NFL

Giants coach salutes Cruz

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.