Cowboys plan to bench Pine-Richland's Ben DiNucci against Steelers

Mike Tomlin doesn’t know who the Pittsburgh Steelers will face at quarterback Sunday when they face the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.

Thing is, neither do the Cowboys.

Tomlin said at his weekly press conference Tuesday that the Steelers were preparing to face former Cincinnati Bengals starter Andy Dalton, who was expected to return from concussion protocol this weekend.

Soon after, Dalton was placed on the reserve/covid-19 list, moving Pine-Richland graduate Ben DiNucci up to the top of the list.

But after DiNucci struggled in his NFL starting debut Sunday night in a 23-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Cowboys have decided to go in yet another direction.

NFL Network reported late Tuesday afternoon that DiNucci will be benched and either Cooper Rush or Garrett Gilbert will start for the 2-6 Cowboys on Sunday against the 7-0 Steelers.

Rush, a former Cowboys third-stringer, was signed to the practice squad on Oct. 30 after spending the first month of the season on the New York Giants practice squad. Gilbert was signed Oct. 12 off the Cleveland Browns practice squad after Cowboys franchise quarterback Dak Prescott sustained a season-ending compound right ankle fracture and dislocation.

Regardless of who gets the call, it will be the Cowboys’ fourth starting quarterback in five weeks.

DiNucci couldn’t generate a touchdown drive for the Cowboys, the preseason favorite to win the NFC East. He completed 21 of 40 passes for 180 yards. He didn’t throw an interception, but he was sacked four times and lost two fumbles.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn’t exactly give DiNucci a vote of confidence on his weekly Dallas radio show Tuesday morning.

“I think it was a lot for him,” Jones said. “I think we certainly as a team paid the price to have him come in under those circumstances. That’s almost trite. It was frankly more than he could handle. I don’t know what you could have expected for someone to come in under those circumstances.”

When Tomlin popped in tape of the Cowboys-Eagles game, he had flashbacks to the Steelers’ 2019 season. DiNucci was given the unenviable task of trying to defeat a division rival in a prime-time matchup.

The situation reminded Tomlin of last year when the Steelers had to turn to Mason Rudolph and “Duck” Hodges after Ben Roethlisberger was lost for the season in Week 2 with a right elbow injury.

“I got a feeling for what’s transpiring there,” Tomlin said. “Initially, there’s probably a period of shock where you’re dealing with the reality that you don’t have your guy. Then, you go about formulating the personality that is going to allow you to develop a winning formula.”

That hasn’t happened yet for the Cowboys, who have lost three in a row since Dalton replaced Prescott in Week 5 and helped pull out a win against the Giants.

Dalton started the following week against Arizona and again in Week 7 against Washington. When Dalton was concussed in that game, DiNucci was called upon to mop up in a 35-3 loss.

DiNucci led Pine-Richland to the PIAA championship game as a senior and became the first player in Pennsylvania scholastic history to surpass 4,000 passing yards in a season. He began his college career at Pitt, but transferred to Division I FCS James Madison after his sophomore season.

DiNucci, 23, was the Cowboys’ seventh-round pick in the April draft.

“We have respect for him,” Tomlin said. “He is a professional. We realize that this would be an awesome opportunity for him if he should get it being a Pittsburgh young man, and so we respect that.”

According to the NFL Network report, Rush and Gilbert will get reps in practice this week, with the Cowboys picking one of them to start against the Steelers.

Rush, 26, appeared in five games with the Cowboys from 2017-19, but he was let go when Dalton was signed in the offseason to back up Prescott.

Gilbert, 29, has six games of NFL experience, including five with the Browns last season.

No matter the quarterback, Tomlin expects the Cowboys to try to win the game with their defense. The Cowboys forced four turnovers against the Eagles and were in the game until the middle of the fourth quarter.

Again, he sees similarities to 2019.

“I see a defense that got off the bus that was turnover-driven, that was focused on getting the ball, much like we were a year ago when we were playing with Mason and Duck,” he said. “We realized that we had to gain possession. We realized that was the best way to support a young or inexperienced quarterback.”