Victor Cruz has a history of Giant games against the Jets

You always remember your first. For Victor Cruz, that means remembering the Jets.

It was in the preseason opener against the Jets two years ago that Cruz -- now one of the biggest stars in the NFL -- initially burst on the scene as a nobody free agent who caught three touchdown passes in a nationally broadcast game. Very few players begin their careers with such a definitive moment (or three) but for Cruz, it was such a remarkable performance that it sticks with him even now as he prepares to once again face the Jets in a preseason game.

The Giants will play the Jets Saturday night and Cruz will be on the field. This time, though, he won't be trying to make the team. He's already slated as a starting receiver for the Giants this season after a record-setting 2011. But he recalls fondly that night two years ago when he first emerged and fans first stopped asking "Who?" and started chanting "Cruuuz!"

"It was pretty crazy," Cruz recalled Thursday. "I was just going out there to play and it just so happened the ball came my way more than others and I was able to make a play. It was just a point in my life where I was excited, I was nervous, I was anxious, I was all kinds of things and to come out and have a game like that it was the best feeling in the world."

Cruz said he remembers not knowing if he had made the Giants' roster after that game, if he had done enough to secure a spot on the 53.

"It was just kind of me being still a paranoid rookie, a paranoid free agent," he said. "You just never know."

While he made an impact on just about everyone, one person took a very wait-and-see approach with the newly minted star.

"You hope; you saw potential," Eli Manning said, remembering that game. "Obviously it was the second or third unit and he wasn't going against [Darrelle] Revis and those guys. You see potential but still know he had a lot of work to do."

That was also the game where Manning had his head split open by Calvin Pace, so he only got to see Cruz's exploits on film later. "I missed a lot of it," he said.

Even while Manning wasn't convinced about Cruz's future with the Giants, there were others who knew what they'd seen right away. One of them was Julian Talley, a teammate of Cruz's at UMass who is now, incidentally, an undrafted rookie wide receiver in Giants training camp trying to make the team via the same route Cruz took. Julian said he remembers watching that Monday night game in the dormitory and the entire building exploding with cheers for each Cruz catch. Then, after the game, the two spoke on the phone.

"He was kind of in shock after the game, we both were," Talley said. "He was excited and I was excited for him. He just said 'Yo this is crazy! It's crazy!' That's all I remember him saying. 'This is crazy!' And I was like 'Yo, it is crazy! It was nuts that you did that!' We just kind of enjoyed the moment."

Cruz has had bigger moments since then. His 99-yard touchdown last December probably ranks as the biggest now. And naturally that was against the Jets, too.

"It just so happens that through the last few years I've had my best games against them," Cruz shrugged. "It just so happens that I've been able to make some pretty good plays in my career, some of the most memorable plays, against the Jets. It just kind of seems to unfold that way."

Cruz's goals for this game will be far different from the last few times he's faced the Jets. He'll be working on refining his routes, polishing his timing with Manning, and will probably spend a good portion of the second half not catching passes but coaching up the younger receivers who will be in the game at the time.

In fact, given the 25-30 snap count that Tom Coughlin said he'll put on the starters, Cruz won't have enough time to score three touchdowns in this game.

"Probably not," he conceded. "But I'm gonna try."