Friday night’s preseason game between the Giants and the Chiefs was an unveiling of sorts, with new head coach Tom Coughlin and two exciting new quarterbacks making their first appearance for Big Blue at the Meadowlands. But while Kurt Warner and Eli Manning received the loudest ovations from the sellout crowd, it was another player who stole the show.

Ron Dayne, who didn’t play a down last year, captivated the faithful with two long touchdown runs. Playing mostly against the Chiefs’ first-string defense, he rushed for 118 yards on just 11 carries, showing a blend of power and speed that the league’s 28th-ranked rushing offense sorely needed last year.

Early in the second quarter, the Giants faced a third-and-one from the Chiefs’ 29-yard line. Dayne pounded the ball into the left side of the line, and just when it looked like he had been stopped short of the first down – as Giants fans have come to expect – he burst through the defense and rumbled to the end zone for the Giants’ first points of the evening.

On the next Giants possession, Dayne took a handoff from Eli Manning and ran around the right end with an astonishing burst of speed, turned up the field, and ran untouched for a 67-yard touchdown.

It was an important statement for Dayne, whose NFL career looked like it might have been over at the end of the 2003 season. Adding 20 pounds in the three years after college didn’t help, but his inability to contribute as a blocker or a receiver was the main reason his playing time diminished during the Jim Fassel regime.

Dayne led the Giants with 228 carries as a rookie in 2000, helping the team to the Super Bowl. But when Tiki Barber hit his prime the following year, Barber became the featured back and Dayne was used mostly in short-yardage situations.

Despite Barber’s struggles last year, Dayne didn’t play, though he was healthy and on the roster the entire season. In just four years, he had gone from being the most productive running back in college football history to being ignored by a team in free-fall.

After Friday’s game, Dayne downplayed the significance of his big night. “I don’t really feel like I have to prove too much,” he said. The reality, though, is that his career – and perhaps the fate of the Giants’ offense – is riding on how well Dayne can play.

With the uncertainty at quarterback, it seems likely that the Giants’ offense will favor the run over the pass. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since Coughlin is part of the old school that believes that games are won and lost on the backs of the offensive and defensive lines. Coughlin’s Jaguars were primarily a running team, ranking in the top 10 in rushing yards four times in the last five years of his tenure.

“I think you have to win the line of scrimmage,” Coughlin explained back in January at the press conference introducing him as the Giants’ coach. “You have to pound the ball and you’ve got to be able to do it in key situations; short yardage and goal line.”

One of the first things Coughlin did was to tell Dayne to slim down, prompting the running back to report to camp at 235 pounds (down from 272).That will help, because even with the added weight, Dayne was never the type of back who could create his own holes and burst through the line.

Dayne is most effective once he gets through the line, because he’s got the speed to elude linebackers and he’s big enough to bowl over safeties and cornerbacks in the open field. By trimming down, he’s quicker than he’s ever been as a pro, which makes it more likely he’ll get through the holes the offensive line creates before they close.

While Dayne will never be the outside threat that Tiki Barber is, the Giants would be smart to resurrect the “Thunder and Lightning” tandem and use both players in the backfield. At 5-foot-10, 200 pounds, Barber has trouble being a heavy-duty back. His yards per carry have been higher when he carries the ball 200-225 times a year than when he carries 275-300 times. This is where Dayne can be useful. Simply put, Dayne’s presence in the backfield makes Barber a better player, and will make the Giants a better team.