Archie Manning Actually Defends NY Giants Coach, Despite Eli Benching

Here's a spirited defense for the job of Giants head coach Ben McAdoo from the LAST GUY you'd expect ... Eli Manning's dad, former NFL great Archie Manning.

Giants fans were livid at McAdoo for benching Eli (some say it's the end of Manning's career), saying the coach should be fired not just for the crappy year the G-Men are having, but for disrespecting a legend.

Archie is NOT one of those guys, because when we got him out at LAX and asked his opinion of the embattled coach ... the elder Manning said the terrible year was out of his control.

"Ben's a good coach," Archie says, "It wasn't his coaching that got all these people hurt."

We also asked Archie how Peyton took the news of the (probable) end of the Eli era ... and Archie's response told us all we need to know.

"You don't wanna hear what Peyton said about this."