VICTOR & SPOILS: Giants WR Victor Cruz has enjoyed surprising success this season, becoming quarterback Eli Manning’s primary big-play threat heading into Sunday’s wild-card game vs. the Falcons at MetLife Stadium. (Reuters)
Victor Cruz doesn’t make the $10 million a year that Santonio Holmes makes with the Jets — Cruz makes just $450,000. He wasn’t a first-round draft choice out of Ohio State as Holmes was, just a free agent from that UMass football factory. He isn’t a nightmare for his quarterback the way Holmes is, to the contrary …
Victor Cruz is a dream.
It turns out that the true Dream Team in the NFL this season was not the Eagles. It is Eli Manning teaming with Victor Cruz — the quarterback from football royalty throwing to the salsa-dancing phenom who is inspiration for underdogs everywhere.
The quarterback whose famous father, Archie, learned when he was 19 that his father had committed suicide, throwing to the 25-year-old wunderkind from Paterson, N.J., who learned when he was 21 that his father had committed suicide.
Manning: 29 TD passes, 4,933 yards.
Cruz: nine TD catches, 1,536 yards.
Dream Team.
And Cruz isn’t afraid to pinch himself.
“Nah, I kinda do it every morning when I’m brushing my teeth. I’m looking at myself and I’m just like, ‘Man, you play for the Giants! And you’re about to go drive right around the corner and go to practice.’ So it’s like … it’s crazy,” Cruz said.
The Falcons are next when the playoffs begin Sunday, and New York will expect Cruz to once again be what Wes Welker, once an afterthought, has become for Tom Brady. Cruz is the talk of the town — who does not feel like the star that he has become.
“Not really … not really. I just go in there and just do what I have to do on a weekly basis, man,” Cruz said. “I don’t feel like I’m a star, I don’t feel like I have to do anything extra. I just try and go in there and play my game and take the defense as it comes and just remain myself. I don’t feel like necessarily a star just yet.”
Even though the Garden crowd at the Knicks game Monday night implored him to do his end zone salsa.
“Very true, very true,” Cruz said, and smiled his million-dollar smile. “That was mostly Antrel [Rolle]. Antrel grabbed my arm and forced me to get up and do it for the people. His story behind it is, ‘You gotta give the people what they want.’ ”
The people who cheer his name — Cruuuuuuz — at MetLife Stadium.
“It’s amazing, man,” Cruz said. “It’s something you dream of when you grow up and you hear all the chants that different stadiums have for different people. For me to have one in New York, it’s just a surreal feeling. I get goose bumps every time I hear it.”
New York gets goose bumps every time he takes a short pass from Manning and takes it to the house.
“I feel like I’m understanding teams, I’m understanding how to watch film, I’m understanding what teams are trying to do defensively against me, and I’m good at adjusting to what teams are doing on the fly,” Cruz said. “I feel like I’m just in a good groove right now, and as long as I keep getting myself open and Eli can keep finding me in those open areas, I think I’ll be fine.”
He is a big play waiting to happen.
“Anytime I get a chance to potentially get the ball in my hands, I want to make the big play,” Cruz said. “Whether it be a deep route or intermediate route, I’m just trying to do the most I can with that specific catch or route.”
This startling chemistry with Manning was forged over the summer in private workouts.
“He’s got a great feel for what’s going on around him,” Manning said. “Where defenders are, he can read coverages very quickly and understand what his route’s gonna look like, what kind of moves, how does he set up his route to get open? That’s where it starts, and then, he does a great job after he catches the ball making guys miss making big plays, and he’s got a knack for making a little catch, or a play that is designed to get 4, 5, 6 yards and turn it into 60- and 70-yard plays. He’s not trying to do that every time, it’s just the way he plays, it just turns out that way.”
Cruz announced himself in Week 3 in Philadelphia with two touchdowns, at a time when Mario Manningham was out and Steve Smith was gone and Nnamdi Asomugha didn’t know who exactly had out-jumped him in the end zone for the ball.
“The Philadelphia game showed he had big-play potential,” Manning said. “A lot of times you learn your most about your receivers in gametime situations.”
Cruz: “Going in, there was a lot of talk about we had some receivers injured, and there was nobody to fill the position and things like that, so for me to be able to come in and do some things that were kinda above my expectations was amazing for my confidence and I kinda carried that over to each week moving forward.”
There was the 99-yard catch-and-run that ruined the Jets. Then the 74-yard catch-and-run that ruined the Cowboys. And that 44-yard Hail Tyree.
“The first thing I thought I was like, ‘Not again! Like I’m doing this again?’ ” Cruz said, and chuckled. “It was just cool to just be in a position to help my team out and get in the open field and just take one for a touchdown, so it was cool.”
Could he ever have imagined a season like this?
“Not initially, no to be honest,” Cruz said. “Coming in I wanted to find myself, find a niche on this team and help out whatever way I can. Week 3 was kinda the beginning of something that’s been a really a special run for me.”
Cruz and Manning communicate tirelessly with each other. Mark Sanchez would kill for a class act like this.
“Just to be able to grow up here and have all your friends and family, relative to every game or watching every game or getting 80, a hundred text messages after every game, it’s been an amazing ride so far, and I wouldn’t trade it in for the world,” Cruz said.
Dream receiver. Dream Team.