Keeping Kevin Gilbride May Seal Tom Coughlin's Fate as Giants Head Coach

With the Giants one week into the 2011 season, there already is a ton of doubt about the team.

The injuries have piled on from the start of the summer. It happens to every team, but the Giants have been hit by the injury bug the most.

But last season, so were the Green Bay Packers and they won the Super Bowl, so you can't always blame a lost season on injuries.

The Giants lost two major players in the offense with Steve Smith and Kevin Boss leaving via free agency.

Giants general manager Jerry Reese has tried to build through the draft with this team, but when even your draft picks, like Prince Amukamara, Brian Witherspoon and Marvin Austin, are out for the season, that doesn't leave the Giants with much depth.

Still, teams have found ways to overcome in the past.

But the one thing the Giants and Eli Manning in particular may not be able to overcome is inadequate coaching.

Now, in no way am I calling head coach Tom Coughlin inadequate. He has done a great job in his seven years with the team, doing his best to make the Giants prepared every season to be a playoff contender.

But one of his assistants in particular is absolutely killing the Giants offense.

Most Giants fans refer to him as "Killdrive." We all know him as Kevin Gilbride, the Giants offensive coordinator.

For years, we have all at one time or another complained about how lousy of a coach Gilbride is and how terrible of a play-caller he is.

Gilbride has been an NFL coach dating all the way back to 1989, when he started as the Houston Oilers quarterbacks coach.

He then took over the reigns of the Oilers offensive coordinator in 1990 and held that job until 1994, where he and then head coach Buddy Ryan had an altercation on the sideline during a 1994 Monday Night Football game, which lead to Ryan throwing a punch at Gilbride's head.

Gilbride was eventually let go by Houston after the season, but that is where he latched on with Coughlin for the first time.

Gilbride then took over as the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator in 1995. The Jaguars success in 1996 lead to Gilbride getting the head coaching job of the San Diego Chargers.

In 1997, San Diego went 4-12 and in 1998, they started out 2-4 before Gilbride was relieved of his duties.

After his one try as head coach, Gilbride served two seasons as offensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1999-2000, which he got fired from by former Steelers coach Bill Cowher, and two more seasons as the offensive coordinator with the Buffalo Bills in 2002-2003, another job he was let go from when they fired the entire staff under then Buffalo head coach Gregg Williams.

Following Buffalo, Gilbride was brought onto another Coughlin coached team with the Giants.

From 2004 until 2006, Gilbride was the quarterbacks coach. When Coughlin fired John Hufnagel as the offensive coordinator, he promoted Gilbride to the position.

Gilbride was the coordinator during the Giants 2007 Super Bowl run, and that may have been the only time where Gilbride wasn't his usual predictable self.

Since then, Gilbride has been getting worse every year as the Giants play-caller.

If you are a half-way decent defensive coordinator and you are coaching against the Giants, chances are, you have a chance to stop the Giants with Gilbride calling plays.

He never, ever makes in-game adjustments and sticks to his usual game plan, which might not be working during the game.

He's also extremely predictable as a offensive coordinator too. Smart players and coaches on defense can figure out what is coming next. There isn't any trick play or creativity to the offense he runs.

On Sunday, Redskins defensive coordinator Jim Haslett made Gilbride look absolutely foolish.

It's quite clear that Gilbride is a huge problem with the offense, we have all known this since 2008, when he screwed up the Philadelphia Eagles playoff game and never adapted to the game or the field conditions.

But yet, Gilbride somehow still has a job with the Giants.

And I think this will eventually be the downfall of Coughlin as the head coach of the Giants.

Gilbride is "one of Coughlin's guys." He has been for a long time.

Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell is also another Coughlin guy, as Fewell served as the Jaguars defensive backs coach from 1998-2002.

But Fewell is not a problem with the Giants, Gilbride is.

And because he is one of Coughlin's guys, it may end up costing Coughlin his job at the end of 2011.

If Reese or Giants owner John Mara puts any pressure on Coughlin to get rid of Gilbride this year and Coughlin refuses, it could certainly cause some problems.

Eli Manning is still the franchise quarterback for the Giants and still has a lot of good seasons left.

If Gilbride continues to coach, it will only hamper Eli in the long run.

For Coughlin's sake, you hope he fired Gilbride ASAP.

But he won't. He should have several times in the last couple of seasons.

And because he won't, it could be what ends up costing Coughlin his job after 2011.

Missing the playoffs three years would also do Coughlin in.

Letting Gilbride stay on and continue to ruin the Giants offense will also be his downfall.