Breaking Down Victor Cruz's 80-Yard Touchdown Throughout the season, I'll break down a big play from each week. In the Giants' 41-34 win over Tampa Bay on Sunday, there was no play more vital than Eli Manning's 80-yard touchdown strike to Victor Cruz. Let's take a look. Down by 27-19 with 6:59 left, the Giants faced a third-and-2 at their 20-yard line. They lined up in a shotgun spread formation with "11" personnel: one running back and one tight end. Tight end Martellus Bennett was lined up in the slot to the boundary and Victor Cruz was in the slot to the wide side of the field. Before the snap, the Bucs showed a blitz despite their two-high-safety look. As Eli Manning progressed through his snap count, the Bucs' linebackers continued to creep toward the line, as did safety Ronde Barber. Let's take a step back and examine Manning's cadence. I think it's essential to understanding what happened. Before the snap, you could catch Manning's verbiage on the television broadcast: "Red 19, Red 19, set hut. 59's the Mike, 59's the Mike. Bingo. Omaha, Omaha, set hut. When the Giants run a play with a traditional snap count, they snap the ball after Manning's first "set hut." If Manning had called the play and then uttered "on one" in the huddle, the ball would have been snapped following the first "set hut." On this particular play, however, Manning issued an "Omaha" call. "Omaha" isn't any sort of audible, but rather a snap count indicator. Like an indicator used by third-base coaches in baseball, Manning's "Omaha" indicator alerts the offense that the snap count is now "live." When Manning called "Omaha" in the huddle, it told the offensive players that anything he says before "Omaha" is meaningless. Thus, the "Red 19, Red 19, set hut" that Manning yelled meant nothing to the Giants on this play. So why use it? Because by running through a fake snap count, Manning can get the defense to show their intentions. They don't know the initial cadence is a "dummy" one (because the Giants don't use an "Omaha" call on every play), and thus they often show what they're planning to do. Had Manning not issued an "Omaha" call on this critical play, he may not have noticed the Bucs' blitz. They initially showed a Cover 2 shell, but they were really in man coverage. The Bucs rushed six defenders, leaving five in coverage - four underneath defenders in man coverage and a single-high safety deep. The Giants picked up the blitz well, allowing Manning to step up in the pocket. Manning immediately looked to the Giants' primary advantage on the play: Cruz matched up on safety Ronde Barber. When the Bucs slot cornerback who was lined up over Cruz blitzed Manning after the snap, Manning knew he'd have Cruz working on Barber. From Manning's point of view, you can see just how open the deep right half of the field appeared. The single-high safety was inexplicably shading the boundary, leaving Barber in true man coverage on Cruz. With no defenders in his face, Manning's decision to step up and look to Cruz was a no-brainer. Knowing the Giants needed only two yards for a first down and thinking he may have some help over the top, Barber squatted on Cruz's route. You can see him sitting flat-footed as Cruz ran around him. I'm not sure if Cruz was supposed to run a wheel route on this play or if he had a seam route called, but he took it outside when he noticed the position of the single-high safety, but either way he gave Manning a whole lot of green to make the throw. Manning said of Cruz, via the Giants' Web site: "It was a great decision by him. We had been running a similar play all day and we said on the sidelines that next time they did that you could run right by the guy and get to the sideline, and that's exactly what he did. He saw the safety coming down to guard him and he ran right by him, widened, and outran everybody.  Cruz made an easy catch down the sideline and took it in for the game-changing score. Just how big a play was this? According to Advanced NFL Stats' win probability chart, the Giants' chances of winning increased by 400 percent. Facing two home losses to open their season, the Giants rallied behind Manning to get right back in the thick of things in what may be the N.F.L.'s most competitive division. Jonathan Bales is the author of Fantasy Football for Smart People: How to Dominate Your Draft. He also runs the "Running the Numbers" blog at DallasCowboys.com and writes for Pro Football Focus, FF Today and RotoWire. You can follow him on Twitter @TheCowboysTimes.