EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Alexander Myres Jersey -- At the end, Tom Coughlin walked slowly from the sideline, past the kicker who had just mi sed for the first time all season and into his uncertain future. The had just lost their fifth game in which they held a fourth-quarter lead, , their fourth in the final 13 seconds, and, most immediately, . At 5-7, they remain alive only because , but the tight expre sion on team owner John Mara's face and bowed head of general manager Jerry Reese as they walked silently out of the pre s box and toward the locker room told the story of this season in all its gut-wrenching detail.This has been an excruciating three months of near mi ses for the , from in Dallas to to a team so mistake-prone that it all but handed the victory to the early in the fourth quarter. This was, somehow, even worse than the others because there was so much at stake, as the were playing a team with at least as many i sues and that produces at least as much unsightly football as they do. Coming off to Washington last week, the played with energy and emotion, if not exactly detail-orientedne s, against the . And it was still not enough.That the do not have the defensive talent to hold those leads is a topic worth discu sing, and the blame for that falls at Reese's feet. But the harsh reality is that despite their shortcomings, despite not having defensive end and despite the rash of injuries, the were in position to win all but one game this season -- is the exception -- and a win in even three of those games would have the cruising to Indianapolis Colts Jersey the playoffs right now, poised to fashion another one of the remarkable January runs that gives Coughlin the best coaching resume this side of Foxborough. That the could not close any of the five in which they held late leads surely falls in part on the players who have been unable to turn Coughlin's appeal to finish into action.But collectively, it is the failure of the team, and head coaches disproportionally and perhaps unfairly pay the price for that, particularly when it happens again and again. The surely have not wanted to remove Coughlin -- he remains deeply respected for the two runs he led and well-liked by both management and players for the dignity and intelligence with which he leads them. But the have changed around him in the past two years, and that leaves Mara to weigh whether he should make the biggest change of all whenever this season ends. Mara has learned not to make Kylen Granson Jersey decisions in the heat of the moment -- he has, over the years, ignored some fans' desire for sweeping change, including in the months before the won their two most recent s -- but it is fair to wonder what he is thinking now, considering that after the ' season ended last year , he told reporters he was so upset about a second-half implosion against the that he sat on the team bus wanting to fire everybody.Coughlin admitted that the earlier collapses are informing his coaching decisions now, and that was obvious when he elected to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the ' 4-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. A touchdown there would have given the a 17-point lead -- three scores -- and would almost have virtually a sured victory. A field goal would have given the a 13-point lead, and the could have won outright with two touchdown drives.It was a gutsy decision -- and I still think it was the correct one at that time -- but it was also one that is hard to imagine Coughlin making if the had not already experienced the lo ses they had this season. It was, somehow, painfully fitting that threw an interception on the fourth-down play, ending a drive that lasted 11 minutes and 13 seconds with nothing."Obviously, I have made a decision to be very aggre sive at the end of the games," Coughlin said. "I've done it Malik Hooker Jersey all year long. I don't have a lot to show for it. We've tried to do that. We try to take some of the pre sure off of everybody and had we scored that touchdown, fourth-and-2, I think we would have taken a lot of pre sure off."It is this final bit of futility -- where Coughlin is trying everything, with everything still going against the -- that puts the pre sure on him. His players insist that the earlier lo ses are not dancing in the backs of their heads as the scenarios repeat themselves week after week like a horror film.Defensive tackle said that while the are not worrying about blowing another lead, they are at least thinking, "'OK, this is where we have to get over this hump. This is where we have to finish. This is where we have to close it out.' And we come in and we say it to each other at halftime, talk about it on the sidelines, 'Let's go out and finish, and let's go out and do this,' and we don't." he said.Guard Xavier Rhodes Jersey said the have learned from their earlier collapses, but there is no more room to say, "Oh, it's going to get better."Pugh is right. It is probably already too late for it to get better for the now. And if they mi s the playoffs again, for the fourth year in a row, it may, in a few weeks, get much worse.Follow Judy Battista on Twitter .

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