Cowboys Believe Mistakes Correctable After ‘Shocking’ Cardinals Loss

Micah Parsons called the Dallas Cowboys' loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon "shocking." The Defensive Player of the Year front-runner believes Dallas played down to an inferior opponent in the Arizona Cardinals.

But that doesn't mean Parsons is stressing about the team's Week 3 faceplant at State Farm Stadium. And his opinion was one that carried throughout the locker room after the 28-16 verdict.

"I think we just beat ourselves," Parsons told reporters after Dallas allowed 7.4 yards per rush and went 1-for-5 in the red zone, per the team. "We put ourselves behind the eight ball a couple times. It just wasn't championship football.

"It was just us not executing, us being flat, us trying to make a play instead of just making plays together. That tends to happen. So we just need to look at the film, fix what we messed up and just never make the same mistake twice."

Fellow pass-rusher Demarcus Lawrence called it a good wake-up call and confirmed all mistakes were correctable. The Cowboys will try to fix those errors against the New England Patriots at AT&T Stadium on Sunday.

"No need to panic or anything like that," Lawrence told reporters, per the team. "We got punched in the mouth tonight, but it's all about us. I don't feel like they did anything special. I feel like through the pre-snap penalties and flags after the play, we actually beat ourselves."

Perhaps the most glaring aspect was how Dallas came out and allowed points on all five of Arizona's first-half possessions. The Cardinals rushed for 222 yards, which went a long way in those offensive possessions.

The Cowboys had allowed 10 points and 172 rushing yards combined in their previous two games.

"The last two weeks we were on fire and today we came out and we got lit," Parsons told reporters. "That's the reality of football. … We can't play down to (our opponent), and that's what I felt like we did today."

Dallas opened as a 6.5-point home favorite against Bill Belichick and the Patriots. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday.