DETROIT — It will be better than this.

“It has to be,” Victor Cruz said. “We won’t allow anything else.”

It will be more fun than this, more exhilarating, more like … well, more like it used to be, in the not-too-distant past, when Cruz and Eli Manning were operating with the same brain, Cruz’s legs and Eli’s arms acting almost as a 12th separate offensive weapon, the results of which were beautiful to behold.

“Our guys understand that this is just one game,” Cruz said. “It’s too early to draw any conclusions. We saw the things we did, good and bad, and we know what we have to work on.”

It will be brighter than this because it has to be, because the wrong side of the hyphen in a 35-14 drubbing is the wrong place to be, especially when Cruz’s production wasn’t anywhere near what the Giants expect, or what he expects from himself.

Cruz caught only two balls (with two others he normally catches, and didn’t) for only 24 yards, and on the second of Manning’s two interceptions, a roll-out off his back foot that sailed on him, Cruz was upset at himself for not doing more to prevent the turnover.

“I saw Eli scrambling in the area and I didn’t realize how close the defender was,” Cruz admitted. “I should’ve made more of a play on it.”

Manning, for his part, was blunt about one of the things he needs to work on before the Giants next take the field Sunday in the MetLife Stadium opener against Arizona.

“I’ve got to do a better job,” the quarterback said, “of getting Victor the ball.”

Cruz believes that will happen. He believes it is a matter of time before the skill players click under Ben McAdoo’s new system, that it is only a matter of time before the offense emerges from what has been an unwatchable funk all summer.

“It’ll improve, it’ll improve,” he said, before laughing. “Don’t put that voodoo on us just yet.”