Tryptophan Bowl: What to know about Cooper Rush vs. Tommy DeVito on Thanksgiving Day

Talk about an anticlimactic Thanksgiving Day game, that’s exactly what it feels like is on tap in Dallas this year. Tommy DeVito and the New York Giants travel to Dallas to face Cooper Rush and the Cowboys. These franchises are a combined 6-16 this season and currently occupy third and fourth place in the NFC East. Despite their bad records, these franchises tend to show up when playing one another no matter who the quarterbacks are.

Battle of the backups

Not exactly what the NFL wants as its headliner for Thanksgiving’s slate of games but that’s what we’ve got this year. Two division foes down to their backups in a game that no one but family members is looking forward to. A battle between the two teams bringing up the rear in the NFC East.

Dallas lost their franchise guy, Dak Prescott weeks ago to a hamstring injury that required surgery so he’s done until next season. New York released Daniel Jones days prior to this matchup leaving DeVito as the man the rest of the way. It’s a great opportunity for DeVito and the opportunity for the Giants to tank. It’s the perfect scenario.

Maybe we’ll get “drama” like we did between DeVito and Baker Mayfield on Sunday. After scoring a touchdown Mayfield mocked DeVito with his celebration. Although according to Mayfield it was actually a tribute.

“It was a tribute. A tribute to Tommy,” Mayfield told reporters. “Most of the time, I don’t know what I’m going to do so … spontaneous stuff,” Mayfield later said… “New York fans love Tommy here, so give ’em something they like.”

“Yeah, it was tough in the first half,’’ DeVito said. “Just figuring out what they were doing, just know it sounds cliché, but just coming down to execution. We started to get going, but it was too late.’’

Winners and losers

Although one team has to win this game (unless they tie), it’s hard to see many winners coming out of this game. DeVito v. Rush could surprise us but no one is going in expecting some masterpiece of a game from either party. This may become interesting out of curiosity to see what these guys do on the big stage.

While neither are strangers to starting for their respective teams, neither has been QB1 for the big turkey day showdown. Combined they’ve got 16 starts coming into this game. Only the most degenerate gambler would be wagering on this game which is likely to be about half of the country.

Based on what we’ve seen out of these teams in totality this season, this should be a low-scoring game. DeVito has one 200-plus-yard passing game in his career which came last season in a win over Washington when he passed for 246 and three touchdowns. Rush has a handful of such games and even threw for a career-high 354 against Houston. But with that said these teams have been so bad it’s hard to see them running this one up.

Recipes for success

For the Cowboys it’s simple. Limit the mistakes most notably turnovers. Playing a clean game would be great but even with one on Sunday against the Commanders Dallas still came out on top. Now, they got a little bit lucky also but that’s what it takes sometimes. This week against the Giants luck should not be needed for the Cowboys to win their second consecutive game for just the second time all season.

If you’re the Giants, well, it’s time to call in a miracle. Okay, maybe not that drastic, after all this is Dallas, they’re facing. They’ve been known to drop a game or two that they shouldn’t even during years they are good. The Cowboys won 12 games last year yet lost to Arizona in Week 3. The Cardinals ended last season with four wins. They’ve already won six this season, so you never know with the Cowboys.

This is a game the Cowboys should win easily despite their struggles to this point. New York isn’t very good and Rush has the edge over DeVito so Dallas should come into this one focused because technically they aren’t out of the playoff hunt just yet. Another win or two puts them right back in the wild card mix so that should be enough motivation to handle their business on Turkey Day.