5 New York Giants Facing Most Pressure in 2nd Half of Season

If you're a fan of the New York Giants, or just a fan of the NFL in general, you are well aware of the second-half struggles the Giants have faced under Tom Coughlin.

With a schedule as tough as the Giants have and the fact that they've missed the playoffs the past two years, the microscope is going to be zoomed in on them even further.

Jobs are at stake.

With that in mind, here are the five New York Giants facing the most pressure moving forward.

The Offensive Line

The offensive line has been under a lot of justified scrutiny this season, and unless some of its members are planning to lose their jobs next season, they'd better step up.

The Giants currently rank 30th in the NFL running the ball and have given up 15 sacks. Neither number is very impressive, so all eyes will be on this unit moving forward.

Antrel Rolle

Antrel Rolle sure does like to talk. The outspoken Giants safety has been relatively quiet this season, but couldn't contain himself this week. He had this to say about when asked why Wes Welker has been such a problem for opposing defenses:

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“I don’t know. You have to ask those guys he’s given trouble to. I don’t plan on having to answer those questions.”

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Then when he was asked about the tough schedule ahead, Rolle downplayed it:

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“I don’t worry about our schedule. I think our schedule needs to worry about us.”

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Bigtime words from a bigtime player. If Rolle is going to speak out like this, he's going to have a pretty big microscope on him from now on.

Perry Fewell

Of the Giants' next eight opponents (they play Dallas twice), four of them are the top four offenses in the league, and five of them are in the top 10 in terms of yards per game.

I think it's safe to say Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell has his work cut out for him. His unit has been suspect at times and still hasn't figured out how to stop the run.

He is one of the more popular candidates for head coaching jobs in the future, but for right now he has to fix the Giants defense or they're in for a long second half.

Eli Manning

Given how high of a level Eli Manning is playing at, there will be a ton of pressure on him to keep it up. Not only so the Giants can continue to win games, but so he can prove to the world that he belongs in the list of elite quarterbacks.

Honestly, if it weren't for Eli playing as well as he has, the Giants would be much worse off right now. In four of their five wins, he overcame fourth-quarter deficits to win.

For the Giants to have any chance down the stretch, we need Eli to continue his always dominant October play in November and December.

Tom Coughlin

I alluded to this in the introduction slide so you had to see it coming; Tom Coughlin is easily under the most pressure to succeed in the second half of this season.

It's not hard to see that his job depends on it—the Giants have only had a winning record in the second half once under Coughlin and they've missed the playoffs two straight seasons.

Three in a row won't cut it, and if that happens, owner John Mara will have no choice but to let Coughlin go.