A day after a victory over Washington improved the New York Giants' record to a still-pretty-crummy 5-9, coach Tom Coughlin said he has not had any conversations with team management about his job status for next year.

"No," Coughlin said. "My concern is with getting ready to play the St. Louis Rams (on Sunday). I'm sure that will be dealt with at the right time."

Two wins in a row after a seven-game losing streak seem to have relaxed some of the public heat on Coughlin. And around the Giants' facility, the feeling is that he'll be back next year. Coughlin signed a one-year contract extension last offseason that takes him through 2015, and if the Giants do bring him back, their history indicates that they would extend him through 2016 so as not to make him a lame duck.

The Giants will finish under .500 for the second season in a row and miss the playoffs for the fifth year out of the last six. But they changed offensive coordinators and systems and overhauled their roster last offseason, so the feeling is that they're committed to a long-term rebuild and believe in Coughlin as the leader they need to execute it. That doesn't rule out staff changes, including a potential change at defensive coordinator. And those conversations between a head coach and his bosses can definitely get testy. So nothing is certain until the Giants have their postseason meetings two weeks from now. But true to his one-week-at-a-time mantra, Coughlin insists he's not thinking about it.

"We've got two games to go, and we've got to be the best we can be in these next two games," Coughlin said.

Earlier in his Monday conference call with reporters, Coughlin did talk about the future of the Giants and the benefit that playing well in December could carry into next season and beyond for the team's young players.

"You always want to be on a positive note," Coughlin said. "You would like everything to be with the arrow going up. We've talked a lot about improvement and ascending, and it is the time of year to do those things. The number of young people that are getting opportunities and having a chance to play, that all leads to thoughts about the future. These things are one game at a time, but again, the encouragement, the positivity, the winning idea, the opportunity for young people to contribute in a very strong way, those are all positive things."