Poor ending to season might end Tom Coughlin's tenure with Giants

Tom Coughlin could be coaching for his job Sunday afternoon in Buffalo. It's not that simple, of course, and certainly no win-or-else ultimatum has been handed down from his Giants bosses. But it would be easy to connect the dots from a Giants loss on Sunday to a firing squad in early January.

A defeat all but guarantees the Giants an 0-3 finish to the regular season (unless you really think there's a chance they're going to beat the Patriots, who most likely will be 15-0 after Sunday's game against Miami). And 0-3, followed by a first-round loss in the playoffs - if the Giants even make the playoffs at 9-7 - is exactly the "but- what-if" scenario that Giants ownership had feared. That's the reason they didn't offer Coughlin a contract extension when the team was 9-4 and needed just one win to clinch a third straight playoff berth, according to multiple team sources. As one said, "You just never know" what will happen in the last few games of the year. Continue