Victor Cruz

Between the two victories—both comeback wins for the Giants—Victor Cruz has accounted for nine catches for 208 yards and two touchdowns.

But Cruz is merely progressing, and at a “very slow” pace, according to offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride.

“He’s getting better and improving a little bit each week,” he said. “You guys [reporters] go from somebody can’t do something to all of a sudden he’s a superstar. I see very slow, steady improvement, which is great. That’s what we’re hoping for.”

But Gilbride could not deny that the Giants chose to use Cruz in Mario Manningham’s starting outside receiver spot for much of the second half of Sunday’s victory.

“[It was] just really seeing some things that we wanted to see Victor do, that we thought Victor would do more effectively,” he said. “We’ll always do that. We’ll move people around. We’ll play Manningham in a certain spot. We’ll put in Victor at certain spots. We’ll have Hakeem do different things.

“It’s really just taking advantage of the ability level of that guy for that particular play.”

Gilbride said earlier in the week that Manningham was still the starter, so it appears that he wants to take it slow with Cruz. We still have faith in Manningham, but that faith is fading a bit.