Despite the crushing loss to the Eagles, it was the perfect night for Giants fans

Eli Manning heroics AND a loss worked out well.

When I wrote last week about the Eli Manning farewell tour being perfect to end a dismal New York Giants season, there was one thing I realized I had forgotten while talking about the Giants legend possibly playing well in Big Blue’s final four games.

What if him playing well cost the Giants draft position? What if it saved head coach Pat Shurmur’s job?

Well, thank goodness for the franchise, fans got to have their cake and eat it, too.

Manning turned back the clock for one half, throwing two touchdown passes to impressive rookie Darius Slayton and looking like he was having the most fun. As we all thought, it set Twitter ablaze with GIFs and memes and unabashed joy at seeing Manning come back from the dead, even though it was against a Philadelphia Eagles secondary that has constantly struggled this season:

But then, inevitably, the Giants fell to Earth even with the Eagles down to two healthy receivers. Manning went 4-for-11 for 24 yards in the second half and the defense had no answer for Zach Ertz. Shurmur has local columnists calling for him to be fired.

And that’s perfect!

If it was possible for Manning to both have a vintage half to remind Giants die-hards what he’s brought to the franchise AND for their draft position — second overall, a good place to take Ohio State pass rusher Chase Young if they so choose — to be preserved AND to have good reason to make a change at head coach in order to, as my colleague Steven Ruiz wrote, “get the most” out of an offense with some promising pieces, then that’s the best of both worlds.

It couldn’t have worked out any better.

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