Justin Tuck speaks after his Giants beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI (Mike Petraglia, WEEI.com)

INDIANAPOLIS – Bill Belichick has more rings but Tom Coughlin has his number.

In an epic Super Bowl performance, Eli Manning and the Giants rallied again in the fourth quarter because they made plays in the clutch down the stretch and the Patriots didn’t.

Belichick was denied his fourth Super Bowl because Justin Tuck and the Giants put just enough pressure on Tom Brady to make life miserable in the fourth quarter.

That’s Tom Coughlin 2, Bill Belichick 0 on the Super Bowl tote board. Coughlin has beaten Belichick three straight times in games that mattered since the Patriots capped their perfect regular season of 2007 with a win over the Giants, 38-35.

What is it that Coughlin has on Belichick?

Ask Tuck and it’s because the Giants feel the love from their head coach at the most important times, like Saturday night in the team’s final meeting before the Super Bowl when Coughlin laid on the emotion thick.

“I was looking for something like, ‘Finish,’ but he came out with the love,” Tuck said. “It was very passionate. If we could’ve come out and played at that point, I think we would’ve been so excited to go out and play. It was hard to go to sleep after a speech like that.

“I don’t know what it is about Coach Coughlin but his Super Bowl speeches, I give him a ‘10.’ That’s two Super Bowl speeches that really got me fired up and ready to play. I know he looks kind of dull at times, it doesn’t look like he’s a fiery guy. But you can just tell it’s from the heart.”

That’s how it goes when you win a Super Bowl. Tom Coughlin makes Mark Herzlich inactive before the game to free a roster spot. Bill Belichick makes veteran Kevin Faulk in likely his final game as a Patriot inactive and will get criticized.

Faulk’s replacement Stevan Ridley was one of four Patriots not to see the field on a single snap. Also on the sideline without a single snap was defensive lineman Alex Silvestro, signed off the practice squad on Saturday night, when the team cut Tiquan Underwood.

Coughlin will go down as the coach who got his players fired up and who made sure everyone was on board. Belichick will have to live with the fact that he made one of his favorite players inactive while cutting another the night before the biggest game of the year.

While Belichick was getting kudos all week for his relaxed approach, Coughlin decided to go with the passion on Saturday night.

“The end, he almost got a standing ovation and he walked out,” Tuck said of the inspiration.

“I normally don’t listen to those speeches, honestly. But as he got going, I picked my head up and started listening to him.

“The end of it, he basically told us that he speaks for all the coaching staff, that it is a tremendous love to coach us. It’s a tremendous pleasure to coach us because of all the things we went through, how many times our backs have been against the wall and how man-to-man we stood up.’”

It was such a powerful speech that it inspired him in the pregame to give one of his own to his teammates.

“I just told the guys and pointed to every guy who didn’t have a ring and told them, ‘You don’t know how it feels,’” Tuck said. “I pointed to every other guy who had one, ‘You know how it feels.’ You don’t want to walk off this field thinking you missed an opportunity because you never know when you’re going to get the opportunity to be back here.

“I told them, ‘We’re built for this. Go out here and grab it. It’s here for us to grab.”

Obviously, Mario Manningham took that literally and it helped the Giants win their fourth Super Bowl in the clutch.

Coughlin was naturally gracious in his victory speech here late Sunday night.

“Bill Belichick is an exceptional football coach,” a beaming Coughlin said. “It doesn’t matter that he changes personnel, and he changes coaches, and still, he always wins.”

Except when he goes up against Tom Coughlin and the Giants in the Super Bowl.