SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Send the hearse back to the garage.
Hold the flower arrangements.
Cancel the memorial service.
Eli Manning is not dead yet.
Not after the 37-year-old quarterback — who’s become a human punching bag as the centerpiece of the Giants’ struggles for the better part of the last two years — did what he did to the 49ers on Monday night at Levi’s Stadium, engineering his 41st-career game-winning drive (including playoffs) to lead the Giants to an exhale of a 27-23 victory.
For those preparing to see rookie Kyle Lauletta under center for the Giants on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, forget about it. This remains Manning’s team — even at 2-7 after Monday’s win.
So badly the Giants needed something good to happen to them.
Anything.
Whether it was by their doing or a gift from an opponent.
Anything.
It had been a month and a half since they last won a game (their lone win had come Sept. 23). It had been a month since they even held a lead.
The ebb and flow of this game represented a tedious three-hour tease of sorts for the Giants, because all night it was right there for them. All night, victory was within reach.
The 1-7 Dead Team Walking entering its bye last week showed some life.
And in the end, with 53 seconds remaining in the game, something good finally happened for the Giants, and Manning was the fire starter.
Giants coach Pat Shurmur said he first noticed Manning’s “knack” for those comeback drives when he scouted him at Ole Miss.
Manning, the Dead Quarterback Walking most Giants fans have been begging to have benched, engineered a nine-play, 75-yard drive in 1:53 to win the game after the 49ers had taken a 23-20 lead on a 30-yard field goal by former Big Blue kicker Robbie Gould with 2:46 remaining.
“After we scored, I came back to the sideline and said to him, ‘Man, you’ve been doing this since I was like 12,’ ” rookie running back Saquon Barkley said. “That’s Eli. When he’s in one of those moments, he’s a heck of a player. You know why when you’re around him. When you’re young and you’re watching him on television, you’re like, ‘Oh wow.’ He’s such a smart player and such a hard worker. When he’s in those positions, he just thrives.”
“That’s what Eli’s really good at — engineering those come-from-behind drives,” Shurmur said. “He hung in there, made some really good throws and got us in the end zone. That’s the mark of a good quarterback.”
Too often this season, the end zone has been a no-go zone for the Giants offense. Manning entered the game having thrown eight TD passes in the first eight games. En route to completing 19-of-31 for 188 yards, Manning threw three TD passes Monday night.
“It doesn’t get old,” Manning said of the comeback drives. “It’s fun playing in those games and having a two-minute drive to win it. Those are the situations you want to be in, you want to have a chance. To come through is exciting. The team needs that.”
No one needed it more than Eli.
A poor performance against a 2-7 49ers team playing with their third quarterback this season could have sent Manning, who has started 223 of the last 224 games, to the bench.
A poor performance Monday night might have left Shurmur no choice but to make a change for the Buccaneers game Sunday at MetLife to appease the fans, who undoubtedly would have been more than restless.
“Wins are important and wins mean a lot, especially with this season and what we’ve had to go through as a team and what I’ve had to go though [with] the questions,” Manning said. “To have a two-minute drive to win a football game … hopefully, we can focus on some positive things for at least one more week.’’
Asked if the criticism and calls for his job “wear” on him, Manning said: “It doesn’t bother me what people say. It’s just having to answer questions about it.
“I just want to go out there and play football. I want to be with my team and prepare and practice and play football and get wins and feel good about what we’re doing.”
At least for this coming Sunday, he gets to keep doing that. And deservedly so.