The Dallas Cowboys got picked apart by Chicago Bears second-year quarterback Caleb Williams on Sunday.
Williams may never have looked as good in the NFL as he did in the Bears' Week 3 win over the Cowboys.
And the explanation might be simple: Dallas misses Micah Parsons.
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Maybe it's not the whole scoop, but it's a very real thing.
NFL.com's Judy Battista explained it like this:
"An absent pass rush in the absence of Micah Parsons shouldn't be much of a surprise. Caleb Williams was not sacked once Sunday while he enjoyed the best game of his career (four touchdown passes), and the Cowboys have just four sacks so far this season. But the Cowboys vowed they would stop the run better, and that didn't happen Sunday either. The Bears put together a 19-play drive that featured 11 consecutive runs and spanned 9:54, punching it into the end zone on a fourth-down pass, but the Cowboys gave a struggling Bears offense a major assist in their get-right game. The Cowboys' only victory this season required a 64-yard field goal to get into overtime against the Giants. Parsons and the Packers are up next."
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Of course, as Battista writes, the Cowboys and Packers are about to face off on Sunday Night Football in Week 4.
Green Bay is coming off a shocking loss to the Browns in which Parsons made a muted impact. He had been strong in his first two games with the Packers after the trade.
Dallas has a lot of other solid defensive linemen, so it seems the pass rush should still pick up to an extent, but you can't replace Parsons, and that much is already clear.
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