Dallas Cowboys Week 7 report card: Jason Garrett needs to find kicker after Dan Bailey injury

FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys got an important win against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday to move to 3-3 on the season.

But now they are preparing for life without kicker Dan Bailey for at least the next couple of weeks.

Bailey will miss a few games after sustaining a groin injury while warming up in the first half Sunday in San Francisco.

The Cowboys are expected to work out three kickers -- Mike Nugent, Jason Myers and Sam Irwin-Hill -- on Tuesday with hopes of signing one for the Redskins game this weekend.

The Cowboys went with safety Jeff Heath as the emergency kicker against the 49ers and he made two of three extra points.

No one will have the pedigree of Bailey, the most accurate kicker in NFL history with an 89.9 percent career field-goal percentage.

But they need someone who can make a field goal when needed.

"You want a guy who is reliable," head coach Jason Garrett said. "It's really important at that position you have a guy you can trust and count on. You want that throughout your whole team at every position, but that's a very valuable position.

"You're going to put the fortunes of your team in that guy's hands, or on his foot, and you want a guy you can trust and rely on. Experience matters, but you don't want to make it all about that. You want to choose the best guy. But reliability and how much you can trust them is certainly a big factor."

Nugent is the most experienced option. He was beat out by Aldrick Rosas for the New York Giants kicking job before the season, but has made 80.8 percent of his field goals in 12 seasons.

The Jacksonville Jaguars parted ways with Myers recently after he missed four of 15 attempts.

The Cowboys have the most familiarity with Irwin-Hill, who was with the team in training camp and among the final cuts. He went 7-for-7 on point-after attempts and 2-of-3 on field-goal tries in the preseason, but has yet to kick in a regular-season game.

The importance of the position can't be overstated. This is a team that played in 10 games, including the playoff loss to Green Bay, decided by one score or less last season. Two of the past three games this season have been decided by one score or less.

"We're hopeful we can sign a guy tomorrow to replace Dan who can come in and we can have the same kind of confidence in him," Garrett said. "Now, we don't have the experience with this guy, whoever he is, but hopefully he's a guy who's shown he's capable of knocking the ball through the pipes in an NFL game and in pressurized situations.

"You try to be as objective as you can in your decision-making as you go, but there is no question we have a long history with Dan, a history of success. There's no question it will be a little bit different in some way."

Sunday at Washington will mark the first game Bailey has missed with an injury. He has played in every game with the Cowboys since 2011.

Now the Cowboys will have to carry two kickers on the roster until Bailey returns, forcing them to make a cut at another position.

"It does put a little bit of a strain (on your roster), you have to make a decision at another position in order to keep two kickers," Garrett said. "That's not natural for a team to do. But we don't think the injury's that severe to put (him) on IR. He's certainly someone we're going to keep up on the roster.

"We do have to get another kicker in here to function this week."

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Quarterback Dak Prescott passed for three touchdowns for the third consecutive game in the 40-10 rout of the 49ers.

It was a feat Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman never accomplished.

It was his third game of the season with a 100-or-better passer rating and his fifth straight with multiple touchdown passes. It also marked Prescott's seventh career game with at least three touchdown passes and one or fewer interceptions. In a player's first two seasons, only Hall of Famer Dan Marino had more (nine).

Prescott now has three straight games with three touchdown passes. He joins Tony Romo and Don Meredith as the only quarterbacks in franchise history to accomplish that feat.

"We didn't win three games in a row, so it really doesn't mean that much," Prescott said. "For me, it's about the wins at the end of the day. Touchdowns are great and they obviously help us win, but three wins to me sounds better than three-touchdown games."

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Running back Ezekiel Elliott, coming off his best game of the season in the 40-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, will be on the field for Sunday's game at the Washington Redskins.

Judge Katherine Failla of the Second District of New York has rejected the NFL's request for an expedited hearing for this week before the Redskins game.

She has notified the NFL and Elliott's lawyers from the NFL Players Association that the preliminary injunction hearing is set for Oct. 30 at 5 p.m.

Elliott, who is fighting a six-game NFL suspension for allegedly assaulting former girlfriend Tiffany Thompson, is playing now thanks to a 14-day temporary restraining order granted last Tuesday by Judge Paul Crotty, who was sitting in for a vacationing Failla.

Failla will decide Elliott's playing status for the remainder of the season.

A preliminary injunction keeps him on the field as his lawsuit against the NFL winds through the court system.

If he is denied an injunction, Elliott will have to begin serving his suspension immediately.

Elliott has long maintained his innocence.

He is fighting to clear his name as well as avoid the six-game suspension.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he supports Elliott's fight to clear his name and get a fair process, which he said hasn't been afforded to him by the NFL so far.

"At the end of the day, I want him to have landed with a fair, fair, fair picture, perception of where he is on this matter," Jones said. "The way that this has come down from the NFL, it has not presented him in a fair light."

Elliott's legal team has maintained that the league's investigation and arbitration process was unfair, which three federal judges have substantiated with written summaries.

Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas cited unfairness by the NFL in granting the initial preliminary injunction that allowed him to play the first five games of the season before it was thrown out by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for improper jurisdiction.

But even in that decision, Judge James Graves, the lone dissenter in the 2-1 panel ruling, wrote in detail about fundamental unfairness from the NFL.

And Crotty echoed a similar sentiment in awarding Elliott the temporary injunction.

Will Failla follow a similar path?

Elliott rushed for a season-high 147 yards and two touchdowns against the 49ers Sunday. He also took a screen pass 72 yards for a touchdown to help the Cowboys snap a two-game losing streak and even their record at 3-3.

Elliott and the Cowboys now get to build on that momentum against the Redskins, one day before his fate for the season is decided in a New York court.

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Quarterback Cooper Rush got the promotion from third-string quarterback to primary backup of starter Dak Prescott against the 49ers.

Rush quarterbacked the Cowboys' final two drives of a 40-10 victory.

"It felt great. The guys did a great job of dominating and letting me get a chance," Rush said. "It was real fun out there and got to just kind of control the four-minute situation."

It capped what's been a remarkable journey so far for Rush.

He signed with the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent out of Central Michigan, earning a spot on the 53-man roster after an impressive training camp and preseason.

Rush completed 38 of 51 passes for 398 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions in the preseason. He had a 135.9 passer rating, the best of any quarterback in the preseason.

But the Cowboys opted to go with a more experienced option, Kellen Moore, as Dak Prescott's primary backup for the first five games. Rush continued to improve in practice and surpassed Moore on the depth chart.

"They told me before the bye week, told me I'd be up," Rush said. "I just kept preparing like I have been and got fortunate enough to get in there."

Rush said he's made the most strides since the preseason in his ability to understand NFL defenses and what they're trying to do in certain situations.

Head coach Jason Garrett talked about the decision to promote Rush after the game.

"Cooper did a really nice job in the preseason and throughout training camp. We wanted to move him to this point," Garrett said. "We gave him some extra snaps during the bye week and gave him this opportunity.

"I thought he handled himself well in the ballgame - had good command of what we're asking him to do and I thought he had poise and composure handling those drives at the end of the ballgame."

NOTES: SS Jeff Heath made history as the emergency kicker against the 49ers by connecting on 2-of-3 extra points, becoming the first non-kicker to score at least two extra points in a game since Houston Oilers linebacker Ted Thompson in 1980. ... LB Sean Lee suffered a quad contusion at the end of the 49ers game. He should be good to go for the game against the Redskins. ... WR Dez Bryant led the way against the 49ers with seven receptions for 63 yards as he and Prescott seemed to be on the same page for the first time all season. Bryant's touchdown gave him 71 for his career to tie Bob Hayes (71) for the most by a receiver in franchise history. ... TE Jason Witten had four catches for 54 and a touchdown. Witten's score gave him 66 for his career to break a tie with Michael Irvin (65) for sole possession of third on the club's all-time receiving touchdowns list.

REPORT CARD VS. 49ERS

--PASSING OFFENSE: A - Quarterback Dak Prescott passed for 234 yards and three touchdowns. It was the third straight game for him with three touchdowns passes. He had a passer rating of 134.0. He completed passes to eight different receivers.

--RUSHING OFFENSE: A - Running back Ezekiel Elliott had his best game of the season with 147 yards and two touchdowns. But it wasn't just Elliott. The Cowboys rushed 43 times for 265 yards as a team. It was the best rushing performance in the NFL this season. It was the most rushing yards in a single contest since the Cowboys recorded 294 yards against St. Louis (10/23/11), and the 12th highest all-time in a single game in team history.

--PASS DEFENSE: B - The Cowboys notched five sacks, and three forced fumbles by DeMarcus Lawrence, David Irving and Jaylon Smith. C.J. Beathard completed of 22 of 38 passes for 235 yards. The Cowboys dropped at least three interceptions.

--RUSH DEFENSE: C - The 49ers rushed 22 times for 103 yards, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Carlos Hyde rushed 14 times for 68 yards. The lopsided score forced the 49ers to abandon the run. Anthony Hitchens led the Cowboys with eight tackles. Sean Lee chipped in five tackles in his first game back from a two-game absence due to hamstring issues.

--SPECIAL TEAMS: A - Safety Jeff Heath should win special teams player of the week. The safety was called into action as the emergency kicker after Dan Bailey was sidelined early in the second quarter with a groin injury. Heath made two of three extra points. He was solid on four kickoffs. Chris Jones averaged 47.3 yards on three punts and Kavon Frazier forced a fumble on a punt return that Xavier Woods recovered.

--COACHING: A - The Cowboys endured a trying bye week with two team meetings over the anthem issue, the roller coaster of Ezekiel Elliott's status and the disappointment of a two-game losing streak. With the Redskins coming up, the Cowboys could have overlooked a winless 49ers team. They came up with their best performance of the season. Credit head coach Jason Garrett with keeping the lid on a potential powder keg and getting the Cowboys off to a fresh start following the bye.