How many Giants will be healthy enough to play against Titans?

This is how bad the injury bug has bit the Giants: Their special teams coach, Tom Quinn, is walking around in a boot after he hurt his calf Sunday on the sideline in Jacksonville, Fla.

That game, a difficult-to-fathom 25-24 loss, cost the Giants three of the five — count 'em, five — players added to an injured reserve list on Tuesday. It continued an assault on the roster that has forced a scramble to find and sign capable bodies as the Giants limp on through another dismal season.

"I feel badly for any player who has his heart and soul in what he's doing and is denied that because of an injury,'' Coughlin said on Wednesday. "I feel badly for them and, then again, we speak to the opportunity that comes to the next in line. And we've had a lot of next-in-lines, I'll say that.''

"Next in line," or "next man up," could serve as the T-shirt slogan to characterize what has gone on with the Giants as they take their 3-9 record into Sunday's non-titanic tussle with the Titans (2-10) in Nashville. Since cut-down day prior to the season, nearly 20 percent of the roster has landed on injured reserve. In all his years, Coughlin said, never before has he had to put five players in one day on IR, as he did this week.

The Giants have 20 players on IR, including a bunch of their key contributors: Prince Amukamara, Jon Beason, Victor Cruz, Geoff Schwartz, Robert Ayers, Mathias Kiwanuka, Walter Thurmond and Trumaine McBride.

"It has definitely taken its course on this team. … It has just been a weird year all the way around,'' safety Antrel Rolle said.

"That's not exactly what you're looking for,'' quarterback Eli Manning said, "but we still got guys.''

Yeah, in many cases what the Giants have are just guys, replacements who would not be in the NFL otherwise. When determining who stays and who goes on the coaching staff and the front office, it will be interesting to see how the injury malaise affects ownership's thinking.

The situation has devolved so completely that guys are getting hurt almost before they arrive. Terrell Manning, signed a few days earlier off the Bengals' practice squad, made his Giants debut on Sunday, hurt his ankle, needs surgery and won't be seen again.

The situation is so woeful Schwartz is wondering if he is the first player ever to be put on injured reserve twice in the same season (he is not). Schwartz missed the first 10 games with a dislocated right big toe, finally returned, but did not make it out of his second game before going down with an ankle injury that requires surgery.

Eli Manning is one of the few Giants who has remained healthy.Photo: AP

The situation has been so strange that it always is interesting to see what slashes Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie will have after his name describing his ailments. It's been hamstring/knee and hamstring/back and hamstring/IT band, and his latest combo is back/shoulder.

The situation has been infuriating to the Giants because they cannot get their pieces onto the game board at the same time. Odell Beckham Jr., Cruz and Rashad Jennings have been on the field together for about 30 minutes all season — Oct. 5 against the Falcons, before Jennings was forced out with a sprained knee. Is it a coincidence that was the last time the Giants won a game? And now, Jennings might be out again, as he hurt his ankle against the Jaguars and did not practice Wednesday.

"You're asking me for a comment that has miffed me forever: Why does it happen?'' Coughlin said. "I wish I had an answer for you. A lot of people want to go on and on about, 'Do we have enough offseason?' I think that might be a legitimate something to bring up at some point in time. It is the nature of our business, unfortunately. We push forward.''

Coughlin, infamously during his introductory press conference in 2004, proclaimed injuries "a cancer'' as he alluded to all the players on IR down the stretch of Jim Fassel's final season. Coughlin also said "It's a mental thing, I believe, as much as anything else.''

Reminded of those words, Coughlin with his struggling team ravaged by injuries, so many years later offered a different sort of rhetoric.

"I understand what you're asking, but you're asking me if it's a losing mentality and I'm saying to you that I don't see that,'' he said. "I don't see that on this team, I don't.''