Victor Cruz in His Words

Victor Cruz, who before Sunday was the Giants’ Mr. August, filled in on an injury-ravaged receiving corps and had two touchdown catches to help defeat the Eagles. On one of them, he beat double coverage and outleaped cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. (At the bottom of this post, Eli Manning admits he probably shouldn’t have thrown the ball because Asomugha read the play well.) Here are a few excerpts from Cruz’s discussion with reporters after the game. The full transcript is at Giants.com

On whether he saw the two defenders on his second touchdown catch:
“I saw it when I came in initially. The safety was supposed to bite on the play-action but he kind of played it well and stayed back and then I just continued my route. I knew it was going to be a jump ball, I knew that both defenders would be there and I just jumped up and tried to make the best play I can and came away with the ball.”

On when he realized he had jumped against Asomugha:
“Probably after the play when I looked up and I saw the replay and I saw who was on the ground and then I realized who it was.”

On what he was thinking watching the replay:
“I did fumble the ball but I was fortunate enough to recover it right after I dropped it, so I was sweating a little bit. You know, any time those refs go to that booth, you never know what the outcome may be, especially on a touchdown call, so I was sweating a little bit, but once they confirmed it I was cool.”

On how many times this week he heard that this was his opportunity:
“If I had a nickel for every time I heard it I’d probably be a millionaire right now. It was just driven into me every week, every day, every hour, opportunity, opportunity, opportunity. Once the game started, once that ball went in the air, and that first kickoff, all that kind of just went to the side and I got to relax and just go out there and play.”

On how he hung onto his preseason performance last year against the Jets as a confidence booster:
“I hung onto it a little bit, but I understood, obviously in the back of my mind , that it’s a preseason game and I obviously wanted to prove myself in the regular season and get that opportunity to do things against rival opponents like the Philadelphia Eagles and teams like that.

Eli Manning on how tough Cruz’s second touchdown catch was:

“It’s just a great effort by him. [CB] Nnamdi [Asomugha] played it well. We kind of had a corner route and then a higher corner route over the top. I thought he was going to jump the tight end but he played it back there and really probably not a great decision by me to throw it in the first place but great job by Victor just going up there kind of with the attitude of either I’m going to catch it or nobody, and that’s what he did.”