Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys have known their fate as a team that will miss out on the playoffs for the second year in a row for some time now, and all that’s left to put a bow on the 2025 regular season is their Week 18 game at the New York Giants. The Cowboys winning on Christmas Day brought the focus back to the on-field play of the team with something to feel good about momentarily, but the fact that yet another early arrival to an offseason full of further changes is inescapable now.
One of the things that feels the most inescapable in this regard is the team moving on from defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus sometime following the Giants game, and looking for their fourth coach in this role in four seasons. If the book is closed on Eberflus’ time as a coordinator after just one season, it will also coincide with the first chapter of the blockbuster Micah Parsons trade being closed. The Green Bay Packers may be going to the playoffs, but not with Parsons on the field after he tore his ACL at the Denver Broncos in Week 15. The Packers lost that game at the Broncos, and also their next two following it.
The Packers struggling so much defensively without Parsons, and obviously the Cowboys struggling so much for mostly the entire season without him, provides some unexpected context to where these teams stand on defense after the trade with the previously durable Parsons being sidelined now. Beyond the obvious that Parsons is an all-world player that single-handedly makes a huge impact on the game, his absence being felt by two teams now is insight into where modern defenses should stand in the great pass rush versus coverage debate.
With Parsons this season, the Packers rattled off wins against Jared Goff (twice), Jayden Daniels, Aaron Rodgers, and Caleb Williams. They gave up only 200 yards of passing in one of these games. Without him, they’ve lost to Bo Nix, Caleb Williams the second time around, and Ravens backup QB Tyler Huntley. Nix and Williams both threw for over 250 yards, and while Huntley only had 107 passing yards, the Ravens ran for 307 yards and four Derrick Henry touchdowns. The Packers only sack over their active three-game losing streak was against Huntley as well. Not having Parsons on the field for a play like Caleb Williams’ overtime winning deep ball touchdown to D.J. Moore two weeks ago was a backbreaker for the Packers to lose control of the NFC North.
To say the Cowboys have missed the juice of Parsons off the edge is an understatement, but elsewhere around the defensive line there at least have been a few things to feel optimistic about otherwise. Rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku looks like a solid piece for the future. Kenny Clark hasn’t been asked to do it all at defensive tackle, as the other trade chip of Quinnen Williams has made an impact along with Osa Odighizuwa and Solomon...
