NFL

Jerry Jones can’t imagine Giants without Eli Manning

Eli Manning has a big fan in Dallas, too. The biggest of them all.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones spoke up for the beleaguered Giants quarterback who was benched last week by Ben McAdoo, a move that helped cost McAdoo his job. Manning was back starting Sunday in the Giants’ 30-10 loss to Jones’ Cowboys at MetLife Stadium.

“It was great to see Eli out there. It really was,’’ Jones said after Sunday’s game as he left his suite along with his entourage. “Really I’m not sure what it’s going to look like to see a Giants team if they don’t have Eli out there at quarterback. That’s been a part of the makeup here.’’

Manning completed 31-of-46 attempts for 228 yards for one touchdown and two late interceptions as he finished with a dismal QB rating of 68.0. He wasn’t helped by three drops by his receivers.

Manning said he appreciated all the support he got the last two weeks, saying, “It meant a lot to me.’’

But it was Dak Prescott, who owned the day, completing 20-of-30 for 332 yards and three touchdowns, including an 81-yarder to Rod Smith and a 50-yarder to Dez Bryant as the Cowboys shredded the soft underbelly of the Giants defense with monster catch and runs. The Cowboys put up 20 points in the fourth quarter to run the Giants out of MetLife Morgue.

Up until that point, Jones and the Cowboys were sweating this one out, but the Giants fell to 2-11, improving their draft position, and the Cowboys climbed over the .500 mark at 7-6 to keep their playoff hopes alive.

“You don’t want to know what was going through my mind up until the middle of the fourth quarter,’’ Jones said with a laugh. “It shows what a fair-weather guy I can be.

“But seriously, I really was proud of our guys and when the dam broke we were able to take advantage.’’

Prescott was the one who broke the dam. He hit Jason Witten with a 20-yard strike in the end zone for an easy TD that put the Cowboys on top, 17-10 with 7:38 left and then found Smith for the 81-yard touchdown at the 4:08 mark to put the game out of reach. The 332 yards were the most yards he’s had all season, but that should come with an asterisk because it came against the Giants terrible defense.

“They were fun to watch,’’ Prescott said of the big plays, including the slant to Smith. “We usually don’t throw that inside slant, not many teams do, but when they give it to us like that, I mean … Rod did a great job and it was fun to watch him run.’’

Witten’s TD was set up by a 54-yard catch and run by Cole Beasley. Earlier in the game Beasley had a drop and apologized to Prescott, who told his receiver, “Man I’ve overthrown you before, so let’s move on.’’

The Cowboys did exactly that, keeping their owner happy and themselves in the playoff race.