FRISCO, Texas — Despite the Cowboys’ upset victory on Sunday Night Football over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-7), they were eliminated before kickoff and the Washington Commanders won their 10th match of the season.
You’d think that would mean Dallas would look to get more reps from young players in the final two games, including quarterback Trey Lance, the 2021 third overall pick. NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. However, this will not be the case. Even if the head coach Mike McCarthy shares rose with victory Sunday nighthe’s still determined to try for two more wins during an injury-plagued 2024 season, one in which franchise face Dak Prescott has been absent since suffering a torn hamstring end of season in Week 9 at the Atlanta Falcons.
The 61-year-old head coach is in the final year of his current contract with the Cowboys. So he’ll continue to start eight-year veteran Cooper Rush, with the team winning four of its last five games with him at center and defense. bearing. Rush threw nine touchdowns and just one interception while averaging 226.2 passing yards per game and 6.9 yards per pass attempt with a 64.4% completion percentage over that stretch. That’s good for a passer rating of 100.5 since Week 12, 14th in the league during that span.
“The mindset is to win. We’re going to Philadelphia to win the game,” McCarthy said Monday. We’re reeling like it’s a divisional game, it’s a finish game, all those things. It’s exciting to go there. The crowd will welcome us with open arms as they always do. So we’re excited about that as well. We are going there to win. This is something that I think is clear to everyone. It’s Christmas week, so the work week will look a little different this week. But we will do all the work as we would any other week. We play this game to win.”
However, would it be beneficial to see what you have in the 24-year-old quarterback before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in March, especially since the Cowboys gave up a fourth-round pick to the 49ers for acquire it? He and Rush will be unrestricted in March, and with McCarthy aiming to remain the Cowboys’ head coach by the time free agency rolls around, he’s sticking with the steady veteran rather than the plus option. athletic and raw.
“The evaluation process goes on all the time. That would be beneficial. I think it’s a very fair question to play in the games, but we feel really good about what we do every day, how we train , those things come into play,” McCarthy said. said. “But right now we’re game planning. I’m going straight to third down as soon as I’m done with it. We’re going to line up and try to build on last night’s win.”
