NFL

Super outlook for Giants QB Manning

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MANN FRANCISCO — This is when you separate the Mann from the boys. Win one game. Win this game. The hope and dreams of a storied franchise, of a city thirsting for another championship, heaped on one Mann’s shoulders.

The Right Mann. The Only Mann Giants fans want for the job.

Everyone can see the focus in his eyes, now and forever. He sees 49ers directly in front of him, and that Lombardi Trophy he craves to hoist again in the not-so-distant future.

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And he knows what it takes to carry his team and his town over these last, furious 60 Minutes on the Golden Gateway to Glory.

Eli Manning beat Brett Favre in the bone-chilling cold of Lambeau Field four years ago and he will beat Alex Smith whether rain and mud try to stop him or not Sunday at Candlestick Park.

Strip away other key elements of this NFC title game bloodbath: Frank Gore trying to run the ball on Big Blue; Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs trying to run the ball on the Niners; Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck trying to unleash hell on Smith; Justin Smith and Aldon Smith trying to rattle Manning (good luck); a hostile crowd trying to will the home team to the finish line past the self-proclaimed Road Warriors.

The singular difference in this game is the advantage the Giants have at the most important position on the field.

Manning stood at the podium yesterday, pronounced himself “100 percent” following the 24-hour stomach bug that compromised his Wednesday practice, and now he is ready to sic the 49ers.

“The arm felt good today, it felt fresh, and it was coming out good,” Manning said.

Bill Parcells used to treasure Phil Simms because he was a battlefield commander, and that is the Eli Manning who stands at the precipice of history now — first Giants quarterback to lead his team to two Super Bowls, because it was Jeff Hostetler who finished the job when Simms went down before the 1990 playoffs began.

Manning has been there, won that, and the men who trust and revere him so, from the owners to GM Jerry Reese to head coach Tom Coughlin and offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride to every one of his teammates, would not want to follow anyone else onto the battlefield than him.

“He has that quiet … it’s not swagger . . . but it is swagger,” Reese said. “But it’s a quiet ‘I know what I’m doing. I’m gonna be there for ya. I’m gonna make the plays for ya. I’m giving this team a great opportunity to win the game.’

“You love that about the guy. You come to the stadium, you got this guy as your quarterback. Every time you come to the stadium you say, ‘We’re gonna have a chance to win, ’cause we got this guy as our trigger guy,’ and that’s a good feeling to have.”

He is the franchise’s unflappable Ice Man as well as its Iron Man who has never missed a start since Coughlin anointed him the starter nine games into the 2004 season. So when Reese learned that Manning had to leave practice Wednesday, he rushed from his office to the field to see for himself.

“Somebody said he was out back puking, ’cause I didn’t even see him when I walked out there,” Reese said, “and he looked pretty green from where I was standing.”

Manning made Tom Brady sick in Super Bowl XLII and he made Aaron Rodgers sick last week.

“He never seems like the moment is too big for him, whether it went well or didn’t go well,” Gilbride said.

When it didn’t go well for Manning as a rookie against the Ravens, it uncharacteristically shook him. Now it’s as if he wrote the entire offensive playbook.

“I’ve seen him upset many times. I think he does a great job of masking and camouflaging and not allowing people to see that he’s disappointed in something,” Gilbride said. “It would take a lot to unnerve him now.”

It won’t be the conditions.

“It’s not something I worry about,” Manning said. “I’ve had success throwing it in rain games. If it’s going to be a wet game, I always felt the offense has an advantage throwing the ball. We shouldn’t be the ones slipping, it’s usually the defensive side that slips.”

They call him Easy, from the Big Easy.

“Is it the NFC Championship, or is it preseason? You can’t tell ‘cause of his poker face,” defensive end Dave Tollefson said. “Maybe he should do the World Series of Poker. I’ll sponsor him.”

They all would. “He’s as good as they come,” Jacobs said.

And here he comes again.

Manning is asked to describe his mindset 60 Minutes from the Super Bowl.

“I think the mindset,” he said, “ is we have to go out and play a great game.”

Today Mann Francisco, tomorrow the world.

steve.serby@nypost.com