Philip Rivers, five years after he was traded away during a swap on draft day for Eli Manning, came back to stick it to New York.

Rivers connected on a pass of 18 yards to Vincent Jackson, capping off a drive of 80 yards with 21 seconds remaining in the game, as the Chargers shocked the Giants on Sunday with their 21-20 victory. For San Diego it was their third win in a row, while New York lost its fourth consecutive game.

For the second part of the season, the Chargers (5-3) are in a good position. New York (5-4) after blowing the first 5-0 start for them since 1990, is shaking their heads with disbelief.

Rivers, who had 209 passing and threw three touchdowns said, this win is emotional for us. There’s no real reason for it, but it ranks with winning in Indianapolis in 2009 during the playoffs. There will always be a link between Eli and me. So it is special, yeah. Any time that you get to play versus a team who has won a Super Bowl it is going to be fun. The trade wasn’t weighing on my mind. I wasn’t thinking about it, but it was probably there somewhere.

The Giants gave Rivers the opportunity for pulling the game out.

With 3:14 remaining in the game Terrell Thomas, Giants cornerback, intercepted a pass and returned the ball 33 yards down to the 4 yard line of the Chargers. If Manning and the Giants had scored a touchdown, they could have sealed the game.

However on first down, Chris Snee got called for holding, pushing the Giants back 10 yards. New York ended up settling for a field goal from 22 yards, Lawrence Tyne’s second, with 2:07 remaining in the game. It gave the Giants a lead of 6 points.

Manning, who went 25 for 33 and threw two touchdowns said, we had an opportunity. You can’t leave the Chargers in the game. You can’t give them an opening like that. They have too much talent and are too good. If you are given the opportunity to end the game, you need to end it.

That’s exactly what Rivers was able to do. On the march to win the game, Rivers went 6 for 8 passing. He connected on a 12 yard pass with Malcolm Floyd, on two passes with Antonio Gates, and then a 21 yard pass over to Darren Sproles, placing the ball on the 18 yard line. Rivers on the very next play spotted Jackson inside the end zone to score the winning touchdown.

Rivers said, Vince got open. He was able to separate from his defender. He was probably on that play the last option for getting the ball with the way the play was set up. However there was all that field that we had. All I wanted was to give him the chance to catch it.

During the second quarter Jackson also had a touchdown catch of 10 yards.

Jackson referring to Rivers said, he is confident and calm. It rubs off on everybody else. It doesn’t matter how much time is left or what the score is. We just know we will get it done.

The game ended appropriately wit Manning getting sacked by Shawne Merriman. The linebacker was drafted by the Chargers in 2005, using one of the draft picks that San Diego received in the deal for Manning from the Giants.

Merriman said, our team showed a lot of character in being able to bounce back. We don’t want to get off to a slow start ever, but we have learned what we need to do in order to hit our stride.

During the third quarter Rivers connected on a touchdown pass of 2 yards with Kris Wilson to give the Chargers a lead of 14-7 in a game where the defense of the Giants rebounded after having three miserable efforts in a row.

On their very next possession Manning led the Giants on a drive of 10 plays and 60 yards. Early fourth quarter Tynes kicked a field goal from 38 yards to close to within 14-10.

The defense for the Giants, which during their previous three games had surrendered 112 points, helped New York take a lead. They recorded three tackles in a row for losses and forced San Diego to punt the ball from their 4 yard line.

Domenik Hixon received the punt and returned the football down to the 39 yard line of San Diego. It only took Manning six plays to give the Giants the lead. He connected on a touchdown pass of 8 yards with Kevin Boss. On the play San Diego was offside.

On the opening drive for the Giants a bizzare play cost New York three points. The Giants lined up for the field goal attempt from 39 yards. However Tynes didn’t get a kick off. The snap was taken by Feagles who had both of his hands on the football, preventing Tynes from being able to kick the ball.

Tom Coughlin, Giants coach said, we are very upset and very disappointed about the loss obviously. We played hard. We did lots of good things. Obviously though what we did wasn’t enough to get the win.

To open the second quarter, Rivers gave San Diego a lead of 7-0 with his first touchdown pass with Jackson, capping a drive of 45 yards following a short Feagles punt.

On the following series, New York tied the game on a touchdown pass of 6 yards from Manning over to Steve Smith. Manning and Smith had kept the drive of almost 11 minutes alive with a pass completion of 19 yards on third down and 18 at the 44 yard line of the Chargers.