The pitch-and-catch prowess of Eli Manning and Victor Cruz has slowed to a crawl. Cruz followed up a two-catch outing at Dallas with a low-impact, five-catch showing in the 24-20 loss to the Steelers.
It’s not for a lack of trying, as Manning targeted Cruz 11 times.
“It’s just a matter of in the course of the game, when things happen that kind of derail us or things that happen that we don’t expect to see coverage-wise, we just have to do a good job adjusting to that,’’ Cruz said.
There has been plenty of talk about “miscommunications’’ as Manning and Cruz are clearly not on the same page.
“I think that hopefully we can, you know, get back on the same page and deliver and be able to communicate as we have in the past,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “Hopefully it will be this week.’’
Asked if the offense is in a slump, Coughlin said: “I don’t know what that is. This is not baseball.’’
* Safety Kenny Phillips practiced much of the past two weeks but he missed his fifth straight game coming off a knee injury.
Asked if Phillips suffered a setback, Coughlin said: “I don’t know if you would call it that. Just didn’t feel like after a couple of days of practice that he could do the things he had to do to perform in the role that we wanted him to be in.’’
* Reserve RB Isaac Redman demolished the Giants with 147 rushing yards, many coming after first contact.
“I don’t think it’s effort,’’ Justin Tuck said. “One of the things is missed tackles cost us. A lot of the other thing is just they just mushed us a little bit.’’
Coughlin said the Giants missed 12 tackles in the game. “It was soft, it was soft, no question,’’ Coughlin said of the run defense.
* It is a late bye for the Giants, coming after 10 games. Are the Giants wearing down? “Nah, I don’t think so. I think 7-3 will be a nice break,’’ Coughlin said.
* Rookie Rueben Randle was targeted three times but did not have a catch. Asked if he competed hard enough for the ball, Coughlin said, “I think he did. I think technically he was wrong on a couple of occasions, but I didn’t see any reason to think that he didn’t compete.’’
* LB Chase Blackburn did not play against the Steelers and has not yet tested his strained hamstring. It doesn’t sound as if he is going to be able to make it back for this week’s game in Cincinnati.
* TE Martellus Bennett came out of the Steelers game with some sort of lower leg issue, but he seemed to be walking fairly well yesterday. “Getting better,’’ Bennett said. “My whatever was hurting. The whatever hurts all the time. No swelling in the whatever. I hope the whatever doesn’t interfere with practicing this week.’’