Cooper Rush Steps In for Lamar Jackson as Ravens Face Texans, Drawing on Past Starting Experience
Cooper Rush is back in a familiar role. The veteran quarterback, who signed with the Baltimore Ravens to back up Lamar Jackson, is now preparing to start on Sunday while Jackson recovers from an injury.
This situation is nothing new for Rush. Last season with the Dallas Cowboys, he started eight games in place of an injured Dak Prescott. Throughout his nine-year career, he has made 14 starts, compiling a reliable 9-5 record as a starter—a key reason the Ravens brought him aboard in free agency.
“Whenever a franchise QB goes down, it’s always a ‘sky-is-falling’ feeling everywhere you are. It’s normal,” Rush said on Friday. “We’ve been here before in this type of situation. It’s nothing new, so you lean on that. You get confidence from it, just trust yourself, and if you have to go out there, you can do it.”
Rush is embracing the opportunity to get a full week of practice with the first-team offense. “This is what you work for, what you prepare for,” he noted. “Getting the whole week to actually go out and practice it, too, it’s a lot better than just coming in with no practice reps in the middle of a game.”
This weekend’s matchup holds a recent history for Rush; one of his starts last season was against the very same Houston Texans. In that game, he completed 32 of 55 passes for 354 yards with one touchdown and one interception in a Cowboys loss.
