Mike McCarthy says Cowboys offense needs to ‘be a little smarter’ with Cooper Rush at quarterback

Cooper Rush will get a second chance in his career to start at quarterback in the NFL on Sunday, when the Dallas Cowboys play host to the Cincinnati Bengals, and the offense will look different with the backup leading the squad. Quarterback Dak Prescott had surgery this week on the fractured right thumb injury he sustained during the Week 1 loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneerss and is out for multiple weeks.

Prescott is expected to be out for 6-8 weeks, which means Rush will be QB1 for the time being. Rush obviously has less experience than Prescott and the team is ready to make the necessary adjustments.

On Friday, head coach Mike McCarthy said offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has been working with the offense for a while and they will trust their players to step up to the occasion. 

“At the end of the day, Kellen and the offensive staff have been working on this since April — longer than April, but working with the players since April,” McCarthy said, via NBC. “So we’ve just got to trust what we’ve built and we’ve got to adjust when we have change in the lineup, and we definitely are working through that and we want to make sure we’re helping, but maybe not being as conservative as you’d like to be.”

McCarthy gave some insight to their game plan, revealing that offensive coordinator Kellen Moore will need to make less aggressive play calls.

The head coach continued, saying, “Let’s be honest: In Kellen’s time as a coordinator, he’s been able to play very, very aggressive. But we’re in a phase right now that we’ve got to be a little smarter in certain situations, and that’s all part of growing as a play-caller,” McCarthy said.

Saying his OC needs to be “smarter” implies that he believes Moore has not made the best decisions, but McCarthy clarified that he just meant the strategy will have to change with someone less experienced running the offense, as to not put too much pressure on the 28-year-old Rush.

It is not shocking that the offense would need to make different decisions with a backup quarterback with limited experience. The team is going from Prescott, who has started in 86 games and has postseason experience, to someone who only has one start under his belt.

His only start came last season in the Week 8 game against the Minnesota Vikings, when he led the Cowboys to victory.

Rush went undrafted in 2017 and was with the Cowboys until 2019, before he joined the practice squad of the New York Giants and rejoined the Cowboys in 2020. 

He’s recorded 488 passing yards, 5 rushing yards, three touchdowns and one interception in his limited time on the field.