Rush of confidence
Backup QB supplies Dallas with momentum for November
DALLAS — There was just something about that final winning pass, the one that silenced those Viking horns once and for all late Sunday night, the manner in which the poised quarterback leaned back and made a no-body throw, just a flick of the wrist really to loft the ball into Amari Cooper’s arms for the final points Sunday night …
Yes, I’ll just go ahead and say it. Watch it over and over, and Cooper Rush looks like Aaron Rodgers on that play.
Hey, I’ve said sillier things. I said the Vikings were better than their record. I said Kirk Cousins gave Minnesota a real chance to end Dallas’ winning streak. I occasionally forget that, among passers with decent numbers, no one can make a difficult situation look impossible quite like Cousins (unless you count Carson Wentz as having decent numbers).
As we look at the Cowboys going forward, we know now that they can go on the road, lose the turnover battle, lose the penalty battle, lose Dak Prescott (although it certainly seems that decision was made days ahead of time) and still defeat a .500 team. That’s what Cooper Rush gave Dallas with
his 325-yard debut, with his heavy reliance on Cooper and Ceedee Lamb doing the damage to keep the Cowboys in the hunt for the best record in the NFC.
There’s no reason not to mention that hunt, even with 10 regular season games tro go. The only team among the NFC’S Power Five that had a more impressive weekend than the Cowboys was Green Bay. Dallas won without its quarterback. The Packers won without everything else, and they did it against what had been the league’s last undefeated team.
It’s entirely possible Rush will never again earn a onegame or even one-pass comparison to Rodgers. Rush probably has no insurance commercials in his future. But there’s an enormous importance in believing that your team can win a game or two if needed without its quarterback, even when that quarterback is one of the best in the league. I saw it up close when the Cowboys
were winning Super Bowls.
In the days just before free agency, the Cowboys had supreme belief in Steve Beuerlein as Troy Aikman’s backup. They had seen Beuerlein drive the team to five straight wins to reach the playoffs in 1991, even guide them to a postseason win in Chicago. While he didn’t have to play important moments in 1992, I can assure you that confidence in Beuerlein remained an important component in that team’s supreme selfbelief as it won its first Super Bowl of the ’90s.
A year later with Beuerlein having cashed in on free agency millions with the Phoenix Cardinals, the confidence in Hugh Millen was not there. Just FYI, young backup Jason Garrett had not yet delivered his Thanksgiving heroics against Green Bay, those would come in 1994.
But when Cleveland released Bernie Kosar in November, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones stepped to the plate and paid $1 million to secure that veteran backup. Kosar came up big in December and even filled in during the NFC Championship following Aikman’s concussion.
So while the Cowboys did not retain veteran Andy Dalton after last season, it can safely be said this team has as much belief in Rush as it would have in a vastly more experienced backup. That’s an intangible benefit that comes directly from the club’s sixth win in a row.
While Rush and Cooper and Lamb and Randy Gregory and the defensive front deserve all the credit they have received for Sunday’s 20-16 victory, it should be mentioned that it does not happen, or at least happens differently in overtime, without Ezekiel Elliott. His third-and-11 check down from Rush in the final minute should have gained six
or seven yards. But Elliott blew through two tacklers, shrugging off linebacker Anthony Barr and cornerback Mackensie Alexander to fight for 15 yards.
Without that effort, the Cowboys kick a tying field goal (Greg Zuerlein hopes), and we see how the overtime coin toss goes. On a night where running the ball efficiently was almost impossible — Elliott’s 15yard catch made it possible for Cooper to haul in the winning throw.
He didn’t get to walk off with the championship belt that Rodgers has simulated wearing throughout his career, just a tough road win in his first NFL start. The competition for belts and rings comes later, but it’s November now, it feels like football season, and the Cowboys and their confidence are riding high.