Eli Manning was on his back and could not see the drama that was about to unfold.
Tom Coughlin was on the Giants sideline, hyperventilating.
Redskins cornerback Josh Wilson was on his stomach on the Washington 35-yard line, his teammates Madieu Williams and DeAngelo Hall making a chase that would prove futile.
Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan was on the opposite sideline, his stomach turning sour.
The 81,000 fans inside MetLife Stadium stood in silence, holding their collective breath.
Victor Cruz?
He was steps from breaking into his most significant salsa dance of the season, having hauled in a Manning dart over the middle of the field in perfect stride with the 77-yard game-winning touchdown pass in his hands and 1:13 remaining in a scintillating 27-23 Giants comeback win over the Redskins yesterday.
“Looking at the back of 80’s heels was at the end … holy cow what a great feeling that was,’’ Coughlin said.
So another unlikely victory was wrested from the arms of defeat by the Giants, who improved to 5-2, solidified their grip on first-place in the NFC East, avoided going 0-3 in the division and exorcized the demonic hold the Redskins had on them last season.
Raise your hand if you’ve seen this movie before — the one where Manning leads the Giants to victory in the fourth quarter.
Yesterday marked the eighth game-winning drive Manning has directed in the last two seasons, the most in the NFL in that time span.
It was the 24th time in Manning’s career, which is fast careening toward a certain Hall of Fame invite, he’s led the Giants to victory from a fourth-quarter deficit. That, of course, includes both Super Bowls he and the Giants have won together — both of which led to him being voted the MVP.
What made yesterday more beautiful than many of Manning’s previous magic was how inartistic it was, how imperfect he had looked prior to delivering that perfect pass to Cruz and through the collective hearts of the Redskins, who had rallied to take a 23-20 lead 19 seconds earlier.
Manning was uncharacteristically off yesterday. He overthrew Cruz a couple of times, threw behind him once on wide-open TD chance earlier in the game. He missed Hakeem Nicks on a sideline throw late that would have given the Giants a first down and allowed them to run the clock down on the Redskins.
Worst of all, Manning threw an interception right into the arms of linebacker Rob Jackson at the Giants 32-yard line with 7:01 remaining in the game and the Giants leading 20-13.
Yet when he arrived to the huddle seconds after Robert Griffin III had stunned the Giants by giving Washington a 23-20 lead on a 30-yard TD strike to Santana Moss, Manning’s mood hadn’t wavered.
“You wouldn’t have known that we were down,’’ left guard Kevin Boothe said. “He’s the same guy in the huddle whether we’re up or down. It never changes. It’s a calming influence in the huddle. It’s not chaos in there. It makes everyone feel like, ‘All right, we know what we have to do so let’s go do it.’
“I’m sure there wasn’t one guy on the sideline that didn’t think he wasn’t going to make a big play for us at the end of the game. He’s unflappable.’’
Said Coughlin: “When his back is up against the wall that’s when he does his best work.’’
Nicks said when he saw the Redskins coverage roll to his side on the game-winning play, leaving the middle of the field open for Cruz, “I already knew what time it was.’’
It was salsa time. Eli time.
“I had to throw it a little bit before I wanted to,’’ Manning said. “I was just hoping it was going it be complete. We had some struggles in that fourth quarter and I needed to make a play to help out our team.
“I didn’t see the ball get caught. I just heard the cheer and thought that’s probably a pretty good sign. I got up in time to see [Cruz] running into the end zone. That was a good feeling.’’
mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com