Micah Parsons Blasts 'Undisciplined' (Selfish?) Cowboys Teammates After OT Loss To Packers
FRISCO - There is no member of the Dallas Cowboys roster who speaks more boldly, in a positive way, about what this team can accomplish than second-year leader Micah Parsons.
Turns out, there might be nobody who is more bold and frank about the negative as well.
“Until we (put) out this fire, we’re gonna keep seeing it,'' said Parsons, reflecting on a 31-28 OT loss at Green Bay featuring 207 Packers rushing yards. "If people want to keep doing their own thing, we’re gonna deal with this all year.''
"Doing their own thing''?
Added Parsons: “We have to be accountable. We have to stay in our gaps, we gotta stop the run. Until we do that, it’s gonna be a long year.”
The Cowboys, for all their acclaim as a defensive juggernaut, have a possibly fatal flaw, and it is run defense. And while volumes of "Twitter coaches'' are convinced of the reasons why, Parsons is flat-announcing it.
Various Cowboys - to our eyes, defensive ends in particular - are free-lancing, blowing assignments, maybe chasing the glory of sack numbers.
On Monday here at The Star, coach Mike McCarthy addressed the issue.
“Pass rush is a privilege for us right now,” he said. “Until we take care of this run challenge, that's the way it's going to be."
The Packers were trailing 28-14 late in the third quarter. ... and Dallas entered the fourth with a two-TD lead. And yet Green Bay largely stayed on the ground with Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon.
Why? Parsons is trying to tell us - it's about a defensive lack of discipline when it comes to assignments.
It's about not being "accountable.''
More Micah: “I would take any of these (teammates) any day of the week when it comes to physicality. But in terms of being accountable - staying and knowing you’re doing your job - that’s what it is.
"People think this is an ‘I’ game because certain people splash. This is a ‘we’ thing.''
Coordinator Dan Quinn insisted on Monday that Dallas “100-percent” has the right personnel to fix the issue. And McCarthy turned the Parsons-level criticism into a positive.
”There was a ton of red-ass,” he said of the postgame locker room. “A ton of disappointment. A lot of anger. There was a lot said between a lot of people. And I love that."
Dallas has allowed 143.1 rushing yards per game this year, the fourth-worst mark in the NFL. The group's work in Green Bay was so poor that it appeared that defensive coordinator Dan Quinn pulled back from letting Parsons (with eight sacks among the NFL leaders) play end, to instead have him focus on being a run-stopping linebacker.
And that didn't work, either.
“Things like this can’t happen,'' Parsons said. "Bad things tend to repeat. We got to clean this up and stop it now.”
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