Micah Parsons' Cowboys Like Ray Lewis' Super Bowl Ravens? 'This Gotta Be the Year!'
FRISCO - For Dallas Cowboys fans, every year since 1995 "gotta be the year.'' But 10,000-days-drought cynicism aside, young defensive leader Micah Parsons has every reason to be a Super Bowl believer, and he's speaking out about why the 2023 campaign might finally, really, truly - seriously! - be Dallas’s year.
“You just feel it in the room,” Parsons said as the Cowboys ready for this week's minicamp here inside The Star. “Everybody’s like, ‘This has got to be the year.'''
Parsons then took a deeper dive into his reasoning, digging into NFL history for a parallel.
“We all know how each other plays, we know how to communicate with each other,'' he said. "It's just like in a relationship: you start from ground zero, you’ve got to learn how to build the basis of how each other works. ... That was the difference for that Ray Lewis team: They all came back and were like, ‘If (the opponent) can’t score, they can’t win.’
"I’m hoping we’ve got one of those special teams this year.”
Parsons’ call-back is to the vaunted 2000 Super Bowl-champion Ravens featuring a defense led by Hall of Famer Ray Lewis. That team beat the Giants in the finale, 34-7, allowed on 970 rushing yards all season (an NFL record), grabbed 26 fumbles and 23 interceptions and only allowed 165 points all year - an average of 10.5 per game.
This is a different time and place, with different rules; last year's Cowboys ranked No. 6 in the NFL by giving up 19.7 points per game; the Niners were No. 1 at 17.2. At the same time, coordinator Dan Quinn's group led the NFL in takeaways for the second straight season - a feat so rare that it hadn't been achieved since the dominant Steelers teams of the early 1970's.
Parsons, who is prepared "to play eight different positions'' this year, is aware that the 2000 Ravens had nine defensive starters who had been in Baltimore for the previous two years or more. The Cowboys' only new defensive starter this year might end up being veteran Pro Bowl cornerback Stephon Gilmore, with first-round rookie defensive tackle Mazi Smith also a possibility.
Put it all together, and Parsons is ready for another step - the biggest step.
"Each year I’ve been here, we’ve gone a little bit further, a little bit further,'' he said of playoff advancement following a pair of 12-5 seasons under head coach Mike McCarthy. "Now I’m hoping we don’t have to (only make) some small jump to the NFC (title game) and go home; I’m hoping we go all the way.''
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