Replacing Victor Cruz Will Define New York Giants' Season

The New York Giants lost much more than just a football game last week. In addition to being throttled 27-0 by the Philadelphia Eagles, the Giants lost arguably their best player on the offensive side of the ball.

Simply put, the torn patellar tendon suffered by wide receiver Victor Cruz was a hammerblow to the Giants' already shaky playoff aspirations, and how the team will replace Cruz has now become the single largest question looming over the G-Men.

As New York head coach Tom Coughlin told The Associated Press (via Fox Sports), it's not a question with an easy answer given Cruz's importance to the team:

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Certainly there was a lot of pain and he is going to have to go through a lot to get back to where he was. He has been challenged his whole life and I don't see him backing down from any challenge whatsoever. He is an outstanding contributor to our team in a lot of ways, one of which was on the field and the other was what he meant in the locker room. We will miss all those things.

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If anything, Coughlin is likely understating the problem.

With the departure of Hakeem Nicks in free agency, Cruz became the leader of a young and mostly untested receiving corps. He was certainly their most proven receiver, pacing the team in receiving yards each of the past three seasons.

Cruz had gotten off to a slow start in 2014, but his play had picked up of late. It wasn't a coincidence that that rebound coincided with the Giants' three-game winning streak.

Now the streak is over, Cruz is done for the year and quarterback Eli Manning admitted to the team's website (via Larry Hartstein of CBS Sports) that the Giants aren't exactly sure what comes next:

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What are going to be our best formations? What are going to be our best ways of putting people in position to do what they do best that will help out the team? We have to be smart and creative with that and make sure guys, when they are on the field, are going to be able to play fast and know exactly what they are doing.

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Coughlin echoed a similar refrain while speaking with Michael Eisen of the Giants' website:

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We have people that are going to get their chances, their opportunities. We still have an outstanding receiving group on the field and we’ll have to do a really good job of picking our spots, putting people in the right spots, doing things that they can contribute the best.

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According to Mark Cannizzaro of The New York Post, it's much more than just the old cliche of "next man up" for the Giants. If the team is going to keep their 2014 season from going down the drain, it's going to need to be next men up:

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It is going to take a lot more than (Kevin) Ogletree, a lot more than Rueben Randle and rookie Odell Beckham Jr. raising their games, a lot more than Preston Parker or preseason touchdown-maker Corey Washington making contributions.

It is going to take a village of all of them, of the entire roster — receivers and non-receivers alike — to replace the heartbeat Cruz brought to the Giants, who will be trying to replace a lot more than the 23 catches that Cruz left behind in that end zone at Lincoln Financial Field.

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Cannizzaro hit the nail right on the head. The Giants have talent on the roster at wide receiver, but there isn't that single wideout one can point to and say "that's the guy who can fill the void."

Rueben Randle, who will become the de facto No. 1 receiver with Cruz out, has shown flashes over his two-plus years in the NFL, but Randle has also struggled with everything from drops to route running.

Manning told Jordan Raanan of NJ.com that he's seen improvement from Randle in Year 3:

For his part, Randle told Tom Rock of Newsday he doesn't plan to change anything, although Randle admits that the pressure on him has ratcheted up several notches.

"I just have to continue to be the person that I am. Obviously there is more expected of me, but I don't think I have to change who I am. I just go out there and lead by example pretty much."

The pressure's much greater on rookie Odell Beckham as well. The Giants' first-round pick in last May's draft told Cannizzaro that he's fully aware he needs to step up his game:

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In general, we all have to step up and play better. As hard as it is you just have to try and move on. It sounds bad, but it’s always the next-guy-up mentality, so we all have to step up. Now, us as receivers have to step up and really make him proud, and try to fill his role.

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Beckham opened eyes with four catches and a score in his NFL debut two weeks ago. But a hamstring injury cost the former LSU star most of camp and the first month of the regular season. The youngster is learning on the fly, and the course curriculum just got advanced.

Preston Parker has demonstrated explosiveness, but also an alarming problem hanging onto the football, both before and after the catch. Kevin Ogletree had a few moments with the Dallas Cowboys, but he is going to need time to learn the Giants' offense.

Time the Giants don't have.

Then there's tight end Larry Donnell. The third-year pro came out of the gates white-hot, hauling in 25 grabs over the season's first month. Over the last two games, however, he has managed only a single catch, and Donnell confessed to Matt Lombardo of NJ.com that needs to change:

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Replacing number 80, there's no replacing him. But we have some young guys here with some talent and it's a big step in our game as well this week, trying to help [quarterback] Eli [Manning] and do some of the things that Victor did.

[Cruz] is a big contributor to this offense but we have some other great players here and we're going to try and step in to do some of the things that he did and try to build on it.

Whatever role is thrown at me, I'm going to do everything I can to do my best and it's just not me. It's Rueben, Odell, it's going to be a team effort. Victor was a major part and took a lot of attention away from everyone. Me, I feel very confident.

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It isn't just the pass-catchers either. Running backs Andre Williams and Rashad Jennings (currently out with a knee injury of his own) need to step it up and take pressure off the passing game. Manning has to clean up his game as well, as there's no room for the turnovers and ill-conceived throws that often go part and parcel with a struggling Giants team.

There's just no margin for error right now. Sunday the Giants face a Cowboys team that New York already trails by two games in the division. Lose, and the G-Men are three back of the Eagles and Cowboys in the loss column, with head-to-head losses to both teams.

In other words, their already fading hopes for a division title would be kaput, and in a deep NFC, their chances of going to the playoffs at all would be about the same as the odds that the next presidential debate features civility and 100 percent accurate statements from the candidates.

Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News thinks Big Blue has a chance to hold things together, that the team can use Cruz's injury as a rallying cry of sorts:

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That may turn out to be the Giants’ rallying cry — at least this Sunday in Dallas, if not for the rest of the season. As the Giants try to forget the horrible screams of pain they heard from Cruz on Sunday night in Philadelphia, and realize that he is indeed gone for the season with a torn patellar tendon, there are only two ways they can go. They can be devastated by the loss, or inspired by his absence. They’re trying hard to go the inspiration route.

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Of course, that's the sort of thing that's easier said than done. If the Giants really are going to "win one for Victor," then the mistakes have to stop. No more dropped passes. No more bad throws. No more blown assignments.

And that's going to be a tall order for a Giants team that's been done in by their own errors more often than not over the last few years.

Gary Davenport is an NFL Analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPManor.