FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys, 3-7 and losers of five in a row, are sticking with the status quo at quarterback with Dak Prescott sidelined after undergoing surgery on his hamstring.
Head coach Mike McCarthy named eight-year veteran backup Cooper Rush the Cowboys’ starting quarterback in Week 12 when they visit former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and his 7-4 Washington Commanders.
“Cooper Rush will be the starter, and we’re putting together a game plan to go win,” McCarthy said on Monday.
After winning five of Rush’s first six starts across the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Dallas has lost both of his starts in 2024 the last two weeks by a combined score of 68-16. That includes a 34-6 Week 10 home loss against the Philadelphia Eagles and Monday night’s 34-10 defeat against the Houston Texans in Week 11. In his first start against the Eagles this year, Rush became only the third player in the last 20 years with over 20 pass attempts (23) and under 50 passing yards in a game (45), per CBS Sports Research. On Monday, Rush’s counting stats were better: He threw for 354 yards (a career high), a touchdown (a 64-yard catch-and-run touchdown to KaVontae Turpin on a slant) and an interception on 32 of 55 passing.
However, Rush and CeeDee Lamb are still struggling to get on the same page. Lamb has caught 14 of his 22 targets (63.6%) from Rush for 114 yards.
“Missed two passes I want to say as far as behind [tonight], but the rest were pretty good,” Lamb said of Rush after the game. “I feel like he’s going to be better as the season goes and progresses. You could tell that he’s gotten better from week one to week two for him as far as starting. So the confidence is there for him, happy for him. Obviously, we’re moving the ball, but at the end of the day, we still got to score. We still got to win the game. … We [the Cowboys as a whole] haven’t been putting our pieces together. We don’t really have it figured out right now, and that sucks.”
Despite starting Rush in Week 11, McCarthy regretted not getting Trey Lance, the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft whom Dallas traded a fourth-round pick to acquire, into the game earlier. The Cowboys elaborated on their plan for Lance Tuesday afternoon, and they are working on finding a better game flow balance to insert him into game action going forward.
“We got a package for Trey, and we’ll see what happens,” McCarthy said.
“We had some things ready for him [Lance],” Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said Tuesday. “If you look back on the game, we had a lot of young guys playing. Trey, if he gets in there, he’s going to go in there and perform, so yeah, you’d love to get him some reps. The guy is getting better. He’s getting reps, he’s getting better.
“The cool thing is we’ve been able to add each week to the package, and there’s things that he’s comfortable with. Hopefully we can get it on display this week.”
At the end of the day, Dallas’ coaching staff and front office currently believe Rush gives them the best chance to win.
“It’s always winning,” Schottenheimer said. … “Every decision we make should be about winning. Again, I thought Coop did a really good job yesterday in a lot of areas. We certainly did not see the game unfolding where where we would have to throw it that many times. It was obviously a reaction to the way the game ended up getting away from us in the fourth quarter.”
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones is in lockstep with McCarthy and his coaching staff about their decision to stick with Rush going forward at this point in 2024.
“I think our best chance is to have Rush in here, and the goal is to win the game.”