Victor Cruz must focus on catching before running

Victor Cruz wants to make a big play every time he touches the football. That, it turns out, was one of the reasons he didn't.

The Giants' receiver who dropped three passes while catching six in last week's 24-17 loss to the Cowboys said there is a delicate balance between that instinct to try to force success and knowing that it cannot be forced.

"That's tough," he said Wednesday after practice. "You just have to, as much as you can, keep telling yourself to be patient, be patient, don't try to get overzealous and try to make the big play on every catch. Just try to stay calm and work through your techniques and the things you've learned and take it from there."

Cruz will take that attempt at patience into Sunday's game against the Buccaneers, but he'll be struggling against some other forces that continue to pull at him.

The first is the loss of his grandmother, Lucy Molina, who died Monday at age 77. She was the one who taught Cruz to salsa dance, and he has punctuated each of his 10 NFL touchdowns with those moves as a tribute to her.

"She meant the world to me," Cruz said of the woman who, he noted, raised him along with his mother. He would like nothing more than to be able to remember her on Sunday with a touchdown salsa, although it might come with a heavy heart and not the usual Cruz grin.

"Obviously, she's going to be on my mind," he said, "so it's going to be emotional for me."

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The second force is knowing that Hakeem Nicks is not playing at full speed. Cruz's wingman at receiver admitted he was not "himself" against the Cowboys, when he was limited to two receptions. Nicks missed yesterday's practice as he manages his return from offseason surgery on a broken bone in his foot. He said he expects to practice and play the rest of the week, but he almost certainly will not be at his usual level.

That leaves the big-play burden to Cruz.

"With Hakeem not at full go and him still getting his range back with his foot, a lot of it is on me to make plays," Cruz said. "I just have to make sure I'm catching the football and moving the chains for my team. That's what it's all about. That's what I came here to do. That's what my team needs me to do. I understand that.''

Tom Coughlin noted that Cruz had lapses in concentration in the past. Wednesday he reiterated the checklist for catching passes cleanly.

"Focus, concentration," Coughlin said. "Can't go anywhere without the ball. Come back to the ball. See the point. Catch the fat part. Put it away. Cover it up. Make the most direct course up the field and gain extra yardage, run after the catch."

Cruz knows those keys. It's just a matter of putting them to use.

"At certain times throughout the game I just get overly excited about making a play and I forget to do the little things," he admitted. "I forget to catch the ball first before I run. I forget to have sharp breaks out of my routes."

Cruz noted with some pride that he caught every pass thrown at him Wednesday. Now he just has to carry it over to the game.

"It's Game 1," he said of his subpar performance against the Cowboys. "It's not the Super Bowl, it's not a playoff game. It's Game 1. We want to be able to go out there and, me personally, just put together a good performance, catch everything that comes my way, and help my team essentially win the football game."