The ever-growing man cave at Micah Parsons’s house has a new centerpiece.
The second-year linebacker, who won the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year Award last season, led the Cowboys in sacks in his first year, and leads the team so far this year, finally- in his 24th game as a pro- got his hands on the ball.
And boy, did he make the most of it.
Late in Sunday’s third quarter, Parsons pounced on a David Montgomery fumble, the first recovery of his still-young career. But then the 23-year-old was able to return the ball 36 yards for a touchdown, also the first of his career.
And to think, the former first-round pick nearly lost track of his souvenir after crossing the goal line.
“I dropped it; I said, ‘Oh no, where’d it go?'” Parsons told sideline reporter Jane Slater following the Cowboys’ 49-29 win. “I actually thought about giving it away, but I said, ‘No, no, no, no.'”
In hindsight, two things made Parsons’s first NFL touchdown especially memorable.
The first was how much hustle Parsons showed just to be in the vicinity of the loose ball. He was originally in Fields’s face at the 10-yard-line, causing the quarterback to scramble and eventually toss a short pass to Montgomery.
But when linebacker Leighton Vander Esch knocked the ball free from Montgomery’s grasp 22 yards downfield- and just five seconds later– it was Parsons who was immediately on the scene for the recovery.
“It just shows effort. You can’t teach effort,” Parsons explained after the game. “Just running to the ball regardless of if you make the play or don’t make the play. You just never know what happens on the football field. Kids out there, who may like, ‘Hmm, I’m running to the ball, but it’s not turning out:’ Man, it took me a year and a half before I finally got lucky. So, sometimes it’s just consistency. Just keep running to the ball and keep striving; eventually the ball is going to come your way. That’s just the football gods.”
And that brings us to the second amazing, darn-near-miraculous thing about the scoop-and-score: how the “and-score” part came as an unlikely bonus. Bears quarterback Justin Fields was within inches of Parsons as he cradled the recovered ball on the turf. Touching him at all- even accidentally- would have ended the play. But Fields inexplicably leaped over Parsons, going out of his way to avoid all contact.
It was a stunning mental lapse from the Chicago signal-caller.
“It’s my fault for just hopping over him,” Fields admitted later. “I should have tackled him. I can’t remember the last time I made a tackle. I’ve just got to be aware in that situation and make sure he’s down.”
Bears head coach (and former Cowboys assistant) Matt Eberflus acknowledged that the gaffe was a major turning point in the game. A successful Chicago drive there could have cut the Dallas lead to four points; instead, Parsons extended the margin to 19.
“Yeah, just touch him down,” Eberflus reiterated in his postgame comments. “We’ve showed multiple times during the course of our situations tape that we show every Friday that you’ve got to touch guys down. When you see that, you’ve got to touch them down. We know that. It’s part of pro football, and we’ve just got to do a better job there.”
But they didn’t, even though Parsons himself believed he was down after securing the fumble.
“I kind of popped up, ready to celebrate with the team,” Parsons told media members. “I thought I was down. Everyone was like, ‘Go go go,’ and I just went went went.”
It may have been the true game-icing moment, but Parsons’s teammates and coaches were reluctant to give the uber-competitive linebacker too much credit for his touchdown run.
“Those are game-changing type plays- not only to create the takeaway, but to be able to finish it,” head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters. “Obviously very excited, but part of me is annoyed because he wants to be on offense already. Now I’m going to have a hard time keeping him out of my office. His ball security is awful, so he still needs to focus on defense.”
“Honestly, I’m like, ‘Jeez, I’m going to hear this for a while, about how he needs to run the ball or be on offense,'” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott also joked from the podium.
“Zeke [Elliott, Cowboys running back] said I looked just like him,” Parsons offered with a grin. “I think I definitely deserve a rep now. They can’t say that they haven’t seen it in a game, so hopefully I get thrown into a goal-line package or red-zone package. But hey, who knows?”
Parsons can continue to dream about taking a real handoff and busting through the offensive line for a big gain. For now, though, his first pro touchdown as a defensive superstar will have to suffice.
“That guy’s an athlete, that guy’s a hell of a player, one of the best in the league,” Prescott said. “For him to be able to go get that touchdown- and trust me, many more are going to come in his career and hopefully a few more this year. He’s a special player, and we’re just blessed to have him on this team.”
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