Giants Daily Blitz Blog

Cruz uses rear-view mirror on long TD

Justin Tuck’s grille received a lot of attention this year. But what about Victor Cruz’s rear-view mirror?

The wide receiver’s accessory takes up more space — 3,540 square feet to be exact – and there are four just like it at his disposal.

Perched in each corner inside MetLife Stadium is a 30-by-118 video board, showing what you’d normally expect to see at a professional sporting event. But during live action, there is a feed of the game playing on the massive screens. That comes in handy when you’re a player who has now broken five touchdowns of 65 yards or more in that stadium.

Cruz, just like he did on his 99-yard touchdown against the Jets last season, used the big boards again to his advantage on Sunday when he broke a 77-yard score late in the game to put the Giants ahead of the Redskins. Without having to physically turn his head, he was able to look at the board and survey the field for any objects closing in on him.

“In college I didn’t have a jumbotron like that,” Cruz, a UMass product, said Monday. “Now that I do, I use it because when you’re looking back, it slows you down. So if you can look up and you can kind of see how far the guy is behind you, it’s easier that way.”

Cruz was using the generic term, but the video displays were actually manufactured by Daktronics and placed inside the stadium before it opened in 2010.

That was the same season Cruz signed with the Giants as an undrafted rookie. And since then, he also used the boards against Seattle, when he posted a 68-yard touchdown, and Dallas, for a 74-yarder, during the 2011 campaign.