EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Barely more than a full season into his NFL career as a starting quarterback, Eli Manning is practically immune to fourth-quarter pressure.

Kept in check for most of three quarters by the Philadelphia Eagles, Manning threw two of his three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, including a 61-yarder to Plaxico Burress that helped the Giants pull away to a 27-17 victory yesterday.

The play followed a familiar script for Manning and the Giants this season. Against Dallas and Minnesota he threw touchdown passes in the final minutes to tie games New York eventually lost. In between, he threw a winning touchdown pass against Denver in the final seconds.

Entering yesterday, Manning was the NFL’s 22nd-rated passer, but was 13th in fourth-quarter passing, with a completion percentage nearly seven points higher than his overall percentage.

Yesterday’s pass to Burress came with the Giants leading 20-17, but it was just as important for a team that hadn’t defeated its NFC East nemesis in the last four meetings. The win also helped the Giants surpass their 2004 win total and remain tied atop the division with Dallas.

“After the first three quarters, you have a feel for what a team is doing,”said Manning.”It seems like once we get into the fourth quarter, we realize we’ve got to step up and make the plays.”

With third-string quarterback Mike McMahon playing a gutsy game in place of injured Donovan McNabb, the Eagles trailed by three in the fourth quarter after McMahon’s 1-yard touchdown run.

But Manning was too much, finishing 17-of-26 for 218 yards with touchdown passes of 1-yard each to Amani Toomer and Jeremy Shockey besides the bomb to Burress. McMahon, who hadn’t started an NFL game since 2002 when he was with Detroit, was 18-of-39 for 298 yards and threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Brown in the third quarter.

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JETS MAULED BY BRONCOS Over 33 painstaking plays and 19 mind-numbing minutes, Mike Anderson and Jake Plummer toyed with the Jets’ defense in a cruelly effective examination of all the things the Jets couldn’t do.

The Broncos got a touchdown and a field goal out of those early drives to set the tone for their 27-0 victory yesterday, a win that bolstered Denver’s drive toward the playoffs and did little to prove the Jets to be anything more than bottom feeders in the NFL. The Jets lost their fifth straight, sustained their first shutout since 1995, and went without a touchdown for the third time this season and the second time in two weeks.

Brooks Bollinger was knocked out early with a concussion that left him vomiting on the sideline.Vinny Testaverde replaced him and finished with 152 yards. Curtis Martin was held to 7 yards on four carries, his worst output since a 5-yard game early in 2002.