Super Bowl MVP 2012: 3 Players Besides Eli Manning Who Made Best Cases

Okay, so we know that Eli Manning was most deserving to win the Super Bowl XLVI MVP award. After all he went 30-of-40 for 296 yards with a touchdown and wasn't intercepted

All together he finished with a 103.8 rating and completed 75 percent of his throws. That being said, let's take a look at some other New York Giants who made solid arguments to win the game's MVP award.

Hakeem Nicks, WR

With 10 receptions for 109 yards on 13 targets, Hakeem Nicks was easily the most dominant receiver of the game.

Out of all players from both sides who recorded a catch, Nicks caught and had the most yards along with the second most targets (Patriots Aaron Hernandez was first with 14).

With Victor Cruz seeing a lot of double-teams early on, as well as the tight ends going down with injuries, Nicks had no choice but to step up against solid coverage. Still, Manning was connecting with him across the middle, on quick slants and near the sidelines.

New England couldn't stop Nicks in man-to-man coverage or with zone underneath because Eli simply had enough time to throw and wherewithal to find Nicks. Despite Cruz being double covered it's still reasonable for him to be the No. 1 read however, Nicks proved his reliability quite well.

Include his postseason numbers from the previous three games and Nicks had one of the best single playoff performances by a receiver in NFL history.

Justin Tuck, DE

The Giants knew that just like Super Bowl XLII they were going to have to get to Tom Brady. And although they didn't record five sacks like in 2008, New York still hit Brady eight times with two sacks.

Both of those sacks however, came from Justin Tuck who was doing work on Patriots offensive linemen all night long. Making moves inside, outside, bull-rushing and simply going all out, Tuck was a one-man band in the trenches.

In addition to the sacks, Tuck had three total quarterback hits (also the most in the game) and when he wasn't causing pressure he was drawing double-teams.

And interestingly enough, Tuck made arguably the two biggest plays for the Giants defense in Super Bowl XLVI. The first came on the Pats opening drive where Brady was called for an intentional grounding penalty.

Well, Tuck was the guy who applied the pressure and forced the safety as well as the man who recorded the sack on the Pats final drive. Thanks to getting Brady down with less than a minute to play, New England was limited even more against the time and field position.

Steve Weatherford, Punter

Yes, the punter Steve Weatherford.

As previously mentioned, Justin Tuck forced a safety on Tom Brady on the Pats first offensive possession. Well, that was made possible thanks to the pinpoint punting ability of Weatherford.

For the game, Weatherford punted the rock four times for a total of 163 yards and a long of 51 yards.

Too bad for New England but three of those four punts were planted inside the 20-yard line. Think about that for field position. For anyone who likes looking at the minuscule details as to how a game turned out, look at the team who won the field position battle.

Punting is arguably the single most important play in any one game because of how much or little the field position will change. And when the punter drops it inside the opponents' own red zone 75 percent of the time in one game, that's demoralizing to an opposing offense's mentality.

In addition, Weatherford is the holder for kicker Lawrence Tynes who went two-of-two on field goals. By no means are those the plays of the game but what if one or both of the holds are botched?

Not only would the entire complexion of the game had changed but the worst case-scenario is a better shot for the Patriots at the game's end. Giants fans, give much credit to Steve Weatherford because his impact during Super Bowl XLVI was just as vital as anyone else's.

John Rozum on Twitter.