Everything's working in Cruz control

It may be difficult to remember now, but when Steve Smith left the Giants for the Eagles in free agency, the move was met with widespread panic and anger. Not just by fans, either, as Tom Coughlin bristled about the way business was conducted. The Eagles had swooped in and stolen the Giants' Pro Bowl receiver -- albeit one who was coming off major knee surgery -- and with the short preseason, there was no way for them to replace him.

Then three weeks into the season, Victor Cruz got the first start of his career (against the Eagles, no less) and made two acrobatic receptions for touchdowns to lead the Giants to victory.

"Early on, that was our biggest question mark," Cruz said this past week. "Once everyone found out Steve was leaving, can we replace him or do we have the personnel on our team to replace him? But I think once I came through and started doing some good things, starting off with that Philly week . . . I think all of those questions kind of got answered."

Cruz is tied for the team lead with 40 catches and leads the Giants with 672 receiving yards. He also is tied for the team lead with four receiving touchdowns and has become Eli Manning's favorite target. On the Giants' final offensive play against the 49ers last week, on fourth-and-2, Manning was not looking for Hakeem Nicks or Mario Manningham. He was trying to get the ball to Cruz.

Yet going into that last Eagles game, Cruz was a virtual nobody. He'd dropped a key pass in the opener against the Redskins and picked up the first two catches of his NFL career against the Rams the following week.

Cruz recalled trying to calm himself before that Eagles game. "Once I started making some plays and doing some stuff, I just got comfortable and felt like I belonged," he said. "I used that confidence to springboard me into the next week, and my confidence has been high since then. I knew I could compete, I knew I could play at a high level in this league. It's been great ever since."

There's been no slump for this salsa-dancing second-year player. Whenever there is a big play for the Giants, Cruz somehow seems to be in the middle of it. He even manages to come out of his mistakes untarnished. There was the unusual play against the Cardinals in which he put the ball on the ground, only to have the referee rule that Cruz had declared himself down and made no further effort to advance -- a judgment call that could not be challenged. Early last week, he coughed the ball up, only to have his forward progress whistled stopped a fraction of a second earlier. He's the type of player who could skip through a cow pasture and not need to wipe off his shoes before going into the house.

It should come as no surprise, then, that when shots were fired in the Juliet Supper Club in Manhattan early Tuesday morning and it was learned that some Giants players were there, it was Cruz's birthday party that drew them. And that they emerged shaken but unscathed.

"I think growing up, I was always the lucky one out of the group and always had things go my way," Cruz said. "I don't know what it is. I try to stay out of things. I try not to put myself in positions like that where things happen to me or I'm in the middle of it.''

But he's certainly in the middle of things now.