EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If there was a silver lining in the New York Giants’ 31-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, it was more outstanding play by rookie receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

For those in a media blackout since Sunday night, the Giants’ 2014 first-round draft pick made one of the most spectacular catches in NFL history — including the helmet catch of former Giants receiver David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII.

While Tyree’s catch led to a Super Bowl victory, Beckham’s is relegated to mere unforgettable, highlight-reel status as the Giants lost the game anyway.

The catch will become one of those against which all NFL catches may be measured in terms of greatness or implausibility. Those who saw it will never forget it. Those who didn’t see it live will be destined, like all others, to see this surreal moment replayed over and over. And over.

Interestingly, before the game, Beckham treated fans to a little preview, making spectacular, albeit choreographed, one-handed catches. They turned out to be a harbinger to the real thing.

Beckham ran a streak down the sideline and broke free from cornerback Brandon Carr, who clearly had a handful of the receiver’s jersey, which drew multiple flags.

The rookie reached out with one hand for a ball that was overthrown well beyond him. With his body twisted and his arms reaching as far as possible, he stopped the ball with the tips of three fingers, then grabbed it with his huge hand and landed on his back in the end zone.

“It is the greatest catch I’ve ever seen,” sidelined star Giants receiver Victor Cruz exclaimed. He was one of many athletes, including LeBron James, who flooded Twitter with comments on the catch.

Beckham thanked his mother for passing along long fingers and admitted it was the best catch he had ever made in a game.

“I hope it’s not the greatest catch of all time.” He said. “I hope I can make more. It really means nothing without a win. We still go home at the end of the day with a loss. That’s not fulfilling.”

“I don’t know if I have quite seen one like it,” said quarterback Eli Manning, who threw the pass. “To truly catch it one-handed where you don’t have to pull it into the body and really just catch it with a couple of fingers. It almost looked like he was ready to catch it, like he was ready to throw it. He kind of had the grip on it like he is about to make a throw, pretty impressive.”

Manning was speaking via conference call Monday morning, but it would be hard to think that he wasn’t grinning from ear to ear over the thought of having such a dangerous weapon in the passing game now at his disposal.

What’s even more amazing is that Beckham and Manning really didn’t get a chance to work together all that much once the rookie joined the team.

That’s because Beckham found himself dealing with a lingering hamstring issue that cost him the latter part of the spring OTAs, most of training camp, all of the preseason, and the first four games of the season.

For as good as Beckham has been, Manning acknowledges that the youngster can still improve.

“There are always a few things, just on the depth of a couple routes, being patient on a couple of routes, the conversions of what the route is vs. certain technique and coverages,” Manning said.

Still, no one can blame Manning if he is secretly salivating over the thought of having Beckham and a healthy Victor Cruz next season.

“Yeah, I thought about it a little bit,” he admitted. “Having both of those guys on the field at the same time, it would be a pretty good duo.”

Beckham, who took a shot to his back that caused him to leave the game for a while, told coach Tom Coughlin on Monday that he was “very sore.”

“He had mentioned to me that he had something like this in college as well,” the coach said, adding that he was unsure whether Beckham’s practice time would be affected this week. “We’ll have to see how that goes.”

REPORT CARD VS. COWBOYS

–PASSING OFFENSE: C-minus — What more can be said about Odell Beckham Jr., who had his third 100-yard receiving game in the last four weeks? His spectacular, one-handed, fingertip touchdown reception needs to be immortalized. That is the good news. The bad news is that, other than Beckham, the rest of the Giants’ receivers were quiet. Rueben Randle probably should have benefitted most from Beckham receiving extra attention in the second half. When the team’s running back finishes second in receptions and receiving yards, that’s when you know things aren’t going that well in the passing game.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: D — It really doesn’t seem to matter who the Giants line up on the offensive line; this unit cannot run-block to save its life. In the latest fiasco, New York finished with an average of 2.8 yards per carry. The issues continue to be the interior of the line, where right guard John Jerry and center J.D. Walton just couldn’t get any push nor sustain blocks. The Cowboys dropped Giants ballcarriers for seven tackles for a loss.

–PASS DEFENSE: D — Blown coverages, missed tackles, missed interceptions and no pressure don’t make for good football. While no Cowboys receiver had more than 90 yards, the Giants gave up four touchdown passes, including one to seldom-used receiver Cole Beasley, who benefitted from a major breakdown in coverage.

–RUSH DEFENSE: C-minus — In a tale of two halves, the Giants held DeMarco Murray to 11 carries and 49 yards in the first half. After that, the floodgates flew open as Murray recorded his 10th 100-yard rushing game of the season, finishing with 121 yards on 24 carries. What was the biggest reason for the tale of two halves? Besides not reading keys properly, the Giants’ run defense, which began to look gassed as the game wore on, was unable to shed blocks to make stops.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C-minus — Special teams didn’t really factor too much in this game. However, it was disappointing that Odell Beckham Jr. gained minus-1 yard on his only return.

–COACHING: D — No matter how the Giants try to justify it, defensive coordinator Perry Fewell failed the team big-time on the Cowboys’ winning drive in two regards. First, he left defensive end Robert Ayers, the team’s most productive pass rusher, on the bench in favor of Mathias Kiwanuka, who just couldn’t get much done against tackle Doug Free, the Cowboys’ weakest blocker. Second, why he thought he could get to Romo with only a four-man rush with the game on the line when the defense showed little ability to get to Romo all game long is the biggest mystery of all. On successive plays, the pass rush allowed Romo significant time to scan the field and wait for a receiver to become open. That is what happened on the winning touchdown throw to receiver Dez Bryant. With the ball inside the red zone and cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie lining up against Bryant, whom he had controlled for most of the game, why not send an extra blitzer to expedite Romo’s throw? Only Fewell knows the answer to that one.