If anyone had predicted a game like that from Cooper Rush, raise your glass of pumpkin spice, hard cider, or whatever your drink of choice is this fall season. You’ve earned it. However, speaking for most people, not many expected the Dallas Cowboys to go into Minnesota and pull off a 20-16 win in the absence of Dak Prescott.
Improving to 6-1, Dallas keeps pace in a tight race for the best record in the NFC. Let’s be frank. The running game for the Cowboys was awful, producing less than 3.5 yards carry. Cooper Rush was heavily relied upon in this game and he delivered.
The defense also deserves plenty of praise for the game they played against the Vikings. Minnesota often struggled to sustain drives and turn short fields into points. Mind you, this defense is still playing without Demarcus Lawrence and managed to keep a Minnesota offense that features Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, and Justin Jefferson in check.
Given the total pieces the team had to work with, that’s impressive. Needless to say, we were tricked into a treat on Sunday night. As usual, let’s take a closer look and trace this murder by the numbers.
1 – Number of 3rd Downs Converted by the Minnesota Vikings
If I could choose only one statistic that I believe decided this game, this would be it. Minnesota had 13 3rd-down attempts and they converted just one. That’s only 7%. The reason for this is because Dallas was able to win the early downs. You saw for yourself. They were able to bottle up Dalvin Cook and hold him to short gains on first and second down.
These long 3rd-down attempts led to the Vikings having to rely on Kirk Cousins to play from behind the sticks. Cousins was abysmal under the constant pressure of the Dallas defense. You could make the argument officiating made this game was closer than it needed to be. Minnesota was given seven first downs by way of a Dallas penalty. With those extra downs, Cousins averaged 5.25 yards on his 35 attempts for the game. That figure would be even worse when you consider his two biggest plays were 32 and 31 yards respectively.
In case you’re wondering, neither of those two huge gains came from 2nd-year All-Pro Justin Jefferson. Jefferson was limited to 21 yards on 2 receptions. I had the belief that the Dallas defense had to be near-perfect to win this game. After tonight in a game in which they lost the turnover battle, it’s hard to argue that they weren’t.
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11 – Micah Parsons Tackles
It’s not lost on me that without context, tackles and the accumulation of them, is misleading. If you watched Micah Parsons and how he was able to make these tackles, you’d understand how critical they were in slowing down the Vikings.
Out of the 11 tackles Parsons made, 10 were on his own. Four of those were tackles for loss. From watching the live broadcast, it looked like Parsons was quick to diagnose his reads and quickly get to the ball carrier. There was one tackle in space on Alexander Mattison where Parsons immediately stopped his momentum before it could even get started.
Much has been made of the versatility of Parsons, and where he should best be deployed. I’d like to say that I have a definitive answer, but I don’t. He’s so unpredictable and explosive from anywhere he lines up, it’s difficult to distinguish what he can do anytime he’s on the field. Knowing Dan Quinn, that’s probably how he wants it.
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8 – Yards per Attempt by Cooper Rush
The Dallas Cowboys thrust this game upon Cooper Rush. He steadily improved throughout the game, rewarding their trust. Perhaps the turning point of the game was his 73-yard touchdown pass to Cedrick Wilson. From that moment forward, you could see incremental improvements in Rush’s game – and he wasn’t without help.
CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper combined for 14 catches on 234 yards. This includes the touchdown pass to Amari Cooper on the game-winning drive. Minnesota was insistent on making Rush work outside the numbers and stacked the box to stop the run. Understandably, the Vikings would choose to go that route but with a depleted secondary. It was clear that Lamb and Amari Cooper were more than the Vikings could handle.
Leading up to this game, I was skeptical that the Dallas Cowboys offense could make enough plays to keep pace with the Vikings offense. I thought Dak Prescott would be sorely missed. It’s one of the rare times when being so wrong, feels so right. I owe the Dallas coaching staff and the 4th year quarterback an apology and regret rushing to judgment.
