Super Bowl 2012: Coaches Who Can't Afford a Playoff Loss

There are eight teams still standing in the NFL playoffs, and none of them would have gotten to this point without proper guidance from their head coaches.

Nevertheless, it's pretty much an established fact that job security is something that can never be taken for granted in the NFL. A coach can be in good standing one second and in a blazing hot seat the next.

Of the eight coaches left in the playoffs, the good news is most of them are going to be OK no matter what happens in the coming weeks. Even if their teams get bounced in the divisional round, it's hard to imagine coaches like Bill Belichick, Sean Payton and Mike McCarthy being on the hot seat any time in the near future.

On the flip side, there are a couple coaches whose seats could start to get warm if they get bounced out of the playoffs.

Three in particular stand out from the rest of the pack.

John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens have made the playoffs in each of John Harbaugh's four years at the helm, and they won the AFC North for the first time in his tenure this year. For now, he's in pretty good shape.

But this is a pretty important year for Harbaugh. He has failed to get the Ravens to the Super Bowl in each of the last three years, and the Ravens are by no means a lock to get there this year. If they get knocked out of the playoffs short of their ultimate goal again, Harbaugh could very well look up and see a few fingers being pointed in his direction.

To be sure, my guess is the media and select members of the Ravens organization will blame Joe Flacco before they blame Harbaugh, and that will buy him some valuable time. No matter what happens, I definitely don't see Harbaugh getting the axe any time in the near future.

The thing to keep in mind, though, is the Ravens stand to get weaker moving forward. Ray Lewis is on his last legs, and Ed Reed also isn't getting any younger. The team has major issues to fix on its offensive line, and then it's going to need to pay Ray Rice the big bucks to keep him around.

If the Ravens get knocked out of the playoffs and proceed to disappoint in 2012, Harbaugh will invariably take on more and more blame.

The end won't come with a loss in the playoffs, but that could certainly be the beginning of the end.

Gary Kubiak, Houston Texans

Gary Kubiak is another guy who is not going to be fired on the spot if his team gets bounced from the playoffs. 

That may have been the case if Kubiak were tackling the playoffs with a fully healthy team, but he's not. The Texans are currently operating without a legit starting quarterback and without one of their best defensive players in linebacker Mario Williams. Kubiak deserves credit for holding the team together.

The thing about Kubiak, though, is he's not exactly a star head coach. He was on the hot seat at the start of the season, and he could easily return to the hot seat.

The only way Kubiak is going to avoid that fate is by winning at least one more game in the playoffs. If he can lead the Texans to a win over the Ravens in the divisional round this weekend, he's going to open a lot of eyes and he will have proved a pretty major point.

If Kubiak doesn't beat the Ravens, he'll surely get another season to prove he can take a (hopefully) healthy Texans team deep into the playoffs. 

If he can't do that, the Texans could easily decide to find somebody else who can.

Tom Coughlin, New York Giants

You could easily make the argument that this has been Tom Coughlin's finest season as the head coach of the Giants. Despite all of the Giants' many problems, Coughlin has gotten them all the way to the divisional round.

Before the Giants clinched the NFC East, however, there was some buzz about Coughlin being on the hot seat. That's just how it is in New York, and Don Banks of SI.com pointed out that Coughlin is on the hot seat pretty much every year.

The lone exception to the rule was the year after the Giants won the Super Bowl, as surely the Giants weren't going to fire Coughlin after watching him lead the franchise to its first Lombardi Trophy since Bill Parcells was roaming the sidelines.

If Coughlin wins the Super Bowl this year, he'll get another free pass.

If he doesn't, he'll go right back to being on the hot seat.

He doesn't deserve to be there, of course, but that's just how it is in New York.