The Dallas Cowboys experienced a tough defeat in their home opener at AT&T Stadium in front of their fans yesterday afternoon, falling to the New Orleans Saints. The Saints secured a commanding 44-19 victory, with Dallas allowing a disappointing 35 points in the first half, tying a franchise record for most points conceded in a half.
For star linebacker Micah Parsons, who promptly defended defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer following the loss, the setback will serve as motivation for him and his teammates, whom he called out as a whole for their lack of preparation and discipline as compared to their Week One victory over the Cleveland Browns.
“My biggest takeaways from that game? One, the effort wasn’t there, by all eleven,” he said on his podcast ‘The Edge with Micah Parsons’. “It doesn’t matter who plays well or doesn’t play well, the effort by all 11 wasn’t there. The basic fundamentals of the game of football weren’t there, and at the end of the day, you have a standard of who you are during training camp and throughout this process to get ready for the season.”
“We didn’t uphold that standard and that wasn’t the Dallas Cowboys that I knew and saw who showed up last week. It was not the same team in (our) preparations. What was it? I don’t know, but I’m determined to get this thing right.”
Parsons then explained that he is trying to take on more of a leadership role with the team and that improvements start by pointing the finger at himself.
“I’m trying to step up this year and be that guy for our team, we have to be a whole lot better,” he said. “It started today, I feel like we made a big jump by breaking down the film. It was hard to watch.”
Parsons and the Cowboys have no choice but to improve
It’s evident that yesterday’s loss is weighing heavily on Parsons, who is acutely aware of the urgency for the Cowboys to reclaim the championship that has eluded them since their dynasty years in the mid-1990s.
“Coming on the show, coming on live, it’s hard to talk about the losses and hard to take it,” he continued. “We have to take this loss and learn from it, right? It’s early in the season, it’s reminding us of the Broncos of a few years ago, Arizona last year. But the championship isn’t won right now, we have a whole lot of time to get this together and keep getting better, and this is gonna be a big week to get better.
For right now, let’s just focus on the Cowboys – the fans have a lot of questions. What was the difference between this week and last week? Honestly, to my standard and level, there wasn’t a big dropoff. I don’t know if it was just an earlier game, but we weren’t flying to the ball, we weren’t striking blocks the same way.”
He concluded his remarks by stating that he and the rest of his teammates didn’t play “complementary” football, a key in today’s NFL.
“We didn’t play complimentary football, and I keep telling you guys that complimentary football is so big in the NFL,” he said. “We just weren’t clicking defensively, I thought Dak played a really good game, but we did not help our quarterback.”
