Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1482664
M icah Parsons was closing in on De- troit quarterback Jared Goff deep in the backfield, but when Goff dumped the ball off to tight end Brock Wright, the second-year Dallas Cowboys linebacker pivoted and gave chase. In an instant, Parsons closed the 5-yard gap between the two players, slamming into Wright from behind and stopping him just before the ball crossed the goal line. When the Lions fumbled on the next play, it seemed as though they had de- prived themselves of a chance at a go- ahead touchdown early in the fourth quar- ter. Really, though, it was Parsons who had deprived them by refusing to give up on a play on which he had seemed impossibly out of position. The Cowboys went on to win 24-6. "I tell people I'm going to be tired, but you're going to be more tired than me, be- cause I'm never going to stop," the former Penn State All-American told reporters afterward. "I practice that way. I work that way — just being relentless, understand- ing that anything can happen on the field." Faced with sky-high expectations coming off a debut season in which he ran away with NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors, Parsons has lived up to the hype, serving as the centerpiece of a fierce Cowboys defense. Through the season's first seven weeks, Dallas is allowing just 13.5 points per game to rank second in the league, and it's lead- ing the NFL with 29 sacks, 7 of which have been supplied by Parsons. Only one opponent — undefeated Philadelphia — has scored more than one touchdown against the Cowboys' defense this season. Dallas was looking to bounce back from that 26-17 defeat when it headed to Detroit for the Oct. 23 matchup against the Lions. A few days earlier, Parsons had been told by Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn that his speed was his "super- power" and that he needed to deploy it to maximum advantage. "We just had a father-son talk," Par- Now in his second year in the NFL, Parsons is tied for the league lead with 7 sacks. The Cowboys have 29 sacks as a team, their highest seven-game total since 1987. PHOTO COURTESY DALLAS COWBOYS Micah Parsons Ignites Cowboys' Defensive Surge M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M PSU IN THE PROS N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 2 6 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M