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Cowboys DE Micah Parsons

By the end of Sunday’s Week 2 home opener, the surprising thing about the Cowboys having given up 44 points in a pasting of a loss to the Saints was not so much the 44 points, it was the fact that after racking up 35 in the first half, New Orleans took it easy on the Dallas D in the third and fourth quarters. Virtually nothing went right for Mike Zimmer’s gang on the afternoon, but for star edge rusher Micah Parsons, the most disappointing aspect was the effort.

Or the lack thereof.

Parsons did not point the finger at the new Zimmer defense, which had performed so well to open the season in Cleveland. Instead, he pointed at his Cowboys teammates.

“To me, it had nothing to do with the scheme,” he said after the game (interview is at 9:54). “I thought Zim called a pretty good game. … At the end of the day, that’s life. No play is gonna be a perfect call. But at the end of the day, I just believe we got outplayed. I don’t think—whoever played on that field, everyone didn’t play to 100%. That’s just me being accountable and saying the truth. We all got to play better.

“There are some plays I wish I had back. Schematically, things I wish I was in a different position. But, you know what I’m saying, at the end of the day, I believe I will still go out there and do 100 (percent) but I just believe, you know, there’s a lot of BS-ing today.”

Cowboys Defense Yielded 432 Yards

In all, the Cowboys gave up 432 yards of offense on just 56 plays, a whopping average of 7.7 yards per play. Quarterback Derek Carr threw just 16 passes and completed 11, but still tallied 243 yards through the air. Running back Alvin Kamara was the real wrecking ball for New Orleans, as he scored three touchdowns and put up 115 yards on 20 carries.

Last week, the Cowboys allowed only 230 yards to the Browns, the fifth-best total in the league. They allowed only 3.3 yards per play, and took away two interceptions.

Parsons had only three tackles on the day and said that the Saints gave him a different look, where he was not only being chipped by a tight end, but then getting blocked by a back, too. He compared it to being in a maze.

Still, he said, there is no cause for panic from the Cowboys.

“We gotta be aggressive, we gotta create penetration,” Parsons said. “And do a much better of tackling. I am trying to ride the guys, get everyone to calm down, let’s focus in. We’re here. This is adversity. We need to hit this wall, we need to get better. Don’t shy from it.”

Micah Parsons: ‘It Is so Early’

Still, to see the Cowboys’ run defense go from allowing 93 yards last week to 190 this week evokes bad memories of the Cowboys’ struggles against the run in the 2023 season, when Dallas allowed 170 yards or more three times during the season, and allowed 143 yards rushing in the blowout loss against the Packers in the playoffs.

The Cowboys have changed up their front seven a bit, with Mazi Smith now manning the nose tackle spot and a new linebacking crew of Eric Kendricks and DeMarvion Overshown. The results are frustratingly familiar.

“Last year is last year,” Parsons said. “We are in a new year this year, it’s a new room I am with, new guys. I would not say I am concerned right now, just because it is so early in the year. We can do so much better. I don’t think a lot of guys played 100%, and we didn’t do our job to the best of our standard and our standard wasn’t held today.”