Cooper Rush on NFL debut: Starters dominated to give me a chance

Cooper Rush learned of his promotion to backup quarterback during the bye week.

What he didn’t learn, however, was that he would make his NFL debut Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers. The rookie soaked it all in late in the fourth quarter when the Cowboys rested their stars with the game in hand.

Rush quarterbacked the Cowboys’ final two drives of a 40-10 victory.

“It felt great. The guys did a great job of dominating and letting me get a chance,” Rush said. “It was real fun out there and got to just kind of control the four-minute situation.”

Rush went into the game with 6:14 left and didn’t disappoint. On his third play, Rush kept it on a zone-read and gained 15 yards on the ground for a first down.

“Got a good look and I was enjoying running it,” Rush said.

Three plays later, Rush completed his first career pass — a 2-yarder to fellow rookie Ryan Switzer. He doesn’t know if he’ll get the ball from that play.

“Easy first completion,” Rush said. “I was hoping he’d split up for six, but …”

Rush had an incompletion on his second pass attempt on a fourth-down play. He closed out the game on the final drive when the Cowboys got a first down and burned out the clock.

It capped what’s been a remarkable journey so far for Rush.

He signed with the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent out of Central Michigan, earning a spot on the 53-man roster after an impressive training camp and preseason.

Rush completed 38 of 51 passes for 398 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions in the preseason. He had a 135.9 passer rating, the best of any quarterback in the preseason.

But the Cowboys opted to go with a more experienced option, Kellen Moore, as Dak Prescott’s primary backup for the first five games. Rush continued to improve in practice and surpassed Moore on the depth chart.　

“They told me before the bye week, told me I’d be up,” Rush said. “I just kept preparing like I have been and got fortunate enough to get in there.”

Rush said he’s made the most strides since the preseason in his ability to understand NFL defenses and what they’re trying to do in certain situations.

Coach Jason Garrett talked about the decision to promote Rush after the game.

“Cooper did a really nice job in the preseason and throughout training camp. We wanted to move him to this point,” Garrett said. “We gave him some extra snaps during the bye week and gave him this opportunity.　

“I thought he handled himself well in the ballgame — had good command of what we’re asking him to do and I thought he had poise and composure handling those drives at the end of the ballgame.”

This story was originally published October 22, 2017 at 9:23 PM with the headline "Cooper Rush on NFL debut: Starters dominated to give me a chance."