Micah Parsons chews out refs after ridiculous no-call vs Dolphins
The Dallas Cowboys took an early lead on Sunday against the Dolphins but sacrificed it after a roughing the passer call on edge rusher Micah Parsons set Tua Tagovailoa and Miami up for a score right before the half. Parsons let the refs hear it after the penalty flag flew as his frustrations peaked over multiple no-calls for holding on the Dolphins offensive line.
Including the first two quarters on Sunday, the former first-round draft pick has gone 36 quarters without drawing a holding penalty. As one of the most effective pass rushers in the league, Parsons is used to drawing holds, but he would like the league’s officials to throw the flag more often than they have recently.
After the win against the Eagles in Week 14, Parsons insisted that he wouldn’t start flopping to draw the refs eyes to him.
“It’s frustrating. I kind of wish people saw it the way I do. I kinda tell the ref, ‘If you just look at me the whole time, you don’t even have to look anywhere else, it’s right there in front of you,’” Parsons said.
“I’m not into dramatics, man. I just want to kill this guy, whether he got to hold me, whether you’re going to see it. There’s going to be another play. There’s going to be another opportunity. You’ve just got to know when to take it. I’m not going to learn how to be like these basketball players and quarterbacks where I just flail to the ground because some guy is holding me. Then, I can miss the sack because I’m flailing to the ground.”
Mike McDaniel: Parsons is one of the best players in the league
Though Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel has coached against Parsons just once — the 2021 playoffs when he served as offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers (11-3) — he knows exactly the caliber of player he’s dealing with. This week, he called the Cowboys star one fo the best players of the league – regardless of position.
“He is one of the best players in the National Football League at any position. And it’s — yeah, I don’t think it’s really debatable,” McDaniel said. “This dude is different. And the orchestration that he has with his teammates, the stuff that coach [Dan] Quinn does with the multiplicity of his alignments, and you can tell that not only is he unique in skillset, but you don’t play all the way across the line, and in the stack, and do all the thing that he does without having a true love for the game.
“He’s more fun to watch when you’re not going to play him. But that being said, I like the challenge of facing elite players like our players do. And it’s really cool to watch because you combine talent with strength, that’s rarefied air in general with the level of talent and the level of strength that he exhibits. He is a real dude, for sure.”