Victor Cruz: Will He Push Eli Manning to Another Super Bowl?

If you're not in love with Eli Manning, it's totally understandable.

He's pouty, he doesn't comb his hair and—man, that voice of his. For a guy who plays in the city that never sleeps, every interview this guy ever did left me reaching for a pillow. The person running those four-hour staff meetings in your office is more charismatic.

Eli is a good quarterback. Someone smarter than I pointed out earlier this season that few quarterbacks are compared to the greatness of Peyton Manning, and arguably no one is held to that standard as cruelly as Eli is.

Perhaps more than in years past, the youngest Manning boy has shown this season that, as boring as he is off the field, he belongs in the conversation of the NFL's elite. 

And so it would seem that Eli From Accounting finally has some extra help, as most CPAs would get during this time of year. Nobody has helped the Giants' cause quite like Victor Cruz has.

It's hard to argue that anyone had a better second half of 2011 than Cruz, who possesses an ability to turn marginal profit into capital gains for his employer, something not unheard of for people living in the New York area.

Cruz not only adds versatility to the Giants' passing game, but he also provides stability. He can break away for long chunks of yardage or meet the ball downfield, and he can be counted on in doing so.

A very good NFL receiver would be happy with a season where he caught 54 balls for 1,039 yards. That yardage total alone would put him past Percy Harvin, DeSean Jackson, Anquan Boldin and Dez Bryant.

Cruz did that in the last eight weeks.

Only Calvin Johnson and Wes Welker amassed more yards from the air than Cruz.

Jason Pierre-Paul, drafted 15th overall in the same year that Cruz wasn't drafted at all, deserves his due. His explosive play on the defensive line and the media's general love of most things New York has highlighted another monster season.

But Pierre-Paul adorns a defense already laden with standout performers at defensive end. The team routinely collects such talent at that position that the day when the Giants start a defense with 11 defensive ends scattered across the field could be in the near future. But I digress.

As Cruz catches passes, he in turn will help complete the legacy of his quarterback. So often in the annals of league history are the legacies of quarterback and wide receiver linked. We could bring up Eli's brother Peyton and his seemingly kinetic bond with Marvin Harrison and stop there.

Matt Stafford has Calvin Johnson, and Tom Brady's indefatigable work ethic has its downfield mirror in Wes Welker. Even Drew Brees has taken a shine to tight end Jimmy Graham. Jordy Nelson, a guy who catches balls in an Aaron Rodgers offense where even the towel boy gets three receptions a game, managed to prove his value to his quarterback and score a huge payday.

Eli has had none of that since Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg. Instead, he watched Mario Manningham drop a game-winning touchdown against San Francisco. He watched most of his targets this season fall off the active roster.

Enter Cruz, who simply set the single-season team record for receiving yards and torched every single defensive backfield that opposed him.

Quarterbacks usually make headlines on their own with their love interests or their billboards or their transgressions with the law. Eli Manning has only done it with his play on the field.

He has produced, and with the Giants back in their year-end sprint for immortality, he'll be producing even more.

After the next downfield back-shoulder fade to No. 80, he'll give another horrible interview. Perhaps the rest of us will have the words for it.