PHILADELPHIA – Since Week 10, the Cowboys defense has been one of the best in the league in generating pressure and creating turnovers. In a 41-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, they weren't able to do either.
The Eagles offense, with backup quarterback Kenny Pickett and third-string quarterback Tanner McKee, put up 376 yards of offense and 41 points. Philadelphia has been Dallas' kryptonite on the defensive side of the ball, scoring 75 points on the Cowboys in their two games this year.
"We didn't start as good as we did in those last couple of games," Micah Parsons said postgame. "When you lose that turnover battle against the top team in the NFL, that's kind of like the outcome. We didn't play our brand of football today."
A majority of the work for the Eagles offense came on the legs of Saquon Barkley, who became just the ninth player in NFL history to surpass 2,000 rushing yards in a single season with a 167-yard performance against the Cowboys. Barkley also nicked up Parsons a bit on one of his carries, leaving the star edge-rusher in some discomfort as he returned to the locker room.
"Saquon chipped me right in my ribs," Parsons said. "It kind of like shocked me a little bit. It was just a good, not-anticipating rib shot, and it kind of sored me up. But for the most part, I'm good and I'm looking forward to finishing the season strong."
If the Cowboys do want to finish strong next week against the Commanders, they'll need to get back to doing what they had in previous weeks: generate turnovers on defense and protect the ball on offense.
The Cowboys offense didn't do its defense any favors Sunday afternoon, though, turning the ball over four times with two Cooper Rush interceptions and fumbles from Rico Dowdle and Jake Ferguson. In turn, Philadelphia scored 24 points off of the turnovers, hitting big play after big play, a major reason why the Cowboys didn't come out on the winning end of this game according to Parsons.
"Big plays, when you look at their play, they had two big runs and three good deep shots. Other than that, we made them earn it," Parsons said. "If you take away the scoreboard, it was about five plays that decide this game."
Sitting at 7-9 with one game left, this will be Parsons' first losing season in a Cowboys uniform. After three straight 12-5 records in the years prior, it certainly wasn't what he or this team expected.
"Yea, definitely not what I envisioned, definitely not what I hoped for coming off a devastating playoff loss," Parsons said. "And you go into this season, and with the devastating injuries across the board, CeeDee [Lamb], Dak [Prescott], Tre[von Diggs], you can't catch a break."
From here, it doesn't get any easier either, with some of the major injuries to players like Diggs and DeMarvion Overshown potentially keeping them out until later on in the 2025 season. Getting their key playmakers back will be key to the Cowboys finding themselves back atop the NFC East again.
"One, we're going to have to get healthy," Parsons said when asked about how the Cowboys can get back to the top of the division. "We've got three or four starters who aren't coming back until mid-next season, so we got to plan for that, we got to get healthy, we got to keep coming together. It's going to be a tough point."
The Eagles, who clinched the NFC East title with their victory today, and the Washington Commanders have found their franchise quarterbacks going forward, and the Giants have a chance to do the same in the 2025 NFL draft. That's something that Parsons recognized would be a very difficult challenge to overcome for the Cowboys heading into the next few seasons.
"It's going to be a very difficult next couple of years," Parsons said.
Difficult or not, Parsons is still going to give it his all, including until the end of this season in the finale against the Commanders next week.
"If you're a great football player, this is who you are; it's not what you do. So I'm not going to go ahead and say I wish the season was over," Parsons said. "You got to appreciate these games, these opportunities that we have."
"So when it comes to how we're going to finish it strong, I'm going to still give my best fight to the Commanders. This is who I am. I love this game."
