There were so many moments in the past five years when the Giants seemed so far away from where the franchise wanted and needed to be. So very far away from respectability and nowhere near the vicinity of gaining admission to where best teams reside.

All that bad football and all those desultory afternoons and evenings of losing are resigned to history. The present is where it is at and the Giants on New Year’s Day wowed their home crowd with a display of domination rarely seen at MetLife Stadium. They clinched their first playoff berth in six years with a 38-10 rout of the sad-sack Colts, riding a tour de force outing from quarterback Daniel Jones.

The Giants (9-6-1) are in the postseason, locked into the No. 6 seed in the NFC and will play on the road in the wild-card round of the playoffs against the third seed. This is heady stuff for the first-year regime of general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, imports from the Buffalo Bills who have sprinkled the Giants with a winning formula.

The win-and-in scenario created a festive atmosphere and the Giants made sure their fans were treated to a rare one-sided victory filled with exploits and devoid of any competitive drama.

Jones was magnificent, running and throwing his team forward. The defense feasted on Nick Foles and a suspect Colts defense, with Landon Collins making his first huge impact play since re-signing with the team that took him in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft, stepping in front of a Foles pass on the left sideline for an interception and sprinting 52-yards for a touchdown that put the Giants in cruise control with a 21-3 lead late in the second quarter. Foles late in the second quarter was knocked out of the game by a vicious hit and sack by rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux.

Jones accounted for four touchdowns, passing to Richie James and Isaiah Hodgins and running for two more touchdowns. He completed 19 of 24 passes for 177 yards and ran 11 times for 91 yards, repeatedly befuddling the Colts and beating them to the edge with designed scrambles. Jones was taken out with 7:33 remaining to chants of “Daniel Jones … Daniel Jones.’’ Is there any doubt Jones will be the Giants’ quarterback in 2023?

Jones’ 18-yard touchdown run in the third quarter put the Giants ahead 31-3 and ended an incredible streak of offensive non-productivity. It ended a stretch of 43 consecutive games without the Giants scoring 30 points in a game.

The most appropriate and accurate word for all this is “improbable.’’ Even the most ardent supporter of this franchise did not anticipate such a turnaround so quickly. Even those familiar with general manager Joe Schoen’s career as an NFL executive would dare to state he would orchestrate a turnaround in one season. Even those confident Daboll’s body of work during two decades of NFL coaching made him an inspired choice could hardly envision him turning a losing operation into a winner in year No. 1.

The Giants close out their regular season with a Week 18 game against the Eagles in Philadelphia, a game that holds no tangible meaning to the Giants, opening up the possibility that Daboll opts to rest certain players for the playoffs.

Jones on the first series was nearly intercepted by cornerback Dallis Flowers as the Giants came out throwing. They took to the ground on their second series and found room to run, with Barkley motoring left on a 19-yard pickup. The drive survived a tripping penalty on right guard Nick Gates, thanks to James. He hauled in an 11-yard pass and then kept working in the end zone on a third down play, allowing Jones to scramble to his right and fire a dart to James for a 6-yard scoring pass to put the Giants up 7-3.

Jones put all his skills on display the next time he touched the ball. He pumped in a fastball to tight end Daniel Bellinger to pick up a first down and then alertly and adroitly evaded a blitz by Bobby Okereke, cut to his left and scooted up the left sideline for 13 yards. Next, Jones was in perfect sync with Bellinger on a back-shoulder toss for 24 yards. Jones finished what he started, locating Isaiah Hodgins at the goal line for a 6-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-3.

The rout was on.