ARLINGTON, Texas — Micah Parsons got one thing he wanted in his return to AT&T Stadium: He sacked his former quarterback, Dak Prescott. The rest of it, however, left him unfulfilled after his current team, the Green Bay Packers, played his former team, the Dallas Cowboys, to a 40-40 tie on Sunday night.
Though some on both sides weren’t sure how to feel about a tie in which the two teams kicked field goals in overtime — the Packers with just a second left in the extra session after they nearly mismanaged the remaining time — Parsons’ feelings were clear.
“I’m not even going to lie, I’m pissed off,” Parsons said. “I’m very disappointed, just overall how we performed.”
He wasn’t talking about the Packers’ offense. He said he essentially apologized to quarterback Jordan Love, who threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns.
“I even told Jordan to the side, you know, ‘Thank you for having our back today,'” Parsons said. “You know, that’s why it’s so pivotal to, you know you play complementary football. Because today, Jordan played like the player he was, and we let him down. We didn’t live up to the level of expectation on defense.”
Facing his former team almost exactly a month after he was traded to the Packers following an offseason contract dispute with Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, Parsons finished with four pressures — two of which came in overtime, when he sacked Prescott on second-and-goal at the Packers’ 4-yard line. The sack might have saved a touchdown because after Prescott threw incomplete on third down, the Cowboys kicked a 22-yard field goal to strike first in overtime.
In a game that featured seven lead changes — the most in a tie in NFL history, according to ESPN Research — Prescott’s 319 yards and three touchdowns just about matched Love’s output. The Packers pressured Prescott on 14 of his 41 dropbacks (34%), yet it barely fazed him. He completed 10 of 13 passes for 121 yards and 6 first downs when pressured.
“You look how precise No. 4 looked tonight, just getting through his throws, getting to his receivers, the timing,” Parsons said about Prescott. “I think he played a better game than we played defense. So, you know, shout-out to Dak, and I told him, I said, ‘You go watch that film. You lucky if you wasn’t on your s—, it would’ve been a long day, it would’ve been a real long day for you,’ but he played a hell of a game, and I give him kudos for that.”
Beyond the postgame embraces and conversations with several of his former teammates, Parsons said he had no other emotions in his return to his NFL home for the first four years of his career.
“You know, honestly, I think all in all, the emotions for me being in Dallas went away the moment they traded me,” Parsons said.
Parsons never mentioned Jones by name, but as he has said on numerous occasions since the trade, he has not talked to Jones in months.
“He couldn’t tell me as a man [about the trade],” Parsons said. “So, to me, that emotion side was gone. It was more about a respect factor at this point.”
Before the game, Parsons and Jones did not interact. Parsons did not walk onto the field until pregame warmups.
“It’s just not appropriate,” Jones said. “What are we supposed to do when we’re getting ready to play each other, all that’s at stake for him and all that’s at stake for our team, the Cowboys? That’s not appropriate to be visiting as you are getting ready to play.”
And during the game, Parsons did not talk trash, either.
“Zero,” Prescott said. “Not at all. Not at all. Until afterwards and it was great, good talks afterwards, staying healthy, great job, it was fun competing against you. But no talks happened at all during the game.”
Not even after Parsons sacked Prescott in overtime.
“I didn’t know that was Micah quite on my back,” Prescott said.
The Cowboys did their best to neutralize Parsons.
“It goes back to the plan,” Prescott said. “That it’ll be all hands on deck, whether it be the tight ends, whether it be the running backs. Honestly, there were one-on-ones, and those tackles did their job. Stepped up and did what they needed to do, kept him off, and kept him away from me.”
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer did not reveal the plan, although tight end Jake Ferguson chipped Parsons multiple times before going out on a route, and the team used max protections to shore up the front at times.
“What a great player, man,” Schottenheimer said. “We’ve got other Micahs [as the year goes on], and I hope to see Micah again. I hope we see him down the line here again in January.”
Jones, however, didn’t express any regrets about trading him.
“I knew that he is the great player that he is. And I like the way that we got ready to play him, played him and we ran at him, but we knew he was there,” Jones said. “He made a difference. But that’s the way it goes. Whether we like it or not, I’ll take my side of it and Green Bay can have their side of it.”
And both sides took home a tie, leaving the Packers at 2-1-1 and the Cowboys at 1-2-1.