Micah Parsons Addresses Cowboys' 'Sleepwalking' & 'Survive and Advance'

The Dallas Cowboys weren't at their best against the Houston Texans, but the end result may pay dividends down the line.

“Survive and advance” is usually a mantra for the playoffs. At that point, no win is “ugly.”

Sunday at AT&T Stadium had that feel for the Dallas Cowboys.

Never mind that the proceedings weren’t anything close to the postseason. With the lowly, one-win Houston Texans in town, this was supposed to be as close to the NFL gets to a layup, not a 27-23 nail-biter.

The betting line was nearly historic. This was Alabama vs. Nowhere State. We expected Cowboys starters to be pulled early in the third quarter.

But things happen in the NFL. Letdowns are commonplace. Favorites, even big ones, lose often. Throw in a batch of turnovers against a team with nothing to lose, and a 98-yard drive in the last three minutes is needed to pull it out.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy tried to preach to his squad leading up that a mousetrap was laid come Sunday.

“That was really a part of our message this week, ‘don’t take the cheese,’” he said. “And don’t take the cheese, a big part of that is the expectation of everybody else because of the way you played the week before, because of your record versus their record and that’s where you get in trouble.”

McCarthy didn’t see any signs during the week that the Cowboys took the cheese. Practices, meetings were productive, he said. Sometimes the game just doesn’t go as planned.

“That’s why we talk about resiliently, adversity, advancement, all those things,” McCarthy said.

Another fun word? "Sleepwalking.''

“I don’t want to say that we came in 'sleepwalking,” young defensive leader Micah Parsons said. “I just think that they made some really big plays with the fumbles and interceptions. They came in like it was their Super Bowl and gave us their best shot. 

"I’m just glad that we fought through adversity.”

If anything, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys (10-3) deserve credit for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. A monumental goal-line stand and subsequent game-winning drive avoided what would have been the most humiliating loss of the season for any team.

And while from the outside that may seem to be the motivation, something more important may have been born inside the locker room. A belief that the Cowboys can get it done when nothing seems to be going right may be more beneficial than the blowouts of recent weeks.

“I think this will serve us more to us than the Minnesota game or even the way we finished last game [against Indianapolis],” Prescott said. “We are going to play some tough games as we get going. You have to play one-score games, here in the back end of our division or in the playoffs.

“Just for us to have that confidence and trust in one another is something we are going to need.”

Sometimes you need to just survive and advance. It sure beats the alternative.

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You can follow Art Garcia on Twitter @ArtGarcia92

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