Micah Parsons Attention 'Opening A Lot of Doors!' Says Dallas Cowboys Teammate Jayron Kearse
As far as "quiet games'' in the NFL go, Dallas Cowboys defensive star Micah Parsons had - on the stat sheet - the sound of silence against the New York Giants
With no tackles or sacks, in fact, nothing on the stat sheet for Micah, he wasn't exactly thrilled with his efforts on Sunday. Whether that be that the Giants made a concerted effort to take away the Cowboys' defensive centerpiece or whether it was scheming on Dan Quinn's part, the defense still got its kill.
But while many are concerned with Micah's lack of production - including Micah himself, given his "Free Me!'' declaration - safety Jayton Kearse has revealed that such is Parsons' influence on games, when the attention is all on 11, others get to eat.
“Every snap, if you don't have your eyes on No. 11, then nine times out of 10, he's going to wreck that play,” Kearse said. “So you know every time somebody lines up against us, they want to know where No. 11 is - whether he's on the edge, whether he's interior, off the ball at linebacker, you have to know where 11 is.
"His impact on the game is not just going to show up on the stat sheet all the time because he's opening a lot of doors for other guys to go out there and make plays, get sacks and interceptions and those types of things.”
Kearse is right. Despite Parsons being a no-show, the Cowboys' defense still totaled five sacks on Tommy DeVito, had seven tackles for loss, seven quarterback hits, and an interception.
So even with Micah taken out of the game, such is the defense's strength in depth, it didn't matter, and that's rather scary.
With Parsons no doubt eying a bounce-back game against the Carolina Panthers as coach Frank Reich's team has given up the fifth-most sacks in the NFL (33) and has only averaged 17 points a game (ranks 30th), the Cowboys must be wary over overlooking yet another opponent deemed "less than."
The 6-3 Cowboys handled business against the Giants, dropping them to 2-8, and now Kearse knows the importance of doing their jobs on Sunday, with what happened in Week 3 against Arizona still fresh in the mind.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” Kearse said. “You can't go into any game feeling like that record is this or that this team is that. Nothing's guaranteed in this league, so I don't think we'll have nothing like that again.”
The Cowboys need to come out breathing fire and put away this 1-8 Panthers team early, and perhaps the "Lion-Backer" will return with a statistical vengeance in the process.
If not, Parsons can act as the Dallas usher and, again, keep that door open for his teammates to have their moment in the sun.
