Micah Parsons lone bright spot from Cowboys’ rough outing

The Cowboys have a star on their hands, and it appears he’s only getting started. Parsons was a lightning bug in a dark outing on Sunday. | From @TimLettiero

In a game that went south quickly, the Dallas Cowboys fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in a Week 11 away bout. The offense struggled early and often, earning themselves no more than three field goals by the end of the game. Defensively, Dan Quinn’s unit was able to hold the elite Kansas City offense to only 19 points, an even greater feat considering how quickly they reached 16.

At the center of it all was the do-it-all rookie. Micah Parsons continued his white hot streak dating back to Week 8.

Parsons became the lynchpin of the Dallas pass-rush attack, lining up on the edge 97% of the time (56 of 58 defensive snaps, per NextGen Stats) and totaling what would become a career-high seven pressures on 33 pass-rush snaps. He get home two times for sacks while also making two tackles for a loss.

On one of his sacks on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, Parsons burst past the right tackle on a curved pursuit line at a whopping 17 mph and forced a fumble. It was an outrageously athletic play from someone who is 6-foot-3, 245 pounds.

Parsons fell into the lap of Dallas after a traceback in April’s NFL Draft and it seems to be going as good as it can be. In the past four weeks, he’s accounted for 5.5 sacks on eight QB hits, 31 tackles with 10 for a loss and two forced fumbles. With Defensive Rookie of the Year practically in his possession already, should he keep this pace up Defensive Player of the Year should not be too far away.

Parsons is in elite company not just in the past four weeks but on the season as a whole. With reigning DPOY Aaron Donald not even close it looks like a race between three elite young pass rushers and the rookie defensive weapon, Micah Parsons. A campaign like this is unheralded and this recognition will certainly be the icing on the cake to what has been a great season thus far for the Penn State product.

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