“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.
