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The Giants have no intentions of playing with fire and fighting for their playoff lives again at the end of this season.
They have decided that the time to burn down the division is now.
Especially before RG3 figures it all out.
“I think Coach put it to us in some good terms today that this is a big game for us,” Victor Cruz said, “and we need to win and put some space between us and the rest of the division. So I think as a team we understand that.”
Coach, of course, is Tom Coughlin.
“This is the most important game we’ve played all year long this Monday night,” Coughlin said.
Justin Tuck was asked why Monday night is more important to the 7-4 Giants than it is to the 5-6 Redskins, who are tied with the 5-6 Cowboys.
“It gives [the Giants] a three-game lead in this division. … It kinda starts the Fat Lady to singing a little bit as far as this division is concerned, being up three with four games to go, that’s ideal, I guess, in this situation,” Tuck said. “I think it’s important for us because I play with the Giants, I don’t necessarily care what’s important for them, so I can’t even comprehend why it would be more important for them.”
Someone mentioned to Cruz that prosperity hasn’t treated the Giants well, and asked if it could be different this time.
“I just see a different energy. I feel like we’re a different team right now, as opposed to last year where we found our stride when our backs were really against the wall. I feel like we’re finding our stride now, and luckily, we’re at a good place in the division, we have a pretty solid record right now, and I feel like it can only go up from here, it can only go forward, and we just gotta keep our foot on the gas,” Cruz said.
It is so much easier for Eli Manning to put his foot on the gas, to put his slump in the rearview mirror, when Hakeem Nicks is Hakeem Nicks, and life is so much less miserable for Cruz when Hakeem Nicks is Hakeem Nicks.
When he can be — apologies to RG3 — HN1.
“With his size and speed, he can catch the ball wherever it’s placed around him, he can break tackles, and he can fight his way into the end zone with his strength,” Cruz said. “We saw a little bit of that in Green Bay this past Sunday, and as long as he keeps doing that, in my eyes, he’s relatively unstoppable.”
A surgically repaired foot followed by swelling in his knee stopped Nicks cold.
“The season’s definitely been a battle,” Nicks said. “It’s the hand I was dealt. I gotta rise above it, which I know I will.”
He began resembling his old explosive self against the Bengals (9 rec., 75 yards)and the bye week helped prior to the Packers game (5 rec., 77 yards, 1 TD).
“You have a receiver that can win one-on-one matchups, a guy who knows how to make big plays, strong, can break tackles, and kinda turn a simple play into a big play,” Manning said.
Nicks was asked how close to 100 percent he thinks he is now.
“I’m done putting numbers on it,” he said. “It’s just one of those things where it’s just time to play ball. I don’t really think about it.”
Can you do everything you want to do on the football field?
“When I’m on the football field, yes, I feel like I can do everything that I want to do.”
The perfect time to be HN1.
“I feel like at this time of year, ain’t nobody feeling great,” Nicks said. “It’s football, it’s a contact sport so … we throw our bodies around.
“I do feel good at this point in the year than I have in the past.”
HN1.
“I think you could see it in the Green Bay game, how he’s got a little bit more pop, a little bit more explosion to his play right now,” Cruz said. “You could see it in these practices, how he’s moving out there and things like that.”
Nicks had only five catches for 53 yards in the first Redskins game. It was his second game back following a three-week absence,
Nicks began walking away from his locker, and I asked him if physically he feels like he’s ready to break out.
“Yeah, I feel like I’m ready to play, put a complete game together,” Nicks said.
He is the strong, silent type, the anti-diva receiva devoid of braggadoccio, it does not mean he is lacking in confidence. Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall calls Nicks (26 career touchdown catches) a beast when healthy. So I asked Nicks if he is ready to be a beast, and he simply smiled.
Then nodded yes.
steve.serby@nypost.com