Cooper Rush lives out dream come true, leading Dallas Cowboys to victory vs. Vikings
The Dallas Cowboys played the long game Sunday night against Minnesota Vikings.
They risked short-term success to give them the best chance of making a push for the Super Bowl at the end of season.
That was the essence of the decision to sit quarterback Dak Prescott with a right calf strain — even though he showed no discernible limp and could run and throw without any limitation, and allow career backup Cooper Rush to make his first career start.
To be able to sample the best of both — a win for the team and an extra week of rest for Prescott — is sheer ecstasy and further proof that this team has the makings of something special and potentially Super Bowl.
Rush hit receiver Amari Cooper with a 5-yard touchdown pass with 55 seconds left to lift the Cowboys to an improbable 20-16 victory at U.S. Bank Stadium and extending their winning streak to six games.
After going down 16-13, Rush showed the experience of a veteran in directing the game-winning drive. He tossed a 33-yard pass to Amari Cooper, who made a juggling catch over two defenders, and then an 18-yard pass to Cooper to put them in range for a game-tying field goal.
Rush overcame a third-and-11 with a 15-yard pass to running back Ezekiel Elliott.
And then came the game-winner to Cooper, who was down on the Cowboys sideline with an apparent injury just a few plays earlier before finishing the game with eight catches for 122 yards and a touchdown.
It was a simply a dream come true for Rush, who completed 24 of 40 passes for 325 yards and two touchdowns in front of his parents, brothers and wife who brought their newborn on the plane so they could potentially witness his first start of his five-year NFL career.
“I had a sense it was coming all week,” said the the 27-year-old Rush. So my brothers flew in, my parents got here and my wife flew up with the baby. Got someone to watch the baby. Can’t way to see him.”
“You definitely dream about moments like this,” he said. “It’s just as good as the dream. It’s pretty awesome to be able to share that with everyone and win like that.”
At 6-1, the Cowboys remain in firm control in the NFC East, where the Philadelphia Eagles are currently in second place with a 3-5 mark. With a three-game lead in hand, the Cowboys knew they had the luxury of giving Prescott one more week of rest, thus preventing the calf strain from becoming a nagging injury that could threaten the team’s ultimate goals.
Prescott wanted to play against the Vikings but the Cowboys ruled against it.
“Can he play the game a certain way or can he play the game a hundred percent?” coach Mike McCarthy said. “We looked at all those things, and frankly at the end of the day I think this was a great opportunity for us as a football team to grow and win through another adverse moment.
“We didn’t have our leader, we didn’t have our starting quarterback out there, and we went out and won a tough game in a hostile environment on the road, so it was a great opportunity for us, and I definitely feel like we made the right decision.”
Prescott could be ready for next Sunday’s game at AT&T Stadium against the Denver Broncos (4-4), but the Cowboys now know they can win with Rush.
While they may have won the game, they Cowboys were not the same with Prescott. Coming into Sunday’s game the team was leading the NFL with a per game scoring average of 34.2 and yards 460. They had also scored 35 or more points in four straight games and posted 500 yards of offense in back-to-back games for just the second time in franchise history.
But thanks to a strong effort on defense, the Cowboys stayed within striking distance of the Vikings for much of the game, limiting Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins to 184 yards passing and explosive runner Dalvin Cook to 78 yards on the ground.
Rookie linebacker Micah Parsons led the way on defense with 11 tackles, including four tackles for loss. The Dallas defense held the Vikings to 1 of 13 on third downs (7.7%). That is tied for the sixth-lowest conversion rate by an opponent in team history. It is the lowest third-down conversion rate allowed since 2013.
Parsons said the defense knew it needed to step up with Prescott out.
“Oh, yeah, for sure. when you lose a guy like Dak it’s heart blowing,” Parsons said. “You know what Dak’s capable of on any given day. All week we said if we don’t got Dak we got to put it on us and we got to hold them. I think we did a great job holding them and limiting touchdowns. Our offense did the rest.”
Rush was average at best in the first half in what was his first start since a 55-10 loss to Tulsa in the 2016 Miami Beach Bowl during his final season at Central Michigan. Before halftime, he completed 10 of 17 passes for 110 yards with an interception. A second interception was reversed on replay because the nose of the ball made contact with the turf.
Rush certainly settled down in the second half. He opened the third quarter by tossing the first touchdown pass of his career, a 73-yard strike to Cedrick Wilson right down the middle of the field, allowing the Cowboys to tie the game at 10.
The Vikings retook the lead on a 40-yard field goal. The Cowboys answered right back late in the third quarter when a 35-yard completion on a backward pass to receiver Cedrick Wilson who tossed to a wide open CeeDee Lamb set up a 39-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein.
Unfortunately, the Cowboys defense nearly proved to be the team’s undoing.
Defensive end Tarell Basham was flagged for roughing the quarterback and defensive end Randy Gregory was flagged for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, the second of which gave the Vikings a first down at the 4 with 5:08 left. The Vikings only came away with a 24-yard field goal.
Credit the defense, and cue the late-game heroics.
“I was glad everybody got to see that,” McCarthy said. “That is Cooper Rush. That is a strength of him. He plays the quarterback position like a seasoned veteran. That is the man I get to see every day. Very steady. Very intelligent. That reflected in the way he played tonight. He was ready to go.”
And on the scoring play on the game’s final drive, Rush said he had no doubt about where he was going with the football. He called the play specifically for Cooper. “We knew we had a good matchup and Coop did the rest,” Rush said.
And then he ran off field and got a big bear hug from Prescott in the tunnel on his way to the locker room.
The Cowboys won the battle and have set themselves up to win the war with a starter and a back up they believe in.
“I felt like I belonged out there,” Rush said. “It didn’t feel overwhelming.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2021 at 10:37 PM.
