Dallas Cowboys 'Defense First'? Micah Parsons 'New Standard' Needs Win vs. Tom Brady
FRISCO - Dallas Cowboys young leader Micah Parsons is on-record as saying he believes his unit can "break some more records and set a standard of how defense should be played.''
A premium way to illustrate that belief? Do something Dallas has never done: Beat Tom Brady.
The Cowboys 2022 season opens as it did a year ago, against a Tampa Bay Bucs team led by QB Brady, who comes into AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Sunday night with a ridiculous 6-0 record against "America's Team.''
Does Dallas "need'' to stop that trend vs. Brady? Said owner Jerry Jones: "I'm excited about our opportunity to play against the Bucs and him here this Sunday night. But ... we want to do something about that.''
Does that mean Dallas, which is seeking to become the first repeat NFC East champ in a decade, must also become a "defense-first'' team?
Parsons and some of his pals on that side of the ball seem to think so.
“It could be as good as we want it to be,” DeMarcus Lawrence said. “This is all up to us and getting our stuff together out here with DQ. We are just going to continue to grow and see where it takes us.”
"DQ'' is coordinator Dan Quinn, who believes he is overseeing arguably "the NFL's fastest defense.'' But a year ago, the Cowboys lost 31-29 to the Bucs. There was improvement from there, as Dallas led the NFL in takeaways and reduced its points-allowed number from 29.6 (in 2020) to 21 points per.
Still ... allowing 29 points likely won't often cut it.
Maybe an even-better Parsons is the fix.
“Last year, I was just trying to earn the respect of my fellow teammates and my fellow players across the league,” said Parsons, who won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and was a Defensive Player of the Year finalist. “This year, I just want to go out there and dominate.”
That's big talk. (And Parsons this week had a lot to say about Brady.) But historically in Brady vs. the 'Boys, it's the legendary QB who always gets the last word.
But, argued Parsons, “I don’t think I’m facing the same Tom Brady, and he’s not going to be facing the same Micah Parsons, so it’s going to be a battle. It’s not the same defense we had last year, either. So either way you look at it, everything has changed. We still got to go out there and play football on Sunday though.”
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