All week long New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin kept telling his players to, "finish the deal.” Quarterback Eli Manning, with his, "aw shucks personality" got the job done.

What got the Giants to the Super Bowl eventually got them the trophy too. They attacked down the field throwing the ball, and they attacked the opposing quarterback. The New York Giants are Super Bowl champions again, beating the New England Patriots for the second time in five years to take home the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The (21-17) Giants win had everything you would want in a championship game. It was an emotional roller coaster ride of offense, defense, mistakes, special teams, big plays and punishing hits. Manning authored another amazing comeback, his seventh win this season in which he drove his team to a come-from-behind victory in the fourth quarter. It was the 21st time in his career he has accomplished that.

As they passed around the Lombardi Trophy for every Giant player to touch-raise and kiss, they had to pass around the accolades too. Manning went (30-40) throwing the football against the Patriots, driving his team to field goals twice in the second half to climb back into the game, then engineering the game winning touchdown drive in the final three minutes to win it all.

Hakeem Nicks, the rangy wide receiver caught 10 critical passes during the night, got knocked down, was shaken up, but made huge receptions to keep drives going. Mario Manningham, the third receiver, became the go-to-guy in the fourth quarter, with three catches, including the monster 50 yard over the shoulder, down the sideline catch at midfield that fueled the game winning drive. The Giants ran the ball better than many thought, though there were stretches of time in the first half when you thought they had killed their own momentum.

They controlled the clock, had the yardage advantage, but twice had drives stall because they were running it. They had to punt it away, which allowed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to ignite momentum that gave New England the lead. In the end though, it was the Giants "Blue Curtain" pass rush that provided them the gasoline to reignite the Giants offense.

Brady was under a relentless siege the second half. He took some huge hits, was sacked, got planted, fell on his shoulder, threw a costly interception, and was flushed out of the pocket. All that pressure eventually led to a terrible interception, a bunch of dropped passes, and eventually broke the back of the Pats and the hearts of New England. The Giants special teams came up big too. As brilliant as Brady could be, he almost always set up shop deep in his own territory. He took a safety and a grounding penalty the first time he threw the football, though he did have a 98 yard scoring drive.

When the game was on the line, the Giants defense kept Brady off the scoreboard on the final four possessions of the game. When the game was on the line, Eli Manning was razor sharp when passing the football and was agile enough not to take sacks, and brazen enough to whistle passes into coverage. He did this in the second half after losing two tight ends to injuries, and eventually going away from the run game. It was a chess game involving two tremendous coaches.

The Giants ran the ball to soften up the defense, then started throwing. Brady went no huddle early in the game, to wear out New York's pass rush, and it led to drives that resulted in a field goal, then a touchdown. In one stretch he completed 16 passes in a row. But eventually the game circled back to a number of things that represented New York football all year. For New England it likely climaxes what was a special time.

Brady is 34, his defense is flawed. His coach, despite all of his successes, has now lost three in a row to teams coached by Coughlin. Belichick, has not won a Super Bowl since the Patriots were convicted of cheating.

Coughlin spent his Saturday night meeting with his players, talking about the Giants as a football family, faith and belief. He told them, ‘after you win the game, hug a teammate then go hug your family. This is about to be the highlight night of your life.’ It turned out to be just that.

Belichick was almost morose after the game, wishing his team could have had any number of plays back that they missed on. The Giants had more to do with that than anyone wearing Patriots colors. The words 'era over' seemed a likely conclusion, after New England went to five Super Bowls in an 11 year span.

San Diego Chargers fans may despise him for refusing to come to the team eight years ago in the NFL draft. They may dislike him, bad mouth him, and rip his family for forcing the trade to the Giants. But you better respect him, for all he has done is win, and earn victories in convincing fashion during the most important time of the season. He's done more now than his older record-setting brother Petyon Manning has done. He's done more than the man he was traded for, Philip Rivers has done.

‘Aw-shucks’ finished the deal Sunday night, just as the coach and the quarterback had planned. The Giants, are a giant of a franchise right now.

Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton talks about the NFL-weekday mornings at 10am on XX-1090 Sportsradio.