Victor Cruz’s education seems to be coming along sufficiently.
“He is learning while he plays,” Tom Coughlin said after the wide receiver starred in the Giants’ 20-17 comeback win over the Dolphins, “but he demonstrated once again the unique ability to get himself open and make a play for our team when we needed one.”
Cruz caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning with just under six minutes to go in the fourth quarter, taking the Giants from four points back to three points ahead.
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Cruz finished with a game-high seven catches and a game-high 99 yards. At the start of the fourth quarter, the Giants — trailing 17-10 — faced a third-and-9 from their 27 yard line. Manning hit Cruz down the middle for 26 yards to the Miami 47, keeping the drive going en route to Lawrence Tynes’ 29-yard field goal.
On Cruz’s game-winning score, he was wide open over the middle when he caught the pass. He then slipped a tackle by Miami’s Will Allen and reached paydirt with 5:58 remaining.
“I really don’t know,” Allen said when asked how Cruz escaped. “I was trying to sling him down, but he was twisting and he twisted out of my tackle.”
Cruz, a Paterson Catholic HS alum who was undrafted out of Massachusetts, didn’t catch a pass in Week 1 against the Redskins, then caught only two for 17 yards in Week 2 versus the Rams. But since then, Cruz has racked up 26 catches for 480 yards and four touchdowns in five games against the Eagles, Cardinals, Seahawks, Bills and Dolphins.
That’s a Miles Austin-esque emergence.
“I think the game’s coming a little bit easier,” Cruz said.
Yesterday all three of the Giants’ main receivers had big days. Number-one wideout Hakeem Nicks had six grabs for 67 yards, while Mario Manningham hauled in six for 63 yards and a touchdown. Nicks (strained hamstring), though, sounds doubtful for next week’s showdown with the Patriots in Foxborough, so that will put an enormous amount of pressure on Cruz.
“He is a big-play guy,” Coughlin said.
And he was yesterday.