Giants-Cowboys preview: Kickoff time, injury updates and more
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush (10) scrambles as Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt (57) closes in during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022, in Arlington, Tx. Credit: AP/Ron Jenkins
COWBOYS AT GIANTS
MetLife Stadium, 8:15 p.m.
INJURY UPDATE
GIANTS: OUT: WR Wan’Dale Robinson (knee), CB Aaron Robinson (appendix); DOUBTFUL: DL Leonard Williams (knee); WR Kadarius Toney (hamstring).
COWBOYS: OUT: QB Dak Prescott (thumb); QUESTIONABLE: TE Dalton Schultz (knee), WR Michael Gallop (knee), LB Micah Parsons (illness).
RUSH JOB
Jerry Jones said he would “walk to New York” if backup quarterback Cooper Rush plays well enough for Dallas to have a hard decision to make when starter Dak Prescott returns from thumb surgery sometime in the coming weeks.
Even Rush thinks that absurd.
“I definitely don’t dream as big as Jerry,” Rush said. “I got a good little laugh. He just wants to win games. That’s what we all want to do.”
So far that’s all Rush has done. In two career starts he is 2-0 and on Monday he’ll face the Giants, a team he spent a few months with during the 2020 season.
“I see a guy who is a starting quarterback in this league, honestly I do,” Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said of Rush. “I make the comment just watching him and the decisions that he makes . . . He’s got two career starts, but he’s also 2-0 with those career starts, so this guy’s a proven winner.”
Prescott injured his thumb in the opening week of the season and Rush mopped up that loss to the Bucs. Last week Rush started and threw for 235 yards and a TD in a win over the Bengals.
The Giants have spent more time digging into Rush’s past this week then they probably did when they claimed him off waivers in 2020 (he was brought in to help aid the transition to Jason Garrett’s offensive system having been with him previously in his first stint as Dallas’ backup). His Central Michigan film has been on a loop in the facility.
Martindale said Rush is smart enough to work in the league even after his playing days are over.
“I think he’ll have a long career as a quarterback in this league, and then he’ll be one of those cats that become an offensive coordinator and a head coach by the time he’s 38 or 39,” Martindale said. “That’s how it usually works.”
On Monday, though, the Giants will be focusing on beating Rush . . . and saving Jones from his hike.
“He’s a smooth operator back there and he doesn’t get rattled,” Martindale said. “Our job is to try to rattle him.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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