“The bigger the stage, the bigger the player.”
Those were the words of Micah Parsons as he addressed reporters Thursday at The Star in Frisco announcing this Sunday’s playoff meeting with the 49ers.
And as the Cowboys prepare to enter a divisional round stage for the first time since 2018, the rumor surrounding much of the NFL is that they don’t belong in the same spotlight as their red-and-gold opponents, who are on an 11 standing -game winning streak.
After all, the Niners averaged 365.6 yards per game and a whopping 26.5 points per outing during the regular season.
Cowboys’ numbers in the same categories: 354.9 and 27.5.
Hey wait a minute…
But Parsons says he has nothing against the naysayers. In fact, he enjoys her casual dismissal.
“We hear what everyone says,” he said. “We hear it, ‘No way the Cowboys are going to win, no way.’ Honestly, I think you should go for it. You should love that stuff. When no one believes in you, that’s the best feeling; Not when everyone believes in you and the Kool-Aid is on and everyone’s smiling like, ‘You can’t lose. You’re too good.’ I don’t want that feeling because then it’s like, ‘Damn, what if I don’t win?’ When you are at the bottom, the only way to go is up. I really like being the underdog.”
And with so much talk about the 49ers’ superstars in so many positions — Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Trent Williams, Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, Javon Kinlaw, Dre Greenlaw, Fred Warner — it’s easy to fall into the trap grope I think the San Francisco juggernaut will roll the cowboys right down Lombard Street and clean them out of the bay.
Yes, they are probably the most talented team Dallas has faced.
“But I don’t think they’ve faced anyone like us this year either,” Parsons said.
This isn’t self-hype and bluster. The thing is, he’s right.
Looking at the 49ers’ regular-season schedule, one has to argue that the last legitimate team they played against also gave them their last loss.
San Francisco fell to the Kansas City Chiefs on October 23, 44-23.
Aside from that game, the Niners have only faced four other teams all season to make the playoffs, and they’re not exactly a killer line: the 10-7 Chargers, the 9-8 Dolphins, the 8-9 Buccaneers and the 9 -8 Seahawks twice. (They sent Seattle home last weekend after beating them in the wildcard round for the third time.) Neither of those teams is alive anymore.
In contrast, Dallas played six teams in 2022 that made it to the postseason: the aforementioned Bucs, the 13-4 Vikings, the 12-4 Bengals, the 9-8 Jaguars, the 9-7-1 Giants twice and the 14-3 Eagles twice.
The difference, of course, is that four of these teams are still in the tournament.
Yes, the Cowboys screwed up more games and looked bad at times. On opening night against Tampa Bay, they were completely unprepared. They got pushed around Philadelphia in week 6. The overtime losses to Green Bay and Jacksonville were unfortunate. And the end of the season against Washington was an embarrassment.
But every single Cowboys loss this season has come against teams that either made it into the postseason or were right on the hunt in the last two weeks of the season.
Prior to Week 7, the 49ers also lost to the Falcons, the Broncos, and the Bears.
Bla bla bla.
Overall, if you ask Parsons, there’s way too much emphasis on who the other team sharing the stage is.
“I don’t want to go out there and try to hit the 49ers. They will slap my ass if I play their game. i will play my game I will contribute my strengths and what I bring with me. They will bring their strengths to bear. Let’s just fight it out,” he said.
“I think we’re pretty hard to stop. That’s what we need to focus on: not beating ourselves.”
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