“The effort was not there by all 11,” Micah Parsons reflects on Cowboys blowout week 2 loss to New Orleans Saints

Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons blamed the entire defense for their loss to the Saints, saying they weren't good enough and must improve with the Ravens up next.

“The effort was not there by all 11,” Micah Parsons reflects on Cowboys blowout week 2 loss to New Orleans Saints

Micah Parsons (Image via IMAGO)

Micah Parsons hopped back into his podcast room to discuss the terrible 44-19 loss for the Dallas Cowboys against the New Orleans Saints. That was the Cowboys’ back-to-back home losses, in which they conceded more than 40 points.

Not so long ago, in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the AT&T Stadium was a fortress for the Cowboys, where they won 16 straight games until the wild card game earlier this year. The Green Bay Packers manhandled the Cowboys’ secondary and painted a blueprint for other teams to come to Arlington and repeat the same.

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That’s exactly what the Klint Kubiak-led Saints offense did with Derek Carr finding passes through the Cowboys’ defense with ease. Micah Parsons recorded just 2 tackles with the Saints offensive line, keeping him quiet all game.

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Parsons acknowledged the lackluster Cowboys defense that gave up a touchdown after seven plays in the first drive, another touchdown in the first play of the very next drive, and a third after just four plays. In hindsight, the Cowboys secondary observed a total meltdown.

The effort was not there, by all 11. It doesn’t matter who plays well or who didn’t… the effort by all 11 wasn’t there. The basic fundamentals of the game of football was not there. At the end of the day, you have a standard of who you are; during the training camp and throughout the process to get you ready for the season, we didn’t uphold that.
Micah Parsons said during the recent segment of The Edge podcast on Bleacher Report

Micah Parsons claims the Cowboys ‘weren’t clicking’ against the Saints

Switching from Dan Quinn to Mike Zimmer was a big step for the Cowboys in the off-season. Zimmer implemented his own style of dogged and old-school football defense throughout the entire camp. However, they were an open book on Sunday, allowing Carr, Alvin Kamara, and Chris Olave to take advantage.

The effort was not there, by all 11 Micah Parsons reflects on Cowboys blowout week 2 loss to New Orleans Saints
Micah Parsons (Image via IMAGO)

Although Parsons argued there wasn’t a big drop-off from their Week 1 game against the Cleveland Browns, statistics say otherwise. The Cowboys pass rush was on full display at the dawg pound, with 17 pressures on quarterback Deshaun Watson, forcing him to throw 2 picks and fumble the ball twice.

A week later, that superstar pass rush was nonexistent, with zero pressure on Carr. No wonder Carr threw for 243 yards, 2 passing, 1 tush push touchdown, and 1 interception while Kamara walked in 3 by himself.

Parsons admitted that there was a lack of complimentary football from all parts of the defense.

We weren’t striking blocks the same way and weren’t playing complimentary football. I keep telling you guys that complimentary football is so big in football. Special teams has to be clicking, the offense has to be clicking, the defense has to be clicking. We weren’t just clicking defensively… We didn’t help our quarterback.
Micah Parsons said

Zimmer vowed to fix the defense before week 3 because he has done it before.

My first game here as a coordinator was the Pickle Juice Game (the Cowboys lost 41-14 to the Eagles in 2000). I vow to fix it after that. If I didn’t fix those, I wouldn’t be standing here today.
Mike Zimmer said as per the Athletic’s Jon Machota
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Zimmer has to patch the holes up really quickly because they will be playing against the Baltimore Ravens, who may have lost both of their opening games, but it’s still the Ravens led by last season’s league MVP, Lamar Jackson. Historically, the Ravens have dominated the fixture, winning 5 of their 6 meetings since 2000. The Cowboys’ only victory came during Dak Prescott’s rookie season in 2016.