NFL

Eli is too tough to rough up

SAN FRANCISCO — The 49ers kept coming at Eli Manning, the last quarterback standing between them and the Super Bowl. They kept beating him up and knocking him down, and he kept getting up, kept trying to win the game.

All of a sudden, No. 10 might as well have been wearing No. 11, might as well have been Phil Simms facemask-to-facemask with Ronnie Lott, and no one will be surprised today if Manning, without having to utter a single word, sends his defiant “Go ahead, make my day” message to the 49ers predators lusting for payback.

Manning, standing in there the way he did in that vicious NFC Championship game, taking a licking and keeping on ticking, was all the evidence you needed that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, because father Archie was subjected to a career of these kind of beatings, mostly with the Saints.

“Go back and watch the game — you don’t need me to tell you an example. … It’s like 95 of ’em,” Justin Tuck said.

One stood out.

“It was a play where I saw him get up, and literally had to wipe mud out of his facemask.” Tuck chuckled, and added, “As he was walking back to the line of scrimmage, one of the O-linemen fixed his jersey and put the pads back in his jersey, kinda straightened out his mouthpiece and went right back in the huddle, and I think the next play he completed like this third-and-8 pass for a first down to keep the drive moving. That’s one of the memories that I have of that game.”

Archie didn’t talk deja vu with his son following the Giants’ marathon victory.

“Obviously he was fired up and he was proud the way we hung in there,” Eli said, “and knew it was one of those tough days that you were gonna have to grind it out and keep getting up, and staying positive, and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna get something going this drive, we’re gonna have enough time to make plays on this drive.’”

Manning finished 32-for-58 for 316 yards and two TDs in the 20-17 overtime death struggle. He was sacked six times.

“After every play, you would see him kind of getting up,” Kevin Boothe said. “He never really wavered. He just kind of kept going. You didn’t know … if there was anything wrong with him or anything. He just got up and kept playing. And that’s what you look for in a tough quarterback. He showed that — that’s something that you’re not used to seeing, is him getting hit a lot.”

Backup QB David Carr had an up-close and personal view of the effects of the 49ers’ assault on Manning.

“There were a couple of times during that game where you kind of feel like, ‘Do I grab my helmet right here?’ ” Carr said. “Just be ready. I think he’s one of the best I’ve been around at not letting the guys get a real good shot on him though. He has a sense of where free guys are coming from and does a good job, but … yeah, he was getting some shots last year, for sure.

“He’s just gonna go to the next play, whether he’s bleeding or bruised or whatever. … That kind of helps the team. too. It doesn’t rattle them either.”

If the quarterback isn’t a fighter, your team has no chance. If Manning doesn’t blink, his team won’t either.

“Not even just to keep going, but to keep going and not complain about it,” Carr said. “It’s not like he was ripping his chinstrap off or … he just kept … going.”

The return of receiver Hakeem Nicks will help take the heat off Victor Cruz, but a steady diet of running back Ahmad Bradshaw against the NFL’s best run defense would be just what Manning ordered. Bradshaw won’t be rushing for 200 yards against this bunch, but 100 yards would be more than acceptable.

“Hopefully we won’t be talking about Eli’s hits for the next eight months after this game like how we were after the last time we played ’em,” Boothe said.

Last Man Standing, either way.

steve.serby@nypost.com