Micah Parsons claimed he didn’t want to give the Eagles any bulletin board material ahead of the Cowboys’ clash with their division rival on Christmas Eve.
And then he handed their quarterback a monster-sized box of extra motivation, all gift-wrapped and topped with a shiny bow.
The Dallas linebacker sat down with Von Miller on the Broncos star’s podcast Tuesday, and the topic turned to Philadelphia passer Jalen Hurts and the MVP-caliber season he’s having. And that’s when Parsons played devil’s advocate.
And likely whipped up a firestorm in the process.
“Is it Hurts or the team?” last season’s Defensive Rookie of the Year asked.
Miller hedged his bets, giving credit for the Eagles’ one-loss record to both parties.
Parsons disagreed.
“It’s system and team!”
“I’m not trying to make no enemies,” Parsons went on to explain on Bleacher Report‘s The Voncast. “I just love the game so much, and I understand it so much, that when things are off, I just can’t hold it in. I’ve almost got to say something.”
Micah Parsons isn’t quite sure if Jalen Hurts should be in the MVP race?
Eagles/Cowboys Christmas Eve should be a movie
pic.twitter.com/Au9LU5FS98— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) December 14, 2022
You can watch the entire conversation here. But there’s a lot to unpack there in just those couple sentences.
Parsons obviously knows that his words are going to find their way to Hurts and the Philadelphia locker room with ten days (and another game) still to go before the two NFC East powers meet. And while he says he’s not purposely setting out to ruffle any Eagle feathers… he’s also not ready to hand Hurts any hardware quite yet.
Hurts currently has 3,157 passing yards, a number that’s good for 10th in the league, but still 1,003 yards behind Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. His 68.0 completion percentage is top-three, his 22 touchdown throws are tied for fifth, his three interceptions are the fewest for any quarterback who’s played the whole year, and his 108.4 passer rating is tops in the NFL.
Oh, and he’s in the top 20 on the league’s rushing yardage list, too.
But Parsons’s answer references “when things are off,” presumably for Hurts and the Eagles. Although he didn’t elaborate, it’s not immediately clear what he was referring to.
Philadelphia has won four in a row and 12 of 13 overall.
Hurts did complete just 57.1% and threw for just 153 yards in a seven-point win over Green Bay… but that’s a team Dallas blew a 14-point lead against.
And he was held to under 200 yards in a one-point squeaker over Indianapolis… but that’s a team the Cowboys were also losing to before an absurd fourth-quarter explosion of points. And it was Hurts who used his legs to score the game-winning touchdown against the Colts with under 90 seconds to play.
Is Parsons talking about only completing 15 throws against Dallas in their first meeting? Because two of those catches were touchdowns, and the Eagles asked Hurts mainly to hand the ball off that night- 30 times, to be exact- (and run it himself another nine times) in a nine-point Eagles win.
If those are examples of things being “off,” there are 31 other squads who would gladly take the results of off days like that every single Sunday.
Parsons himself registered seven tackles in that Week 6 contest versus Philly. He wasn’t able to sack Hurts, but he did have two passes defensed and got a tackle for loss.
Ultimately, what Parsons really did with his podcast quote was confirm his valid belief of just how good the Eagles are as a whole unit. From the running game (tied for second-most rushing yards) to the dual-receiving threat of A.J. Brown and DaVonta Smith (both in the top 25 in receiving yards), plus a very solid offensive line and a defense that’s second-best in yards allowed per game, Philadelphia sits atop most outlets’ power rankings for good reason.
“But everyone has their own opinions,” Parsons sagely added.
Indeed. And now his- about not only the Eagles but their quarterback, too- are probably already being made into Christmas Week T-shirts by Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni, while Parsons himself will be asked to spend the next few days clarifying his comments instead of prepping to get his Cowboys defense re-focused and back on track against a resurgent Jaguars squad.
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