Cruz's big day like Giant roller coaster

Even before Victor Cruz's whiplash-inducing dramatics Sunday, his mother, Blanca, had him pegged, asking her son why nothing ever is simple when he's involved.

"You can't ever just have a good game," he recalled her telling him. "You always have to have a crazy catch or do some fumble or something like that, like that play in Arizona.

"She was like, 'What's up with you?' And I'm like, 'I don't know, Ma. I'm just trying to do my best out there, and it seems like big plays like to follow me.' ''

And how. "That play in Arizona," in which a controversial ruling saved him from a disastrous fumble, followed by one week his two touchdowns in an upset of the Eagles.

But that was a mere warm-up for the receiver's fourth quarter in the Giants' 36-25 loss to the Seahawks Sunday at MetLife Stadium, in which he had eight catches for 161 yards.

It began with a 68-yard touchdown reception that put the Giants ahead 22-19 with 12:37 remaining.

Eli Manning threw long and high into double coverage, and safety Kam Chancellor tipped the ball into the air. Cruz tipped it, too, then gathered the ball with one hand at the Seattle 25 and ran it in.

"It got tipped up in the air," he said, "and I just kept my eye on it and had to kind of twist around because it kind of went over my head, and I grabbed it and took it in for a touchdown."

Less than two minutes later, Cruz made a third-down reception, but the Seahawks' Walter Thurmond poked the ball away from him and Chancellor recovered at the Giants' 25, setting up the tying field goal.

"I was trying to get another extra yard and he kind of just ripped at my forearm and the ball came out and it was under me and I just tried to grab it," Cruz said.

"Man, it was my first time in that pile, and that pile gets pretty real in there. It was a tough time, bad timing to have that kind of play happen to us."

After the Seahawks took a 29-25 lead with 2:37 left, the Giants charged back down the field, with Manning finding Cruz for 41- and 19-yard completions to get it to the Seattle 5.

After a penalty moved the ball to the 10, Manning looked for Cruz again. But Cruz slipped coming out of his break, forcing him to reach for the ball with one hand.

He could not control it, and it bounced off him, off Chancellor and into the hands of Brandon Browner, who returned it 94 yards for a clinching TD.

"I thought I gripped it,'' Cruz said, "but as soon as I went to kind of grip it in, I got hit and it got bobbled up in the air and I knew it was all downhill from there."

Cruz said the deflating finish "kind of erased" the good stuff from earlier. But even as he processed the loss, he recalled hearing fans chant his name in appreciation, calling it "pretty cool."

It made him feel even worse that he contributed to a loss he had almost turned into a victory. "I consider myself a pretty strong-willed person," he said. "I'll break through this and be ready next week."