At this point, there’s really nothing to expect from the Dallas Cowboys but to have another year full of disappointment as their star player, Dak Prescott, is reportedly headed to the injured reserve for the next few weeks to come, effectively hampering their odds of winning in the 2024 NFL season – or even making it to the playoffs at the very least.

Prescott got injured in the Cowboys’ 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. The star QB had to come out of the game early in the fourth after Atlanta regained a two-point lead. Prescott had to be replaced by Cooper Rush for the rest of the game, not that it mattered as they were handed their fifth overall loss in the 2024 season.

At this point, the Dallas Cowboys are falling hard in the NFC table after what seems to be a promising start to begin with. Now the team is close to the purgatory of the league standings with five losses in the season and just a few more drops to reaching the bottom spots of the NFC at this point in time.

The Prescott Dilemma

At this point, fans and critics may have already lost count of how many times Dak Prescott has been injured in the season or in the playoffs. This time, Prescott injured his hamstring in that loss to the Falcons. He did manage to complete impressive numbers before going down with the injury, completing 18 of his 24 passes for 133 yards and scoring a touchdown while rushing three times for a total of 30 yards.

With the star QB headed to the IR list, it means that there will be big complications in the Cowboys’ games moving forward. For context, Dallas is slated to play against the Philadelphia Eagles and the Houston Texans at home on Weeks 10 and 11 – two playoff teams that are expected to win this easily without Prescott leading the charge.

The next two games? A road game against the rising Washington Commanders on Week 12 before returning home to face the fellow lackluster team New York Giants in Thanksgiving. Placing Prescott on IR means that he will miss all of those four games now more than ever, and that is going to be quite a problem for the team at this point.

Can Cooper Rush Take Over?

In the absence of Dak Prescott, it’s always been Cooper Rush stepping up on the big games. Just in the loss against the Falcons, Rush took over for the rest of the game and finished with 13 of his 25 passes for 115 yards and scoring a lone touchdown in that tough loss for the Cowboys.

Rush is set to turn 31 in just a few weeks. He has already started six career games for the Dallas Cowboys back in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, standing with a record of 5-1 in those games. So far, he’s completed 165 of 275 passes (60.0%) for 1,786 yards, nine TDs and six interceptions. With more games to come and Prescott to miss big games, this may be his big chance to come up with elite performances and take over for Dallas.

His best work has already been seen in the 2022 season when he pushed Dallas to win four games in a row – all without Prescott. While they are set to be underdogs in the next four games, who knows, maybe Rush is the big key who can lift the Cowboys to a promising set of wins and bounce back in the season.