When the Dallas Cowboys starting Quarterback Dak Prescott went down with an injury in Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, many people around the league including Cowboys fans thought the season was over, Lucky for them, backup quarterback Cooper rush has stepped up in a big way. They are currently on a 2 game win streak and sit at 2-1, keeping their season alive until their franchise quarterback gets back.

In his 2 starts, Rush has thrown for 514 yards, completing 62% of his passes for 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Over the past 2 games, Rush has thrown for more yards than he did in the previous 5 years combined. In 2017 he completed 1 of 3 passes for 2 yards, he wouldn’t throw another NFL pass until 2021. Needless to say, he has exceeded expectations as the Cowboys quarterback and now sits at 3-0 as a starter.

When Dak Prescott missed most of 2020, that season was a complete disaster. The Cowboys struggled to do anything on offense, winning just 6 games with a combination of Andy Dalton Ben Dinucci, and Garrett Gilbert.

But there’s something they have realized this season compared to 2020.

In today’s video, we’re going to look at how the Cowboys have overcome their backup quarterback situation, what the coaching staff is doing differently this year and how that defense has made a big difference.

In the Dallas Cowboys’ first game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dak Prescott did not look good. But an honest question is, has anyone looked good against the Buccaneers’ defense? He easily had one of the worst games of his career with a WR core many people were worried about heading into the season. That’s why when he went down, it was time to panic for the Cowboys. If your Quarterback 1 looked so bad with that offense, how would Cooper Rush look?

Well, the answer was pretty good.

Rush hasn’t been the main catalyst for the Cowboys’ victories but he has done a great job commanding the offense, avoiding mistakes, and making throws when the team needs him to.

But one thing the Cowboys are doing that makes the difference is in their play calling. Through 3 games the combination of Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott have 334 yards on the ground. I’m not as big on how many carries players get, but what they do with the opportunity that is given. Elliott has averaged 4.5 yards per carrying while Pollard is ripping off 5.6 yards per carrying on 28 attempts.

The Cowboys are finding a way to run the ball, something we’ve seen them shy away from with Dak Prescott under center. In the last half of last season, the Cowboys had all but abandoned any thought of running the ball with a purpose. That wasn’t a fault of Kellen Moore, the team just simply didn’t have the personnel to do so. Now through two games with Rush, the run game has opened up the field for him. Play action, bootlegs, and one on one coverage on the outside have this offense making more and more plays every week.

As a fellow Cowboys fan, one major talking point all season long was how the offensive line would look, especially with injuries to Tyron Smith and now Connor McGovern but the unit has held up very well so far.

But the biggest thing for the Cowboys this season is,

Kellen Moore has finally learned how to play-call games that benefit this offense. He’s had the schemes and situations to let Cooper Rush hit the easy button on a few throws these past few weeks.

Even with the return of Prescott, the Cowboys are going to have to stick to that mentality. It doesn’t have to be a run-first team but you have to make defenses respect it. If they can stop the run and get to your quarterback with 4 rushers, the offense will sputter 10/10 times.

It seems like when the Cowboys get Dak Prescott back, they begin to get pass happy and I’m not sure that is a great idea when you decided to let Amari Cooper go in a trade.

Before we continue head down to the comments and give me your record predictions for the Cowboys this season. They currently sit at 2-1 with Cooper Rush but it looks like Dak will be back sooner rather than later, so head down there and let us know.

Sticking to the run and helping your quarterback is never a bad idea for this team, the offensive line has proven they can hold up in the run game and buy enough time in the passing game.

While this video was to highlight what an impressive job Kellen has done with Cooper Rush, I can’t go without saying that Rush has played about as well as anyone could have hoped. Although Kellen has put him in a position to be successful he has still made some big-time throws when he needs to. Cooper Clutch has come up big in a lot of spots for the Cowboys so far and hopefully, he can pick up another win for them against the Washington Commanders.

But would any of this be possible for the Dallas Cowboys without that defense playing lights out? The defense has yet to allow more than 19 total points in any of their 3 games so far, 2 of those games against Tom Brady and Joe Burrow.

Micah Parsons can rush the passer better than anyone in the league while the back end of that defense has been solid so far with Trevon Diggs Jourdan Lewis and Anthony Brown. Teams have struggled to move the ball against them, much less find the end zone.

Holding any team to below 20 points is going to allow you to win games with any quarterback you put on the field.

So what have the Cowboys found out this season compared to the previous years? For starters, Rush is playing better than Andy Dalton ever did, the offensive line is moving people up front and the defense is playing lights out…

Follow DoubleMove on other social media platforms:

Youtube – DoubleMove

Instagram – @DoubleMoveFB

Twitter – @DoubleMoveFB

TikTok – @DoubleMove