Rush wound up and muscled the ball up the middle, thinking to himself: “Get in there, Ced. This was a play the Cowboys had practiced all week, against a defensive look identical to that which they anticipated. But then, on the Cowboys’ third play of the series, Rush dropped back and saw receiver Cedrick Wilson split the safeties in the Vikings’ Cover-2 defense. Could the second half be stronger?Ī 2-yard Ezekiel Elliott run and a too-low incompletion to tight end Dalton Schultz didn’t breed optimism. But those four first-half possessions combined to notch just 3 points. The Cowboys extended drives to the tune of 7 more minutes’ possession than the Vikings had. Vikings safeties teamed up to intercept one of Rush’s first-half passes and another would-be interception was dropped. The first half was shaky, Rush completing 10 of 17 pass attempts but managing to bring the Cowboys inside the 20 just once. “Productive, did an excellent job, commanded the offense.” “I can’t say enough about Cooper being ready to jump in there,” head coach Mike McCarthy said. And his first NFL career touchdown, a 73-yard touchdown to open the second half, was one to remember. Rush took a costly sack, for a loss of 10 yards, that pinned Dallas at its own 8 and left the team to punt halfway through the third quarter with the game tied.īut Rush nonetheless completed passes to seven different teammates, connecting on more than 100 yards’ worth of targets to receiver Amari Cooper (8-of-13 targets, 122 yards) and CeeDee Lamb (6-of-8, 112) amid a booming purple U.S. His precision was inconsistent, decision-making riskier than preferred, especially when throwing over the middle. His debut start was by no means perfect, Rush completing 24 of 40 passes and mixing in an interception and a sack-fumble with his successful strikes. Rush’s rapport with those teammates was evident. Playing with those guys I get to play out there – just go down the list. “It never felt too big in terms of the speed. You’re in the huddle, breaking the O-line, going through your processes. “It wasn’t crazy,” said Rush, whom teammates laud as epitomizing the neutral mindset the team often emphasizes. The Rush family traveled home celebrating their son, husband and father’s 325-yard, two-touchdown performance in a 20-16 win over the Vikings. Rush’s parents, brothers, wife and 6-month-old daughter (left with babysitter during the nighttime contest) traveled to Minneapolis during the occasion. Prescott’s ability to play through a calf strain remained a game-time decision, but signs pointed toward Rush’s opportunity.įirst-team practice reps this week created “more sense of ‘this is real’ than usual,” Rush said. So this week was meaningful for Rush’s family. Rush returned to the Cowboys after Prescott and Dalton were both unavailable in late October 2020, but he never took the field. The Cowboys have carried him most of that stretch, releasing him for just a few months in 2020 when veteran Andy Dalton signed a team-friendly deal. Since the Cowboys signed Rush in 2017 as an undrafted free agent, the Central Michigan product kept tabs: How many games, as the second-string to durable Dak Prescott, did Rush prepare physically and mentally for yet never play? The count hovers around 50, Rush’s career stats amounting to 1 completion, 3 pass attempts and 6 contests in which he saw garbage-time opportunities since 2017.
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