FRISCO, Texas -- The Thanksgiving holiday brings families together every year, for better or worse, and even if certain topics of conversation can become toxic, football is sometimes the one that allows relatives to come together. For Cowboys two-time First-Team All-Pro Micah Parsons, who is entering his third career Turkey Day game as a Cowboy in Week 12 when Dallas hosts the Washington Commanders, Thanksgiving is a holiday full of good vibes with family.
Parsons has racked up three sacks, seven quarterback hits and four tackles for loss in his two-game Thanksgiving career. For context, across the best two-game stretch of his 2023 season, he totaled three sacks, six quarterback hits, four tackles for loss, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
"I think I've been playing pretty good on Thanksgiving," Parsons said Tuesday. "That might be my type of game. I like when certain family members are in town. It gives you something to look for, especially some of my uncles and stuff. They're in the military, things like that, don't get to see them as much, and my uncles are funny. As a kid, I always wanted them to come to my games, and they were like, 'Man, if I'm coming, my nephew has got to be good. I'm not going to waste my time.' So any time they came, I made sure I put on a show. Everyone's like, 'Oh, who's that?' He's like, 'Yeah, that's my nephew! That's my nephew!' That's digging back to when I was so young. It's always been a privilege and a pleasure to play for them."
One of Parsons' uncles, Marcel -- who is an Air Force veteran -- allows the two-time First-Team All-Pro pass rusher to level up his game simply by gracing the stadium the Cowboys are playing in with his presence, according to Parsons.
"One of my uncles is extremely good luck," Parsons said. "I was like, 'Man, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?' He was like, 'I don't know.' I said, 'Why don't you come out [from Parsons' home state of Pennsylvania]?' He's like, 'Can't afford it.' I said, 'Don't worry, brother. I'll send the flights over. You'll be there.' He's actually the one that I would love to give him the football for the Jets game [Parsons tried giving him his forced fumble he recovered in Week 2 in a 30-10 home win against the New York Jets, but Marcel was in another suite at the time getting food]. I might have to get me a forced fumble, so I can find him and give him the football. He's some good luck for sure.... I got to get in the end zone huh? Yeah, that's the next step for sure."
According to the 24-year-old, Penn State alum's personal stat tracking, he has somewhere between seven and eight sacks in six career NFL games played with Uncle Marcel in the stands. Parsons also revealed the Cowboys' record in those games is 4-2 with Dallas currently on a two-game losing streak when he is attendance.
"I got about eight sacks with him in attendance," Parsons said. "We're 4-1. He came to the Niner game [the Cowboys' 42-10 Week 5 blowout defeat on "Sunday Night Football"]. I said, 'Man, your luck must have ran out.' Oh, no! We're about 4-2. We lost against the Eagles [28-23 in Week 9]. He came to the Eagles game, but I definitely did have a sack [one-and-a-half to be exact]. On the sacks side, we're good. He's about 50-50 [with wins and losses] right now. His track record is good though."
Parsons' football track record continues to place him among the NFL's most disruptive defenders once again in his third NFL campaign. His 62 quarterback pressures are the second-most in the NFL, one behind Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby's 63, and his 10 sacks are the seventh-most in the league. In Week 11, a 33-10 demolition of the Carolina Panthers, he tied his career-high with 2.5 sacks to become the first player in Cowboys history to have double-digit sacks in each of his first three seasons and the ninth in league history to do so.
On paper, it would appear Parsons and the Cowboys defensive front, which leads the NFL with a 47.4% quarterback pressure rate, have another strong opportunity to pad their numbers against Commanders first-time starting quarterback Sam Howell. He is the 2023 NFL season's most sacked quarterback as he has been taken down 51 times in 11 games. That total puts him on pace to be sacked 79 times, which would break the NFL single-season record set by 2002 first overall pick quarterback David Carr in the Houston Texans' first year of existence as an expansion franchise.
"I think just like anything, statistics and analytics are bright lights," Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said Tuesday when asked about the matchup of Howell against his pass rush. "You look at that, and it's no different than if you're on the other side of the conversation. Protection's a huge part of every passing game. We understand what you did yesterday doesn't guarantee you anything today. Hopefully we keep building off of that positive statistic [leading the league in quarterback pressure generated on defense]."
Howell, a 2022 fifth-round pick who made his NFL debut in the two teams' last matchup -- a 26-6 Commanders win in the 2022 regular season finale in Week 18 when the Cowboys' fifth-seed in the NFC playoffs was already essentially secured -- is playing a brand of football never seen before in the NFL under offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who came over to Washington after winning two Super Bowls and helping develop MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes as the Chiefs offensive coordinator from 2018-2022.
Howell leads the NFL in pass attempts (442), completions (295), passing yards (3,038) and interceptions (12) in 2023, something no quarterback has done in a full, single season since at least the 1970 AFL/Merger. Howell's 518 dropbacks this season are 93 more than the next-closest player, Bills quarterback Josh Allen (425). That gap between Howell and Allen for first and second is smaller, 87 dropbacks, than the 93-dropbback gap between Allen and Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (338 dropbacks), who ranks 22nd in the same category.
Sam Howell's stats in 2023 season
| NFL Rank | ||
|---|---|---|
Dropbacks | 518 | 1st |
Completions | 295 | 1st |
Pass Attempts | 442 | 1st |
Comp Pct | 66.7% | 14th |
Passing Yards | 3,038 | 1st |
Passing Yards/Att | 6.9 | 20th |
Pass TD | 18 | T-7th |
INT | 12 | Worst |
| TD-INT | 18-12 | T-22nd |
Passer Rating | 88.6 | 19th |
"Playmaker," McCarthy said Tuesday when asked to describe Howell. "He can really spin the ball. I was impressed with him in December last year [Howell's first career NFL game and start, a 26-6 Commanders win over the Cowboys in Week 18]. He obviously has a new system. They are playing wide open with him. He's put up some big numbers."
Even though the on-pace-to-be-historic sack total Howell possesses seems like it would be like honey for a bear or lasagna for Garfield the cat for any pass-rusher, Parsons claims he doesn't put much stock into an opponent's season metrics entering a game day.
"I really don't look at that," Parsons said of Howell leading the NFL with 51 sacks taken. "I feel like we've just got to capitalize because Sam Howell has been one that has some of the most pass attempts, some of the most yards in the NFL. You just never know how they're going to play us. We've seen that quite a lot over the years that teams switching up game plans, switching up strategies because of who they're playing against. It's not a stat sheet you can bank on."
What he is banking on is showing out in the Thanksgiving Day spotlight for his uncle in order to get his hands on a postgame turkey leg, a tradition started by late Hall of Fame coach turned broadcaster John Madden in 1989. Madden handed one to late Hall of Fame defensive lineman Reggie White after a 27-0 shutout victory over the Cowboys.
"Two and a half sacks is great," Parsons said postgame on Sunday after the win over the Panthers. "But I told [my teammates], I'm going for that turkey leg."
