Giants eye a Super finish to their season

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Giants will land here Monday afternoon for the start of Super Bowl week with one word on their minds: Finish.

It's the word that has been ringing in their ears and bouncing around inside their helmets since the first day they showed up for training camp in late July. It's the word Tom Coughlin tattooed on their brains in each meeting, each practice, each game.

And now that they're less than a week away from a chance to end the season in the most magical of ways -- with the Lombardi Trophy hoisted high -- they're not quite finished with the word "finish.''

"We need to be reminded each and every day," safety Antrel Rolle said of not abandoning that word or that idea so close to the final step. "That's what it's all about. You don't get to this point to slack off at the end. It's all about finishing. This is why we started, and we're going to go out there and finish."

Other slogans and phrases have come into play throughout the season, from "all in" to "road warriors."

They said "no toughness, no championship" and reminded everyone that "talk is cheap, play the game."

But through it all, the drumbeat to the season has been "finish."

Boom, boom. Finish, finish.

They won seven games in the fourth quarter or overtime this season.

Finish.

They won the final two games of the regular season to capture the division title and get into the playoffs.

Finish.

They beat the top two seeds in the conference on the road in the playoffs, including an overtime victory in the NFC Championship Game.

Finish.

And as they began preparing for the Super Bowl, what else could Coughlin possibly say?

"The first thing I said to them on Thursday was 'finish,' " Coughlin said this past week. "The theme of the week would be 'finish.' We'll drive that home again tomorrow."

And the next day. And the next. "Finish'' won't be finished until the work is.

The word has multiple meanings for the Giants, but it mostly stems from one of the lowest points in recent franchise history: Dec. 19, 2010, against the Eagles. The Giants let a 31-10 lead midway through the fourth quarter evaporate into a 38-31 loss that essentially eliminated them from contention for the NFC East title. The following week, a loss to the Packers virtually eliminated them from contention for the wild-card berth that wound up going to eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay. They won 10 games in 2010, but they were unable to finish the work they set out to accomplish.

Now, more than a year after that failure, they are on the verge of completing an improbable run to a fourth Super Bowl championship. And still they cling tightly to that word that has been everywhere for them these past six months.

"The message is still brought up," Eli Manning said. "I think it's something we've talked about for a long time. It was one of the main focuses at the beginning of the season. I think we've done a good job, obviously, of finishing the regular season strong. We finished the fourth quarter strong in a number of games, and obviously now we're at the point where it's the last game of the season.

"Let's finish the season strong."