Cooper

Rush

Rush and the Cowboys played the Bengals close throughout at home, eventually forcing a 17-17 tie in third quarter before taking a fourth quarter lead with a field goal. The Bengals would answer on the following possession to knot the game at 20 before both teams struggled to move the football for the remainder of the game. That is, until the Cowboys blocked a punt with under two minutes to play, only for a defender to touch the ball beyond the line of scrimmage and for the Bengals to recover, giving them a fresh set of downs they would eventually score on. Rush and the Cowboys took the football with just over a minute to play but a failed fourth down conversion sealed their fate. Dallas falls to 1-6 at home and 5-8 overall before a meeting with the surging Panthers at home in Week 15.

Rush was hurt by drops Thursday, with three coming from the normally reliable CeeDee Lamb. There were missed throws, however, and he remained slow to recognize open receivers. Good enough for a win, however; mainly because the Giants’ offense was anemic for three-plus quarters. Rush will be a low-end QB2 against the Bengals on Monday Night Football.

He got in a full practice on Wednesday and will be a low-end superflex QB2 against the Giants on Thursday. Rush has thrown for 247/2 and 354/1 in his last two starts and will get Brandin Cooks back for Thanksgiving. It’s not enough to make us actively recommend starting him, but “Giants at home” is a pretty enticing look.

Rush was listed as limited for the second straight day while managing a knee issue. It is likely a minor load management listing on a short week for Rush as the Cowboys play Thanksgiving day against the Giants. Trey Lance is currently the backup, though Rush should play barring setbacks. He is likely going to be missing a key blocker in OG Zack Martin (ankle/shoulder) who was listed as DNP for the second straight day.

This is likely a minor issue, as there were no reports of Rush suffering an injury after Sunday’s win over the Commanders. The veteran QB is coming off his best performance of the season and should be on track to start on Thanksgiving Day against the Giants. In the unlikely chance that he can’t go, it would be Trey Lance getting the nod as the Cowboys’ QB1. We’ll see how things progress over the next two days, but we’d expect Rush to make his fourth start of the season this week.

Rush picked up his first win of the season as the Cowboys’ starter in a wild road win in Washington. Rush didn’t turn the ball over in this one and kept the Cowboys’ offense on schedule for most of the afternoon. His 41-yard completion late in the first half helped setup a 46-yard field goal by Brandon Aubrey to tie the game at 3-3, but Rush would later find Jalen Tolbert for a six-yard touchdown in the third quarter and connected with Luke Schoonmaker on a 22-yard score in the fourth. Rush limited bad plays and bailed his center out of two high snaps that could’ve resulted in much worse than a loss of yards. The Cowboys will look to ride this momentum into Thanksgiving when they play host to Tommy DeVito and the Giants. Rush will have some value as a low-end QB2.

As Jones pointed out in his weekly interview, the most important thing is winning, not evaluating. Rush, who had one of the worst quarterback performances in modern NFL history in Week 10, threw for 354-1-1 in Week 11 on 55 pass attempts. There’s a strong push from fans and media for the Cowboys to start Lance, the former No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, but sitting at 3-7, the Cowboys are still focused on winning games. There’s a good chance we’ll see Lance at some point this season, but Dallas is clearly prepared to lean into Rush for at least one more week against the Commanders. We’ll see if Sunday’s performance changes any minds heading into Week 13.

But there will also be a package of plays for Trey Lance. Ultimately this may make neither player superflex viable if they are splitting into each other’s time. Only truly desperate times would call for starting either player against a Commanders defense that is on the upswing in Week 12.

McCarthy told reporters after the game that he should have allowed Lance to run the offense near the end of the blowout loss. “I could’ve gotten him a series. That’s one thing that I would second-guess myself on,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t want to get into putting him in for a play or two, because he’s more than a gadget player in my opinion. We had him prepared to take a series, and frankly there at the end I should’ve gave him that series, and I regret not doing that.” With the Dallas offense going nowhere under backup QB Cooper Rush, Lance could see opportunities down the stretch. The dual-threat Lance should be rostered in superflex formats just in case.

The yardage totals appear nice on the surface until you realize 64 of those yards came on a KaVontae Turpin slant that he housed by out-running a two-high alignment. Even so, the counting stats were a vast improvement from his performance a week ago. Rush targeted 12 different pass-catchers, with the team down yet another pass-catcher following the departure of tight end Jake Ferguson with a concussion after his only reception. The Cowboys clearly have some soul-searching to do with the season now lost, with the ever-present potential to start quarterback Trey Lance the rest of the season to see what they have in the enigmatic youngster. The Cowboys play on a short week against the Commanders in Week 12.