Falcons stick with Cooper Rush: It won’t be that bad

The easy, and perhaps reflexive, thing for a Falcons fan to do upon hearing that quarterback Cooper Rush will start Sunday would be to stare vacantly and await defeat.

Please accept this assurance that it won’t be that bad.

(Rush’s quarterbacking against the Carolina Panthers, that is, not the staring thing.)

Rush simply won’t play as dreadfully as he did in Pittsburgh in the season opener this past Sunday when he looked tentative, was sacked four times, had three passes batted down at the line and threw two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

He just won’t.

One, his back should be in better condition than it was against the Steelers after suffering spasms the day before the game.

Two, Rush will be better prepared than he was last week, when he was moved up to the first string only after expected starter Tua Tagovailoa suffered an oblique injury during the Thursday practice.

Signed at the start of training camp, Rush had practiced minimally with the starters before then but now will have gone through a full week with the first-string offense.

“Every rep you take — game rep, practice rep — you get better,” Rush said Wednesday. “You just build this library in your head of different scenarios and coverages and throws, and just to draw on at all times. So every rep really does matter.”

Three, Sunday was well below his standards, which leads you to think that his back and the limited practice time were factors in his being so ineffective against the Steelers.

The 32-year-old Rush actually has a 9-8 record as a starter after coming into the league in 2017. He has two 300-yard passing games to his credit and recorded a passer rating of 90 or higher in seven of his 17 starts.

Four, the Falcons are playing a team that just gave up 59 points. This shouldn’t be, you know, the Siege of Aratta. (The first siege listed on Wikipedia’s “List of sieges” page.)

On the other hand, “better than he was against Pittsburgh” covers a lot of territory.

Rush has had his high moments, but also games where he reminded everyone why he’s not a starter. On top of the seven starts with a plus-90 passer rating, he has had five below 80.

The offensive line will have to be better than it was against Pittsburgh to give him more time to throw. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees’ game plan will have to create more open targets. Kicker Nick Folk can’t miss two more field goal tries. And Rush himself will have to play better, which he should for the aforementioned reasons.

And that should be enough to give the Falcons a chance. Consider that, as helplessly as the Falcons offense flailed about last week, with 6:30 to play, they still had a chance to tie the game with a touchdown and had first-and-10 on the Pittsburgh 39-yard line.

If the Falcons play even marginally better on offense than they did a week ago, they should be fine.

There’s no skirting the obvious here. Outside of Rush, his family, his friends and his agent, there’s not a lot of people excited for this to happen.

The responses to the Falcons’ social media post on Friday afternoon announcing Rush will start ranged from disgust all the way to fury.

The measured prose of one fan: “Another miserable year for the Falcons!! I hate being a fan!!”

It would be far preferable if Michael Penix Jr. were ready to play. And some in the fan base want to give undrafted rookie Jack Strand a shot.

But neither is happening, at least not this week.

In an ideal world, Penix would be ready to go, Tagovailoa wouldn’t have injured himself in practice three days before the opener, Trevor Siemian wouldn’t have aggravated a calf injury before training camp (which precipitated his release and the Rush signing) and Rush wouldn’t have gotten back spasms the day before he started against the Steelers.

But, as we all know, there’s a galaxy between the ideal world and the one that the Falcons inhabit.