seat, finishing off an ineffective outing 7 of 16 for 55 yards and one interception.

The Eagles (11-6) head into the playoffs losers of five of their last six games, no longer a Super Bowl favorite as they were when they were 10-1 and rulers of the NFC.

The Giants forced four turnovers, two on Xavier McKinney interceptions.

They went about their business in the second half, getting Sterling Shepard, in what was the last game of his Giants career after eight seasons, the three receptions he needed to move into the No. 5 spot on the Giants’ all-time receptions list with 372 catches.

A feel-good moment for Shepard on a rare feel-good day for the Giants.