Super Bowl XLVI – Tuesday, January 31, 2012(on what makes Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz so special and how Eli Manning helps) “Victor deserves more credit than anybody else because he has worked hard to get himself in this position. I’ve said this lot of times since Eli [Manning] has been with us, one of the most attractive things that we like about him was making players around him better since his days at Ole Miss. That’s definitely the case here with Victor Cruz. Eli coaches him up about his routes, the head fakes and those kinds of things. He has a little natural instinct at the top of his routes to get open on the option routes we have in this offense. I think it is a combination of a lot of things. Victor has worked hard to put himself in this position and his position coach helped him. The quarterback has also helped him. He has exceeded all of our expectations, without a doubt.”
(on Manning and Cruz being on the same page) “They work hard at practice. You win games during the week, not really on Sunday. The preparation during the week is what gets you the wins on Sunday.”
(on having linebacker Chase Blackburn back) “Chase came back and he knows the defense. He came in and calmed things down. We had some young players in there. We were fortunate enough to get Chase back. He has done a really good job for us.”
(on scouting players) “We never stop that. I just got back from the Senior Bowl myself and was down there for a couple days. I was also at the East-West game for a couple of days. Our scouts are actually looking at film right now at the hotel. That process never stops.”
(on potential offseason moves) “It’s not even appropriate to talk about right now. We are trying to win a Super Bowl. We will cross that bridge when it’s time. We are trying to win a Super Bowl.”
(on other organizations that have a power structure from the coach up) “We have always been a traditional organization where you have a general manager and a head coach. You have slots and that hierarchy. It has always been that way with the Giants. I think that if you always have a head coach that has all the power and makes all of the decisions, it could be tough on him. That’s a lot for a head coach to manage that and all of the personnel decisions, salary cap and things like that. That’s a huge project for one guy to do.”
(on why there is no celebrity general managers in the NFL) “It’s a working job. It’s not a job where you get to work at 10 a.m., leave at 3 p.m. and go play golf. It’s a working job, for me it is anyway. You have to come to work and roll your sleeves up because there are a lot of players that you have to deal with, a lot of contracts and a lot of personalities.”
(on if he saw a run like this coming following the Giants’ Week 1 loss to the Washington Redskins) “There are always peaks and valleys in the season. Coach [Tom] Coughlin and I meet on Mondays and talk about everything. We talk out loud. Nobody’s feelings get hurt. We talk about the good, talk about the bad, talk about how we can improve and talk about the next game. We just kept talking about playing a good game. The offense would play good one week and then the defense would play good. The special teams would do something nice too, but we never put it all together. Finally, the last quarter of the season, we started on playing some great games and I thought we could play some better games. In the last few weeks, we’ve been playing good and that’s our goal. We’ve got into a rhythm and we’re still playing.”
(on how much wide receiver Victor Cruz has surprised him this season) “We had Victor Cruz ranked just like everyone else. We had him ranked as a free agent, and he was a free agent. He has surpassed all of our expectations with respect to what he has done. That happens. In scouting, it’s not a perfect science. I don’t even know if it is a science at all. It’s not a crapshoot. Every now and then, you get lucky with guys like that. Tom Brady was picked in the sixth round. With scouting, you want to get more right than you get wrong. You aren’t getting them all right. You would like to bat 1.000 on that, but it’s not going to happen. Our goal is to get more right than we get wrong. We got lucky with Victor and I’m happy for him.”
(on if he ever thought he would see Eli Manning playing at this level) “Eli has been playing at a high level for a long time. It really confuses me when people say he hasn’t played at a high level. Who are you guys looking at? He has been playing at a high level for me for a long time. At the beginning of the season, I said that Eli was in the ‘wheelhouse’ of his career.’ He is one of those guys that can self-correct. Last year, he was trying to do so much and we talked about it. A sack is a good place sometimes. Last year, our offensive line was banged up, our receivers were banged up. It was similar to where it’s been this past season. He corrected those things and is taking more sacks. Last year, he was trying to get rid of the ball and put it in harm’s way a little too much. He knew that. He corrected that stuff. Eli has been playing at a high level for a long time.”
(on the scouts) “Our scouts are really the unsung heroes of this whole process. They are the lifeline. They go out for 185-200 days a year on the road, scouting. They unearth these players and bring them to our attention. We have a chance to look at these guys too. It’s all about us. The winning is about us as an organization. Our scouts and our players do a tremendous job. Our coaches do a tremendous job. I’m just happy for the organization as a whole. It’s really the owners. During the lockout, nobody from the New York Giants was laid off. That in itself speaks for the New York Giants organization and how the owners care about the employees. It’s a great place to be.”
(on his rookies from the 2007 class) “Injuries happen and it’s just part of what we do. It’s not frustrating, it just happens. It is a physical, tough game. You just try to create enough depth on your roster to get through the injuries. You hopefully have enough depth on the roster where you eventually get some guys back. Everybody gets paid on the roster. We try to pride ourselves on the next guys on. Our coaches pride themselves on getting them ready. You only have 53-players so it’s hard to create a lot of depth for a 16-game season but we pride ourselves to get us through those injuries.”
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