EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Ben McAdoo has shown a willingness to gamble in his first season as the Giants coach, and New York is riding his hot hand for a run at their first postseason berth since winning the Super Bowl in 2011.

Eli Manning threw his third touchdown pass of the game on a fourth-down, fourth-quarter roll of the dice by McAdoo, and the Giants beat the Cincinnati Bengals 21-20 on Monday night for their first four-game winning streak since 2013.

“We like the position we’re in. We’ve just got to keep going. We can’t slow down,” said Manning, who was 28 of 44 for 240 yards. “We can’t relax for a second. Every game we’ve been playing is tight. I’m proud of the way the team is fighting.

Manning threw scoring passes of 10 yards apiece to rookie Jerrell Adams and Odell Beckham in the first half, and a game-winning 3-yarder to rookie Sterling Shepard on a daring call with New York (6-3) down 20-14 early in the fourth quarter.

The six wins match the Giants’ total in each of the last two seasons under Tom Coughlin, and it bodes well with Chicago (2-7) and Cleveland (0-10) on tap the next two weeks.

The key to this one was McAdoo’s decision to play for a TD early in the fourth. The third quarter ended with New York at the Cincinnati 9, facing a second and goal.

When Manning came to the sideline, McAdoo told him they were in four-down territory.

“I don’t know if I’ve heard it before,” Manning said of being told before the second-down play. “Obviously on third down, they tell you. We had the quarter change, so I think he had some time to think.”

The fourth quarter started with an incomplete pass intended for tight end Will Tye. A 6-yard pass to Tavarres King set up the fourth-down pass to Shepard, who cut across the field on a shallow route and beat the linebacker.