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By Jon Machota
5h ago
Mike McCarthy can’t remember the exact play, but there was a moment in the second half of last season’s Week 8 win at Minnesota when he could see that Cooper Rush’s confidence went to another level.
“He made a couple of plays,” the Cowboys head coach recalled Wednesday. “He got going and then we went down and scored and won the game. He was a different player when he got on the plane that night.”
That was Rush’s first win in his first start, filling in for an injured Dak Prescott. His next start wouldn’t come until two weeks ago against the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. His third was Monday night at the New York Giants. All three resulted in Cowboys wins. All three saw Rush lead game-winning drives.
Virgil Carter, in 1968 with the Chicago Bears, is the only other quarterback in NFL history with a game-winning drive in each of his first three starts.
The Cowboys didn’t win all three because Rush put up huge passing numbers. But in all three, he outperformed the opposing quarterbacks. It’s an impressive accomplishment considering that Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow was the first overall pick in 2020, New York’s Daniel Jones was the sixth overall pick in 2019, and Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins, who has made three Pro Bowls, was a fourth-round pick in 2012.
Rush was undrafted coming out of Central Michigan in 2017. He’s a career backup who attempted only three passes before last season. He wasn’t even on the Cowboys’ final 53-man roster earlier this month. Now, that’s because Rush is a veteran who couldn’t simply be claimed by another team. He had a say in the matter and wanted to stay in Dallas and remain Prescott’s backup. But after these past two games, it’s highly unlikely Rush will find himself in that same situation in the future.
So, how has he been getting the job done?
His impressive understanding of offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s scheme is a good place to start. Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said last week that after studying Rush, he saw a player who will “have a long career as a quarterback, and then he’ll be one of those cats that becomes an offensive coordinator, head coach by 38 or 39.” That sounds a lot like what many said about Moore before he became the Cowboys’ OC at 31.
“He does a really good job of playing the game,” Moore said, “playing each situation, handling the highs and lows, he does a tremendous job of that throughout the games. You can just see the confidence. I think any time you see a QB take his drop, hit his back foot, see it, trust it and let it rip, that’s confidence right there. You’re seeing a lot of that in Coop right now.”
The most impressive aspect has been how Rush has played in big moments. In the fourth quarters of his three starts, Rush has completed 23 of 34 passes for 249 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a 108.6 passer rating.
During the game-winning drive last year against the Vikings, Rush was 6 of 8 passing for 75 yards, including the back-of-the-end zone throw to Amari Cooper with less than a minute to play. Rush was then 3 for 3 passing for 30 yards as he helped set up Brett Maher’s 50-yard game-winning field goal over the Bengals.
On Monday night against the Giants, Rush seemed to be at his best after New York took a 13-6 lead. Dallas’ next three drives resulted in two touchdowns and a field goal. On those three possessions, Rush was 12 of 14 for 129 yards, a touchdown and a 128.9 passer rating.
“We talk about his intelligence, he is very, very high in instinct and awareness,” McCarthy said. “He anticipates things very well. His ability to throw it early, get the ball out and anticipate. I think you see him have more and more confidence with every opportunity he has. He is just playing to his strengths.”
Two of Rush’s greatest strengths have been not turning the ball over and getting rid of the ball quickly. One helps an offensive line group that has had several moving pieces. Rush was not sacked once Monday night. The other helps one of the league’s top defensive units hold three opponents to a total of only three touchdowns.
According to Pro Football Focus, Rush has recorded an average time to throw of 2.36 seconds on his dropbacks. That ranks second among starting quarterbacks to only seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady (2.22).
“The game mentally comes easily to Cooper,” McCarthy said. “He’s got experience. He’s been around for quite some time. He’s been in and out of a couple of systems, so that’s very helpful. He has total command of the language. That’s important.
“He knows the ins and outs, knows his teammates very well. That’s a huge part of being a successful No. 2 quarterback, because you don’t get those reps that the No. 1 gets, particularly through training camp and with the schedule that we’re on. I just think he’s really dialed in.”
Cooper Rush is 3-0 as a starter while stepping in for Dak Prescott. (Robert Deutsch / USA Today)
In the last two weeks, Rush’s 40 completions have gone to a variety of pass catchers, including CeeDee Lamb 15, Noah Brown 10, Tony Pollard 4, Peyton Hendershot 3, Ezekiel Elliott 2, Jake Ferguson 2, Dalton Schultz 2, Simi Fehoko 1, Jalen Tolbert 1.
And there’s a good chance he’ll get starting wide receiver Michael Gallup and starting tight end Schultz back from knee injuries this week. Both were game-time decisions Monday night.
Rush became the third quarterback in Cowboys history to win his first three starts, joining the legendary Roger Staubach (1969-1970) and former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett (1993-1998). He’s also the first undrafted quarterback to win each of his first three starts and throw for 750-plus yards over those games since Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner did so in 1999 with the St. Louis Rams.
Prescott is progressing well from fracturing his right thumb in the season opener, but it appears Rush will get at least one more start and possibly more. Right now, Week 6 at Philadelphia seems like the most likely return date for Prescott.
The Cowboys are a 3-point favorite, according to BetMGM, in Sunday’s game against the 1-2 Washington Commanders. If Rush can lead Dallas to another victory, he would become the first Cowboys quarterback, and 27th in NFL history, to win his first four starts. If he can get the best of the last three QBs, there’s no reason to think he can’t do the same this week against Carson Wentz, who is starting for his third different team in the last three seasons.
“He’s certainly playing as well as anybody could have expected,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said of Rush on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “There’s no question he understands this offense. He has got the makeup for a top quarterback, and I underline the word ‘makeup’ for a top quarterback. We’re very fortunate. The purpose of the backup quarterback in the NFL is to be able to step in and have your team function on all the cylinders without having to give up some of your offense that the starter usually takes with him when he leaves.
“In this particular case, you got somebody that knows this thing inside and out and he knows how to execute it, and we’re seeing that he will do that under pressure. He’ll do that when the chips are down. He’ll do that when the play isn’t exactly happening the way it’s designed to be.
“I think we’ve got a good one in Cooper.”
