ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Cooper Rush's eighth career start filling in for Dak Prescott as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys will be his first trying to bounce back immediately from a poor performance in a loss.
Rush won his first four starts in 2022 as the backup to the franchise QB sidelined at the time by a broken thumb, then threw three interceptions in a loss at Philadelphia prior to Prescott's return.
Now, Prescott is out for the season with a torn hamstring, and Rush is coming off an anemic passing performance as the Cowboys play host to AFC South-leading Houston (6-4) on Monday night.
Dallas (3-6) is on a four-game losing streak and 0-4 at home, fading fast in the NFC East as a defending division champion with a three-year playoff streak. The visit from the Texans will come five days after Prescott's season-ending surgery.
“We’ll be thinking about him, but as for us, we got to go out there and compete for him as if he is there, as far as competitive spirit and leadership and everything,” 2023 All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb said. “We got to step up and then (do) the things that we expect out of ourselves."
A lot of it will start with Rush, whose 45 yards passing in last week's 34-6 loss to the Eagles were the fewest for a Dallas starting quarterback since Matt Cassel had 37 before getting benched in a 19-16 loss to the New York Jets late in another lost season in 2015.
The third blowout loss at home this season for the Cowboys was the first game since Prescott injured his hamstring in a 27-21 loss at Atlanta.
“I think Cooper has to get us in and out of the runs and passes and get us into the flow of the game,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “You have to distribute the ball 53, 54, 55 times a game to your perimeter playmakers whether you’re handing it off or throwing it. We have to get back to that functionality on offense.”
Rush took a shot to the head when he dropped a snap and lost a fumble inside his 20-yard line, a miscue that gave Philadelphia a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
The undrafted 31-year-old in his eighth NFL season has always been unflappable, but might have been a bit rattled by the unforced error as he finished 13 of 23 with a paltry average of 1.96 yards per attempt.
“Obviously, I was frustrated by it,” Rush said. “It was spotting them that field position. It was frustrating, but the next drive we did go right down the field. Think we ran it really well that drive and did get points so I was happy to see us bounce back that way.”
Rush has lost his past two starts — both against the Eagles — after winning the first five, including one in 2021 when Prescott had a strained calf.
The Cowboys succeeded with Rush in 2022 because he protected the ball, going without an interception while throwing for an average of 194 yards during the four consecutive victories.
That was also one of three consecutive seasons in which Dallas finished with a turnover margin of at least plus-10.
The Cowboys are at minus-10, which is 29th in the NFL, and have committed five turnovers in each of the past two home games. Rush didn't throw an interception against the Eagles but lost two fumbles.
“We’ve got a lot of faith in Cooper,” McCarthy said. “Everybody believes in him. How can you not based off of how he has performed? That fumble and the recovery attempt was off to a rough start, and I just felt like he never got into a rhythm.”
Two of Rush's five touchdown passes in his five-game stint two years ago were to Lamb, but that was before Lamb's breakout 2023 season.
His career highs of 135 catches, an NFL best, for 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns led to a long holdout that ended with Lamb signing a $136 million, four-year extension in August.
Now any hope of a recovery that would keep Dallas' fading playoff hopes alive rests with getting the Rush-Lamb combination going.
“I take full responsibility in getting in sync with him,” Lamb said. “Obviously we’re going to ride this thing out for the rest of the season. I have the most confidence in him. I don’t care what happened last week.”
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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush (10) prepares to throw a pass to CeeDee Lamb, left, in the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush responds to questions during a news conference after the team's NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush (10) recovers from fumbling the ball as the Philadelphia Eagles celebrate recovering the fumble in the first half of an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush (10) throws a pass in the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Joe Biden on Sunday became the first sitting American president to set foot in the Amazon rainforest, as the incoming Trump administration seems poised to scale back the U.S. commitment to combating climate change.
The massive Amazon, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world’s carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that drives climate change when it's released into the atmosphere. But development is rapidly depleting the world's largest tropical rainforest.
Joined by Carlos Nobre, a Nobel-Prize winning scientist and expert on how climate change is impacting the Amazon, and Biden climate adviser John Podesta, Biden lifted in his helicopter over a stretch of the rainforest, for a good view of the shallowing of waterways, fire damage and a wildlife refuge. He was also getting a peek at where the Rio Negro and Amazon rivers meet.
Biden will then meet local and indigenous leaders and visit an Amazonian museum as he looks to highlight his commitment to the preservation of the region.
His administration announced plans last year for a $500 million contribution to the Amazon Fund, the most significant international cooperation effort to preserve the rainforest, primarily financed by Norway.
So far, the U.S. government said it has provided $50 million, and the White House announced Sunday an additional $50 million contribution to the fund.
“It’s significant for a sitting president to visit the Amazon. ... This shows a personal commitment from the president,” said Suely Araújo, former head of the Brazilian environmental protection agency and public policy coordinator with the nonprofit Climate Observatory. “That said, we can’t expect concrete results from this visit."
She doubts that a “single penny” will go to the Amazon Fund once Donald Trump is back in the White House.
The incoming Trump administration is highly unlikely to prioritize the Amazon or anything related to climate change. The Republican president-elect already said he would again pull out of the Paris agreement, a global pact forged to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change, after Biden recommitted to the agreement.
Trump has cast climate change as a “hoax” and said he will eliminate energy efficiency regulations by the Biden administration.
Still, the Biden White House on Sunday announced a series of new efforts aimed at bolstering the Amazon and stemming the impact of climate change.
Among the actions is the launch of a finance coalition that looks to spur at least $10 billion in public and private investment for land restoration and eco-friendly economic projects by 2030, and a $37.5 million loan to the organization Mombak Gestora de Recursos Ltda. to support the large-scale planting of native tree species on degraded grasslands in Brazil.
Biden is also set to sign a U.S. proclamation designating Nov. 17 as International Conservation Day, and will highlight in remarks during the visit that the U.S. is on track to reach $11 billion in spending on international climate financing in 2024, a six-fold increase from when he started his term.
The Amazon is home to Indigenous communities and 10% of Earth’s biodiversity. It also regulates moisture across South America. About two-thirds of the Amazon lies within Brazil, and scientists say its devastation poses a catastrophic threat to the planet.
The forest has been suffering two years of historic drought that have dried up waterways, isolated thousands of riverine communities and hindered riverine dwellers’ ability to fish. It's also made way for wildfires that have burned an area larger than Switzerland and choked cities near and far with smoke.
When Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office last year, he signaled a shift in environmental policy from his predecessor, far-right Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro prioritized agribusiness expansion over forest protection and weakened environmental agencies, prompting deforestation to surge to a 15-year-high.
Lula has pledged “zero deforestation” by 2030, though his term runs through the end of 2026. Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon dropped by 30.6% in the 12 months through July from a year earlier, bringing deforestation to its lowest level in nine years, according to official data released last week.
In that 12-month span, the Amazon lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles), roughly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware. But that data fails to capture the surge of destruction this year, which will only be included in next year’s reading.
Despite the success in curbing Amazon deforestation, Lula’s government has been criticized by environmentalists for backing projects that could harm the region, such as paving a highway that cuts from an old-growth area and could encourage logging, oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River and building a railway to transport soy to Amazonian ports.
Biden is making the Amazon visit as part of a six-day trip to South America, the first to the continent of his presidency. He traveled from Lima, Peru, where he took part in the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
After his stop in Manaus, he was heading to Rio de Janeiro for this year's Group of 20 leaders summit.
Sa Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo, and Long from Washington.
Activists from the "Amazônia de Pé" movement hold a banner with a message that reads: "World Leaders: The Amazon is watching" during a protest aimed at drawing the attention of leaders attending the upcoming G20 Summit on the Amazon Rainforest and the environmental crises, at Botafogo Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
President Joe Biden, with granddaughter Natalie Biden, boards Air Force One, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Lima, Peru. Biden is traveling to Manaus, Brazil. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
FILE - A river borders an area that has been illegally deforested by land-grabbers and cattle farmers in an extractive reserve in Jaci-Parana, Rondonia state, Brazil, July 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
President Joe Biden shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a bilateral meeting, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Lima, Peru. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP)
President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a bilateral meeting, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Lima, Peru. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
