Cowboys on wrong end of historic career start Week 5 vs Steelers

With injuries mounting, why not throw a career milestone on to salt the wound.

When the schedules were released in May, fans of quarterback pressure circled two of the Cowboys’ first five games. In Week 1, the matchup between Myles Garrett and Micah Parsons lived up to the billing of two of the three preeminent pass rushers in the NFL with both players notching sacks.

Week 5 was the second iteration as Parsons and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ TJ Watt were set to match wits. Only Parsons was injured in Week 4 and is missing the game. To make matters worse, with Dallas driving near the end of the first quarter to take an early lead, Watt made history.

Watt, who has led the NFL in sacks three times already in his career, notched a half tally in a strip sack of Dak Prescott deep in Pittsburgh’s territory, giving him 100 for his career in just 109 career games.

It’s the fastest a player has made that number since Reggie White did it in 96.

Watt, of course, could have been making these milestones while wearing a Dallas uniform. In 2017, Dallas had Watt sitting there in the first round to be taken out of Wisconsin, but the Cowboys famously thought that because they ran a 40-front, Watt wouldn’t make a good fit as he was used to playing standing up.

Instead the Cowboys selected Taco Charlton out of Michigan, who couldn’t even complete half of his rookie contract without getting released.