Can Coughlin survive this second half?

We have seen this movie before. Several times, in fact.

The story line goes like this: Tom Coughlin's Giants go into the season with minimal expectations . . . get to the halfway mark at 6-2 by fattening up on an easy early-season schedule, mixed in with some clutch wins over good teams . . . then fade down the stretch . . . and fade to black by season's end.

Sound familiar?

Two games into yet another shaky second-half-of-the-season wobble, the pressure is on for Coughlin again. He made it past last year's collapse, when the Giants were devastated by a 38-31 home loss to the Eagles that essentially ended their hopes of making the playoffs. But in the wake of yet another losing performance at home against Philly, the heat is starting to build for the Giants' eighth-year coach.

And if 0-2 to start the second half of the season turns into 0-4 after the next two games against NFC powerhouses New Orleans and Green Bay, nothing short of a miracle run to the playoffs is likely to save him.

The hope here is that Coughlin can get things turned around. He's a good coach, a good man and a credit to his profession and to a first-class organization. But he knows as well as anyone that he's in a bottom-line business. If his team isn't in the tournament in January, the Giants likely will make a move -- and it will be a necessary move.

Coughlin may be only the second Giants coach to bring home a championship, but in a sport in which excellence is demanded more intensely than ever, that 2007 team's run is far enough in the past that it shouldn't be factored into Coughlin's future. His team hasn't won a playoff game since that Super Bowl season and didn't even reach the playoffs in 2009 and 2010.

When you have a $100-million quarterback and the game's best pass-rushing defensive line, the expectations are greater than the reality of what the Giants have produced since they knocked off the previously unbeaten Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. And even though the Giants' second-half schedule this year is one of the toughest in the league, it doesn't absolve them or their coach of the consequences of failure.

Just a few weeks ago, Coughlin was hoisted atop the massive shoulders of Brandon Jacobs after a brilliantly executed road win over the Patriots. But Sunday night, after another shocking result, Coughlin was red-faced in his anger over a 17-10 loss to the Eagles. He used the word "pathetic" to describe his team's running game, which accounted for 29 yards. He roasted his offensive line for its weak performance. "That is the biggest disappointment that we have had around here in a long time," he said of the overall effort.

Now it's at New Orleans on Monday night, home to the unbeaten Packers and at resurgent Dallas. In the space of two weeks, the Giants' two-game lead over the Cowboys has evaporated, and they could very well go into that Dec. 11 game trailing Dallas by two games.

The Giants still can get to 10 wins and a potential division title or wild-card berth by winning four games in the next six weeks. Not easy, though, given that only one of their opponents (Washington) has a losing record.

"It is within the power of our team to correct this situation," Coughlin said Monday. "This is the same team that went to New England [and won] a few weeks ago. It is the same football team that went into a place that won 20 straight football games [Patriots at home] and won. The ability to do that is certainly here."

Now we'll see if that ability translates into the reality of a playoff run. If not, the coach understands the consequences.