Mike Celizic

For the first time since he arrived as the heralded No. 1 pick in the draft four years ago, the pressure is no longer on Eli Manning. This week, he’s playing with house money.

The “he-can’t-win-in-the-playoffs” monkey is off his back. And in beating Tampa on Sunday, Manning has done what Giants fans and the media said he has to do — win a playoff game. Now, he and the Giants travel to Dallas, where they will be the underdogs.

They go there feeling better about themselves and what they can do than at any time during the reign of coach Tom Coughlin. Unlike during his previous years, there have been no cries from the team about his martinet rules, no players questioning his leadership and strategy, no calls from the media for his head on a platter, no Tiki Barber wondering aloud if Manning could be a leader.

They displayed poise, confidence and pride against the Bucs. The pass rush was ferocious, the tackling sure, the offense determined and patient. And they strutted off the field, the pride they felt from playing the Patriots so tough in the season’s final game bolstered by the way they gave the Buccaneers a lead, then utterly dominated them.

They may have the Cowboys right where they want them.

This ought to concern Dallas, which enters the divisional playoff round much like Tampa Bay went into the wild-card round against the Giants. The Cowboys finished the season with a string of lackluster efforts. Like Tampa, they think they can crank it back up for the playoffs.

As Manning and the Giants showed, that can be a risky strategy. Tampa came out smoking, stuffing New York in the first quarter and building a 7-0 lead, and then the guy who hadn’t won a playoff game in three previous tries took over. He didn’t throw for a ton of yardage — just 185 yards — but he was efficient, completing 20-of-27 throws and connecting for two touchdowns in the 24-13 win.

That’s what can happen when Manning gets to play on a dry field in good weather on the road, where there were no boos cascading from the stands when he and the team start slow. It’s probably no accident that the Giants are 8-1 on the road this season. Manning doesn’t like the weather at home, and the impatient home crowd booing can’t help either.

The only game the Giants lost away from the Meadowlands this year was in Dallas in the season’s first game. Like their second loss to Dallas later in the season, the game was tight most of the way, with Dallas pulling away in the second half.

They say one of the harder tasks in the NFL is to beat a team three times in one season. But that’s what the Cowboys have to do, and they may find that all that effort they put in to get home-field advantage could work against them.

Manning will most likely have decent weather. He won’t have the pressure of the home crowd’s expectations and demands. He’s facing a team he knows very well.

And he won’t be expected to win. As a player, you have to like that situation.