Micah Parsons Proved His Worth In One Game

Quarterback pressures? How about 10 of them?

Quarterback hits? Five.

Tackles for loss? Four.

Sacks? A career-high three.

In one game on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, Micah Parsons proved his worth, and then some.

Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon made the grave mistake of trusting left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and right tackle Jonah Williams to hold their own far too often in one-on-one matchups with Parsons on Sunday. Teams have double-teamed Parsons more than any other edge rusher in the NFL entering Sunday. However, Arizona decided to roll the dice in this game.

It backfired.

”He's a premium player,” Gannon said after the game. “[He] played that way.”

Coming out of halftime, Gannon even noted on the Fox broadcast that Arizona needed to "get more bodies" on Parsons after the superstar defensive menace for the Green Bay Packers constantly disrupted things in the first half. That didn’t stop Parsons from continuing to deliver in the biggest moments. Parsons had three sacks, and all three came in crucial situations.

Arizona had moved and grooved its way down the field on the opening drive of the game, chewing up nearly eight minutes in the process. On a third-and-goal from Green Bay’s nine-yard line, Parsons got past Johnson and immediately put Jacoby Brissett under duress. Brissett tried to step up into the pocket, but Parsons read that move and engulfed the QB, holding Arizona to a field goal.

In gut-check time in the fourth quarter, the game was tied 20-20. Arizona had been set up with a short field after a face-mask penalty added to a solid kick return. They started at Green Bay's 45-yard line.

A few plays later, Green Bay's defense faced another third-and-goal, this time from the 10-yard line. Parsons smoked Williams right from the jump, and Brissett never had a chance. Instead of facing a potential 27-20 deficit, the Packers bent but didn't break.

But the capper was the final sequence. Arizona was trailing 27-23 in the waning moments and moving the ball methodically down the field. On a first-and-10 from the Packers’ 26 with 32 seconds left and two Cardinals timeouts remaining, Parsons again beat Williams and sacked a helpless Brissett to the tune of a nine-yard loss that also burned a key timeout. It completely wrecked the drive and dashed Arizona’s hopes for a heroic comeback.

Too many one-on-one looks for Parsons ultimately led to Arizona’s demise. Even Parsons was surprised he got so many of them.

Despite a career-high three sacks for Parsons, he made sure to mention he didn't feel as though it was his best pass-rush game.

It's often a stretch to suggest one player won a game for any team in the NFL. Parsons was superb, but there were plenty of others who delivered like Josh Jacobs, Tucker Kraft, Romeo Doubs, Rashan Gary, and, hell, don't forget about kicker Lucas Havrisik!

So if you don't want to phrase it as Parsons winning this game for the Packers, that's fine. However, it’s undeniable that the Packers wouldn’t have won that game without Parsons. He was that good. People were making side-by-side videos of Parsons' sacks and a three-sack game Reggie White had back in 1993. That should say enough.

In an age where the deep-dive stats are more accessible than ever, some fans and analysts were choosing to ignore Parsons’ monumental impact on the team by focusing on sacks. That required overlooking his phenomenal quarterback pressure numbers, not to mention the amount of double teams he faced. Well, here you go, football sticklers, now you have your sacks, too.

The Cardinals flirted with danger on Sunday by allowing Parsons to navigate in far too many one-on-one looks and ended up snakebit. Parson also had his first massive moment with the Packers and showed he was worth every penny Green Bay sent his way.