The Week 2 edition of Thursday Night Football was not a fun watch for Dallas Cowboys fans, as the division rival Commanders took the field against Micah Parsons and the Packers. Given Dan Quinn's porous track record against Matt LaFleur, it wasn't a surprise to see Green Bay handle Washington pretty convincingly.
Beyond that, Parsons was comfortably the best player on the field. In one of the best games of his career, the former Cowboy compiled 10 pressures, 1.5 sacks, and a 25.0 percent pass-rush win rate, per PFF. That's Defensive Player of the Year stuff.
That production won't come as a surprise to Cowboys fans. What is downright astonishing, and equally infuriating, though, is that Parsons drew three holding penalties in the game. That is more penalties than Parsons drew all of last season with the Cowboys, per FanSided's Marcus Mosher.
Micah Parsons drew more penalties on TNF than he did all of last season with the Cowboys
Just when you thought the trade couldn't get any worse.
In fairness, Parsons was absolutely held on all three penalties against the Commanders. He's the NBA equivalent of LeBron James as far as being fouled on every drive to the hoop. While Parsons obviously isn't going to get every call, it became a theme for refs to turn a blind eye to the majority of those infractions over his four years in Dallas.
Per Mosher, Parsons failed to draw a holding penalty in the final 11 games of last season. That is despite the 26-year-old logging 71 pressures (6.5 per game) and a pass-rush win rate of 24.8 percent during that span. That is essentially the same win rate he posted on TNF.
Nobody expects NFL refereeing to be perfect. But it’s strange that Parsons rarely got the benefit of the doubt on blatant holds while playing for the Cowboys, a team the league constantly showcases in primetime for ratings, and now suddenly gets all the calls in Green Bay.
It is clearly a Cowboys issue. They couldn't buy a holding call against the Eagles in Week 1 despite multiple clear infractions by Philly's offensive line. In general, they rarely get a good whistle. It's no coincidence Parsons is finally getting superstar treatment the second he left Dallas.
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