Cooper Rush is going to ride this thing out with the Cowboys for however long he can.
Who can argue with the results, after all?
The 28-year-old journeyman backup quarterback has saved Dallas’ season. When the Cowboys lost starter Dak Prescott in the season opener to a fractured thumb on his right (throwing) hand, many believed their season was doomed.
Enter Rush, who has led the Cowboys to wins over the Bengals, Giants and Commanders since taking over for Prescott.
Team owner Jerry Jones joked before Rush took over that he hoped his performance would be so good it would create a quarterback controversy. All Rush has done since is make history entering the game Sunday against the defending Super Bowl champion Rams in Inglewood, Calif.
According to the NFL, Rush is the first quarterback to win each of his first four career starts and record a passer rating of 90 or higher in each win. Rush is just the sixth undrafted quarterback to win each of his first four career starts in the Super Bowl era, joining the likes of Hall of Famer Kurt Warner.
Entering this season, Rush had thrown just 50 career passes over four seasons. Entering Sunday, he has completed 62 of 102 passes (60.8 percent) for 737 yards and four touchdowns this season. Perhaps most importantly, he hasn’t been intercepted.
The unheralded quarterback, who came out of Central Michigan in 2017, is embracing every moment he has behind center while Prescott recovers from thumb surgery.
“You just enjoy playing ball,’’ Rush told reporters. “It’s fun being with those guys, so you cherish it all. It’s why you play the game. Since you’re a little kid you want to start in the NFL, so being able to do that for the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday afternoons is pretty awesome.’’
Jones thinks so, too, gushing that Rush “knows where the cars are on the freeway. He gets a good ball to the receivers, [and] they have confidence in him.’’
Jones went on to say that Rush’s more-than-competent play has been “far more than I could have ever expected.’’
“It’s been fun,’’ Rush said. “I try to enjoy it. The NFL doesn’t let you enjoy much.”
The Rams, who are 2-2, haven’t enjoyed much of late, particularly coming off their 24-9 road loss at San Francisco last week. Their Super Bowl title defense has been uneven through the first four games, which began with a blowout loss to the Bills.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford, who had a magical year in his first season with the Rams in 2021, has been inconsistent — as he was in the loss last week, with two picks. Oddly, Rams coach Sean McVay lauded Stafford after the game for his play.
“If you look at some of the different things that he was dealing with, I thought he played excellent,” McVay told reporters. “I thought he did a lot of good things. I think the margin for error was that much smaller. I thought that was a performance that he could build on.”
Stafford this week criticized himself: “The name of the game for the quarterback is helping the team get in the end zone. We haven’t done that enough. I can do a better job of that, whether that’s executing a little bit better in the red zone or being a little bit more explosive.’’
In the first four games last season, Stafford passed for 1,222 yards with 11 TDs and just two INTs. Through four games this season, he has thrown for 1,015 yards with four TDs and a league-high six INTs.
There has been some criticism that he is keying in on star receiver Cooper Kupp too often and not looking for Allen Robinson enough, making the offense too predictable. Kupp has a league-high 54 targets, while Robinson, whom the Rams brought in as an upgrade over Robert Woods, has been targeted just 18 times and has just nine catches and one TD.
The Cowboys will enter the game with 15 sacks, second most in the NFL. The Rams have yielded 16 sacks, including seven last week against the 49ers.
The Rams are having issues on the offensive line, with center Brian Allen recovering from knee surgery and backup Coleman Shelton out for four to six weeks with an ankle injury. So, Stafford’s line will likely be compromised Sunday. He’ll be playing behind third-string center Jeremiah Kolone, backup guards Bobby Evans and Alaric Jackson and tackles Joe Noteboom and Rob Havenstein.