Loading ...As he did to start the 2011 season, New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz struggled through a rough first week that included several drops. Three to be exact. And to top it off, he added two costly penalties. But the youngster hasn't shied away from his mistakes, saying his career-worst night against the Dallas Cowboys has humbled him. The past now in the past, Cruz vows to work harder and pay more attention starting this week.
"I was just thinking that the game was going to come to me naturally and I probably didn’t have to, you know, work as hard,” Cruz said during a WFAN interview. “This week I’m going to pay a lot more attention to detail, making sure I catch it first before I make the move. I obviously can’t go anywhere without the football.”
On each of Cruz's three drops, he attempted to turn upfield before securing the ball. It's a common issue Cruz has been dealing with for each of his first three seasons, and that's just a product of the type of wide receiver he is. And because he erupted onto the scene a year ago, it's easy to forget he's still very young and prone to mental mistakes.
Compacting the problem in week one were the opponents, who have all painted a huge bullseye on the back of Cruz and his Big Blue teammates. It's something that comes with being the champions.
“We got a nice little wake-up call, a nice little rude awakening that teams are going to be prepared for us and we’re going to get every team’s best effort,” Cruz said. “I have to understand that I’m going to get every defender’s best effort and everybody is going to be out there to stop me."
The Giants will have their next opportunity to get things right this Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who happen to have a little extra insight on the defending champions.
Personal note: We at Giants 101 send our condolences to Victor and his family on the recent loss of his Grandmother.
Photo Credit: Mike Gannon
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So this is just my way of thumbing my nose at Nosh.
It was suggested that there might be some blowback from all of Cruz’s activities this offseason. You thought such a suggestion was evidence of some sort of latent racial coding or whatever.
Now this article comes out.
And I’m forced to ask–was the attitude that drove you to point out the bias you felt was being shown towards Cruz an example of your OWN biases, like reverse-racial coding or whatever?
Cruz already almost lost his opportunity in college. Faced with that reality, he refocused himself on the job and made it happen.
After that effort took him all the way to the top last year, he lapsed into the temptation to be lazy and unfocused, convinced that he’d already “paid his dues” and would now automatically be successful.
He’s just been smacked upside the head by reality again. Hopefully, this will be the last time he needs to be taught that lesson.
I think it is more accurate to say that he simply had a bad day
CRUZ HAD 1 BAD GAME!!! He tried to run and make something happen before he had the ball I watch this happen to a wide receiver EVERY sunday. Let’s not act like he was gassed and running bad routes the whole game. Because on those plays he ran great routes had great separation and was WIDE OPEN. So much so that he got antsy and looked upfield too soon because he wanted to take it to the house. Your points about his offseason aren’t valid, because physically he was as good as ever (so he had been working out to be in football shape), and his routes and reads were spot on last week. He was rusty in focusing in on the ball and that has been a problem for him from the beginning. Your points about the oline are great your pining on Cruz is ridiculous
Agree 100% on Cruz. I was worried about him before I saw him this preseason and the first game. Getting open is the hardest thing to consistently do in the NFL and Cruz and clearly to that. Maybe he won’t make as many plays as last year and a drop in production. But he’s a very good WR who will make plays and is someone Eli can depend on being open.
He probably will take a drop in production (I mean he almost broke rice’s record last year c’mon man). My point is just that even though he had a bad game in which he had no focus, asserting that he didn’t work in the offseason is ridiculous and he got wide open that game so his physicality, reads, and routes were great.
Agreed
I really think Cruz should be the least of our worries. Yes he needs to catch the ball but he was getting open, something Dallas vowed wouldn’t happen this year and if he wasn’t being held he would have done his Salsa dance in the endzone. Some thing Dallas also vowed wouldn’t happen this year. I am more worried about Nicks and his inability to serperate from a rookie CB than I am about Cruz. Cruz will be fine…..Hopefully Nicks will be as well but he sure looked like he was only at about 50%. Cruz was able to find holes consistantly with an ineffective Nicks….That is somthing that excites me becasue when Nicks becomes himself, watch out, this is all assuming of course that Eli has a small window of time to throw the ball. Anybody hear if Locklear is taking snaps at RT with Beatty back at LT?
One day i hope g101 gets big enough to have a writer and every press conference, practice, locker room antics, and following players to the grocery store if only to feed our insatiable desire for inside info. I can only imagine the reaction here when Nicks after failing to get separation on a play is seen buying ring dings at the grocery store.
OL Tyron Smith fined $16K for his horse-collar tackle of Michael Boley. Illegal tackle cost #Giants a TD.
That fine is well worth it for them. That play helped changed the flow of the game. I would want us to make that same tackle if we were in that situation.
haha i wonder if jerruh is gonna reimburse him
It’s a HUGE flaw in the rules IMO.
FF55 and I were having this discussion about it a few threads back.
In the NBA, if a player is fouled with a clear path to the basket, it’s an automatic 2 shots and possession of the ball. And the player get a foul.
I’d like to see something similar. The player who commits the foul should be ejected, IMO. And the other team should be rewarded with an INSTANT FG try from the 15 yd line and then possession of the ball at mid field.
It’s an extremely dangerous play and most times results in player getting hurt.
does anybody know if the Giants ever used their IR exception? Canty is on the PUP, right?
They did not use it, and yes Canty is on the PUP list.
So Tyron Smith horse-collars Boley to prevent a touchdown and pays a modest fine (that Jerry Jones will find a way to cover) and Gilbride follows with a questionable play call and Bradshaw with a very questionable decision to take a run outside and the zebras with a refusal to call interference when Cruz is clearly held in the end zone. The Giants lose four points and the game might have been changed by the loss.
Like I said the day after the game, they need to change the rules so there’s a MUCH bigger penalty for doing this kind of thing when a touchdown is prevented.
as we discussed in previous thread.
The NBA changed the rule because too many players got injured during “clear path” fouls.
NFL should do the same.
The issue is that play doesn’t really happen all that often. You can’t give anyone a TD. Really the only thing that could be done is to place the ball first and goal at the 1 yard line. That’s basically what we got. You are suppose to score a TD there and that’s on our offense.
The offical rule might make sense is if a ball carrier (including KR, PR, Int ret, fum ret, etc.) is tackled while the defender commits a personal foul with a clear path to the endzone (ref judgement) the ball is awarded first and goal and the 1 yard line like PI in the endzone. This rule would help push safety because horse colars seem to occur when defenders are trying to safe a TD.
How could you prove that a TD would have been achieved? Maybe Boley slips at the 3 and falls on his backside at the 1 yard line.
And I’ll tell you what–if it were Beatty who did was Smith did, I’d donate money to cover his fine. Savvy play. Reminds me of the 2006 playoffs when Tiki watched a tipped ball land in the arms of one of the Eagles’ defensive backs to end the game. I remember screaming at the TV saying “Why aren’t you killing that guy Tiki?
You can’t prove that he would have scored. However, He did have a CLEAR PATH to the end zone and was illegally tackled from behind.
It was a dirty play. Had it been a clean tackle, there would be no issue.
If Goddell is so concerned with player safety, he’d look into the rule. That’s what David Stern did in the NBA a few years back.
Why are so many people acting as if this is act 3 of Victor Cruz’s life? He’ll bounce back a game or two from now.
And yeah, that horsecollar rule needs to be changed so that any horsecollar tackles in the red zone results in harsher penalties, but our offense stilled failed to punch one in from the 1 yard line. The fact that two of our runs were stuffed literally where the ball was snapped is pretty damn pathetic. So yeah, I wouldn’t say we really deserved a touchdown there.
Of course we didn’t “deserve” a touchdown. The offense (including their coordinator) didn’t do what they had to do.
But here’s what I proposed in this situation. If the officials believe a player did not have a clear path but was fouled inside the 5-yard line (personal fouls only) then the ball should be placed at the 1-yard line first-and-goal. If the judgment IS that the player had a clear path then the ball shall be placed at the 1-yard line first-and-goal AND the offense shall receive an additional down. That makes scoring the touchdown way more likely, and that seems like a reasonable penalty (in addition to a relatively severe fine of the offending player).