Micah Parsons gets OT sack but nobody wins in Packers' visit to Dallas a month after trade

“I'm supposed to make that play,” Parsons said after his much-hyped reunion ended with the NFL's first tied game since 2022. “That's the reason why I'm here.”

After that, the Packers drove for a field goal of its own to end the extra 10-minute period.

“I’m not even going to lie ... I’m very disappointed, just overall how we performed,” Parsons said of their defense.

Parsons’ return came came exactly a month after the Cowboys unloaded the star rusher in a blockbuster trade that ended a long and acrimonious stalemate over a contract extension.

“All in all, the emotions for me being in Dallas went away the moment they traded me,” Parsons said. “I didn’t even get to talk to my owner (Jerry Jones), the person that drafted me. I found out through my agent. ... So to me, that emotion side was pointless, because the same way he called me in his office as a man, he couldn’t tell me as a man. So to me that that emotion side was gone. It was more about a respect factor at this point.”

While fans tried to implore Jones to pay Parsons as the contract issue lingered through training camp and the preseason, the trade was contingent upon Parsons agreeing to a $188 million, four-year extension. That $47 million annual average is the highest for a non-quarterback in league history.

Jones said he believed he had a deal in place with Parsons at $40.5 million per season, which at the time would have made Parsons the first defensive player to surpass $40 million annually.

The agreement came in a conversation between the two, and Jones never engaged Parsons’ agent despite the 2021 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year’s insistence that David Mulugheta be his final negotiator.

Parsons finished with that one solo tackle and sack against Dallas, along with two assisted tackles and three quarterback hurries.

On the Packers’ final defensive play of regulation, Parsons was charging hard and bumped into Prescott after he let go of a 28-yard TD to George Pickens in the final minute for a 37-34 lead.

That was the seventh consecutive lead-change touchdown before the Packers got a tying field goal at the end of regulation.

Then in overtime, Dallas only got that deep after Prescott, while being pursed by Parsons, hit Jalen Tolbert for a 34-yard gain after he somehow managed to get both feet in bounds.

Parsons told The Associated Press at the start of the week that it would be “painful” to sack his mentor, Prescott.

But it was Parsons who grabbed at his back on the sideline after going down hard on a play late in the third quarter.

“I came out for a play, and next thing you know they took me in a tent. I thought that was very weird, because I didn’t even grab my head when I came up. I grabbed my back,” he said. “That was just so weird. I don’t know what the NFL saw or why they tried to put me in concussion protocol.”

Once he came out of that tent, Parsons got his helmet, then turned toward the field just as the Cowboys scored to go up 23-20. He raised his arms in apparent frustration and almost threw his helmet.

After the Packers retook the lead with a touchdown, Parsons was on the field for their first defensive play after that early in the fourth quarter.

Parsons has 2 1/2 sacks for the Packers, while the Cowboys not surprisingly have been left with one of the worst pass rushes in the NFL. Dallas also had the 32nd-ranked pass defense and, on the game’s opening drive gave up a 46-yard pass on a third-and-9 before Jordan Love's 2-yard TD pass, the first of his three while throwing for 337 yards.

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