A lot went wrong for Cooper Rush in his first real game in an Atlanta Falcons uniform. To be fair, the third-string backup has only been on the roster for a handful of weeks and hasn't had time or practice to get into a rhythm with his new teammates, especially the first-string offense he worked with today against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
That said, you'd still hope for better from a quarterback who's been in the NFL as long as Rush has.
In addition to horrible accuracy on throws of five yards down the field or more, Rush showed an almost complete inability to make plays outside of structure.
BRISKER INT!!!!!!!!!! 3Steelers #NFL pic.twitter.com/2xTe1AQ9fO
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) September 13, 2026
The worst of it was the first interception he threw in the second quarter on a pass that was intended
for wide receiver Jahan Dotson. Throwing on the run, Rush let the ball fly and it sailed several feet over Doton's head, right into the arms of Steelers safety Jaquan Brisker.
Bad, bad, bad.
To his credit, Rush isn't trying to pass off blame on anybody but himself. After the game he admitted that he was disappointed with his performance, especially the pick-six.
"I want that one back," Rush said of his second interception of the game. "Obviously disappointed. Wish I played better,"
"I want that one back," Cooper Rush on the first interception when he overshot Jahan Dotson.
— Tori McElhaney (@tori_mcelhaney) September 13, 2026
The Falcons have limited options with Michael Penix Jr. still working his way back from last season's ACL tear and Tua Tagovailoa's back and oblique flaring up on him, but it's difficult to imagine how undrafted rookie Jack Strand could perform much worse than what we saw from Rush today.
With that said, we would expect Rush to play better with more time in practice. It remains up in the air when Penix and Tagovailoa will return, but head coach Kevin Stefanski had no update after Sunday's loss.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Falcons QB Cooper Rush comments on ugly intercpetion vs. Steelers
