Super Bowl LI: Victor Cruz looks back on playoff loss with regret
New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz tries to elude Green Bay Packers cornerback Damarious Randall during NFC wild-card game Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, in Green Bay, Wis. Credit: AP / Mike Roemer
HOUSTON — Victor Cruz would like “a do-over” on the wildcard game against the Packers.
Not so much for the hoopla that was created when he and fellow receivers partied in Miami the week before that contest, but for the performance itself.
“The week leading up to the game was traditional going through practice and doing what we needed to do to get ready for the game,” Cruz said on Thursday before participating in the “Nickelodeon Superstar Slime Showdown,” which will air on Sunday. “The game came and there are obviously a lot of things we wish we could do better. Execution, securing the football, converting on third down, all of those things. Those are things you wish you could have a do-over, have another chance, but that’s the nature of the game. You only get one shot to prove yourself and advance and we didn’t do so.”
The Giants lost, 38-13, and while Cruz was not necessarily a culprit in the defeat teammates Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard dropped early passes that wound up haunting the Giants later in the game.
Earlier this week, Cruz expressed regret over the infamous trip to Miami.
“Looking back on it, it definitely wasn’t worth it,” Cruz said on the “Timeout With Taylor Rooks” podcast.
The disappointment of the loss was punctuated by Beckham apparently punching a hole in a wall outside the locker room at Lambeau Field. The following day, general manager Jerry Reese very bluntly said that Beckham needs to “grow up.”
“I think he definitely heard it and he’ll definitely do what he needs to do to change that,” Cruz said of Beckham. “I think he understands that this game is all about perception. He’s a great person, a great kid, a great teammate, like a brother to me, but he doesn’t want this to be his perception. He wants to change that. I think he heard it and I think he’ll do so.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
