ARLINGTON, Texas — Micah Parsons walked over to his locker with his eyes red and swollen from having just dried tears before being approached by the swarm of media following the gutting loss suffered by the ĂŰĚŇTV at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football — his emotions overtaking him for a couple of equally important reasons.
The first is not simply the loss, but the fashion in which it occurred: a blocked punt that devolved quickly into a mental error that awarded the Bengals a first down they'd turn into the go-ahead touchdown and eventual win.
"That hurt, alright?" said the All-Pro edge rusher. "I won't wish this on anybody. You can't even put that in words, bro."
The other reason is the loss of DeMarvion Overshown to a potentially devastating knee injury, tests on Tuesday set to reveal the magnitude of the issue, but the talented young linebacker — who returned from a torn ACL in 2024 that cost him his entire rookie season in 2023 — is easily on track for, at minimum, a Pro Bowl nod.
But there's a chance that has come to a screeching halt, and Parsons paused to wipe tears before explaining what Overshown means to him.
"He don't deserve that," Parsons said. "He really don't. So knowing, understanding what he's going to go through, physically and mentally, is just so challenging. He's so talented. The year he was having, I mean, I really just don't think that's fair."
As the team awaits the final prognosis on Overshown, they're also left to reflect on what went wrong against the Bengals.
In all, Parsons and the Cowboys put clamps on Burrow and a Bengals' offense that could easily have marched into AT&T Stadium and hung a 50 burger on Mike Zimmer's defense if the defense wasn't up to the task of playing top shelf football.
They were though, and though Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase made plays here and there, the Bengals often struggled to gain traction for much of the game, having mustered only 20 points before the now-infamous blocked punt at the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter.
Unable to run the ball against the Cowboys, Burrow was forced to throw it 44 times and one of those were turned into an interception by safety Malik Hooker. Cooper Rush and Dallas' offense had its struggles as well, but a career game by running back Rico Dowdle helped them match serve with 20 points of their own as the fight neared its conclusion.
"I think we really did well," said Parsons. We could have did a little bit better containing him and I think we gave up some points but, I mean, you tell me we hold Joe Burrow to 20 points with two minutes left, and with our offense — the way we were moving the ball today — I think we could win the game."
They certainly had the chance to but, as has been the case in more than one of their losses, self-inflicted wounds would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
And as the Cowboys prepare to try and come to terms with what happened on Monday as they prepare to travel on a short week to face a suddenly confident Carolina Panthers, Parsons and every other player in the locker room is faced with yet another proverbial bottle of tough pills to swallow.
"I won't say it's snowballing, but I don't know." he said, pausing between words to try and make some sense of what's happening in 2024. "It seems like we're paying a due we don't [owe]. It's not fair. I don't know if it's bad luck, or karma, but in terms of the work ethic, everyone's working so hard.
"I'm going to really soak this one in. This one hurt me more than any loss this year, probably even worse than the playoff loss [to the Green Bay Packers in January], to be honest, because where we were going, how we were playing, playing good football? I'm going to sit on this."
Four games remain in the regular season, and Parsons will work to not only pick himself up from this gut punch, but everyone wearing a Cowboys' uniform, with the hopes of finishing out the season on some sort of positive note.
"I have to find a way to keep these guys alive," he said. "There's still football to be had. There are still openings to be had, but we have to take advantage of every opportunity the rest of the way. We can't let these types of games slip away like we did today."
Given Parsons' state after this game, it's impossible to ever accuse him of not caring about winning, or about his teammates.
