Giants' future at a crossroads in Week 17

It was as clear as the warm training camp skies of Albany that 2010 would be a pivotal season for the Giants. The coach - the only one in the league who is eligible to collect Social Security if he wanted to - had one more year on his contract beyond the one in front of him. The quarterback, who had just become a $100-million man, was coming off a season in which he posted a career high in passing yardage but a career low in wins.

The defense and the running game - two bulwarks of the franchise - were trying to rebuild after crumbling in 2009. The offensive line was aging. The new defensive coordinator had been brought in to provide an emotional lift. Free agents were added to the flimsy secondary. Even the never-ending career of Jeff Feagles had just ended.

Yes, the direction of the Giants' organization for the next several years would be determined by what happened in the 2010 season. Success would lead to stability; failure to upheaval.

So with one game remaining in this most-significant season, where are we? Right back at the beginning, waiting for one game to define the team's season and determine which fork the franchise will follow.

If you believe that this truly is one of the most critical seasons in recent team history, then Sunday's game against the Redskins becomes one of the most important of the modern Giants era.

Win or lose, elated or embarrassed, playoffs or postmortem - all of those will be determined in a 3 1/2-hour span Sunday afternoon as the Giants play the Redskins and watch the scoreboard for updates from the Bears-Packers game at Lambeau Field.

Though it will take a lot for the Giants to fire Tom Coughlin, the last five quarters of football have shown that the team is capable of sliding deep enough into despair to force that to happen. If things get lopsided in Landover, it may be the end of the Coughlin Era. Two collapses in two years might be too much for the organization to stomach, looming lockout or not.

Eli Manning will spend his 30th birthday Monday either prepping for a playoff opponent or cleaning out his locker prematurely for the second straight season. These should be the prime years of his career, and if he squanders two of them without making a postseason appearance, questions will start to rise about him.

Perry Fewell was brought in to infuse passion in the Giants' defense. But it took the screams of Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora at halftime of the Jaguars game to salvage that win and carry over to the next two. The Giants allowed 23 points in the 13 quarters after that halftime speech, but have allowed 73 in the last five quarters. The Giants went into both of those games calling them "must wins." They didn't.

There will be plenty of tough decisions whether the Giants win or not Sunday. Their leading rusher, Ahmad Bradshaw, will be a free agent, and the running back to whom they gave a new contract two years ago, Brandon Jacobs, spent most of the season as a backup.

Two of their big free agents-to-be - Mathias Kiwanuka and Steve Smith - are coming off serious injuries, with Smith having recent microfracture knee surgery.

The offensive line has shown signs of slipping, although it looked good during a stretch in the middle of the season with some younger players in place of injured veterans.

The Giants probably have a good idea what direction they will go with those decisions. But the biggies, the ones that shape the personality of the organization, those are probably still up in the air. Coach, offensive philosophy, defensive mind-set - all of them hinge on how this season - this game - plays out.