With calm Cooper Rush in charge, Dallas Cowboys don’t have to rush back Dak Prescott

If you had walked in off the street Sunday evening and happened to listen to the Cooper Rush press conference with the media, you would have no idea of the hysteria on the field and the Dallas Cowboys locker room and the preceding minutes and hours.

Rush had just led the Cowboys to an seemingly improbable 20-17 victory against the Cincinnati Bengals that few had given them a chance of winning.

With quarterback Dak Prescott out for at least four weeks with a fractured hand and coming off as disappointing a season-opening loss in franchise history, the sight of a cool Rush leading the Cowboys downfield in the final 57 seconds of the game and setting up a 50-yard winner from kicker Brett Maher sent to the Cowboys into a frenzy and the fans in the stands AT&T Stadium into a tizzy.

But here was Rush, ho hum, monotone and understated.

“Yeah, that was a big one for us,” Rush said as quietly in strong words that didn’t match his voice. “You don’t want to fall down 0-2. Made that first win. The defense obviously kept us in it tonight and Brett (Maher) at the end, doing his job.”

It got to the point that I had to ask him, Are you happy? Are you excited?

“Yeah, winning an NFL game is a lot of fun,” Rush said with a laugh and smile before going back to his nonchalant demeanor. “You just want to do your job and trust your teammates.”

I’m sure Rush is a lot of fun at parties.

But rest assured the Cowboys partied long into the night on Sunday thanks to Rush’s low-key style and calm ways in leading them to not only a season-saving victory but also allowing them to push pause on the panic mode that had engulfed the franchise and the fan base following Prescott’s injury.

As much as the Cowboys expressed belief in Rush’s ability to lead them while Prescott was out, there was also inherent anticipation of getting the starting quarterback back in the lineup as fast as possible.

The Cowboys weren’t going to rush Prescott back before he was cleared to go.

But by not putting him on the injured reserve and hoping he could return from a thumb fracture in as a few as three games lent itself to an aggressive timeline.

Now, because of Rush there is no need rush Prescott back.

“No, we weren’t going to rush Dak back,” owner Jerry Jones said. “The nature of Dak’s repair allows him to play when he can grip the ball. And that’s not rushing him back. If he can’t grip the ball, he’d be the first to tell you he doesn’t want to play.

“I certainly would look to hope that he just might be available, but I’m telling you, this performance out here today by Rush sure takes a lot of the angst out of that.”

And there was angst.

Jones admitted that Rush exceeded his expectations in leading the Cowboys to as big a regular season win as they have had in while because of the loss of Prescott, the perceived quality of the opponent and what it meant for the team going forward.

“Anybody knows how disappointing our first loss was last week,” Jones said. “We could point to the reasons why but that’s not enough. But to come out here with our same home crowd and beat a really fine young quarterback and beat a team that was playing in the Super Bowl just a few months ago, that’s a big tonic for the disappointment we had. And we all know how tough these games are that we’ve got coming up, but the main thing is kudos to Cooper Rush.

“That shows me so much about him and the principle of he kept a workmanlike basis. He’s done that. He’s gotten better. He knows this offense as well as anybody breathing and he stepped out there and did some great execution.”

No one is the Cowboys locker room was surprised.

It was Rush’s second career start, and his second carer win. He beat the Vikings last year with Prescott nursing a calf injury, passing for 325 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner in the final moments.

Then like Sunday, the moment and the opportunity was not too big for Rush, who was calm, cool and collected when it mattered most.

It was one thing for Rush to operate a perfect opening game plan by the Cowboys, completing 6 of 8 passes for 110 yards and a 9-yard pass to Noah Brown to open up a 14-3 lead.

He was 12 of 18 for 162 yards with a passer rating of 113.7 when the Cowboys led 17-3 at halftime time.

But the first four drives of the second half produced three punts and a fumble by tight end Dalton Schultz to thwart a scoring opportunity.

There was no blink in Rush when he got the ball back at the Cowboys’ 35-yard line in the final minute after the Bengals tied the game at 17-17.

While the entire stadium was thinking it was only the beginning of a possible Bengals win in overtime, Rush simply took over, calm and cool.

Rush hit CeeDee Lamb for 8 yards, then Brown for 12 yards before a 10-yard pass to Lamb.

With a first down at the Bengals 35, the Cowboys got a 3-yard run from Tony Pollard. Then Rush spiked the ball to stop the clock and set up the Maher game-winner.

What was Rush thinking before the drive?

“It was probably, ‘Let’s go. Here we go. This is why we do it. This is our time,’” Rush said. “Those guys, it’s a fun group, a good group, tons of leaders all over the place. Not everyone needs to get hyped up. They know their jobs. They know what to do, and you just go play ball.”

Rush played ball and started a party in the Cowboys locker room.

He briefly enjoyed the moment with his teammates.

Then he went back to being Rush.

“That’s Cooper Rush, we see that every day. He’s the same, he is so steady personality type, he never blinks,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “He never changes. It’s actually exciting to see him get excited after we win the game. I get a charge out of it because he is so consistent.”