Parsons finishes 2019 season in style
First, Micah Parsons put together a consensus All-American season.
Saturday afternoon at the Cotton Bowl, the sophomore Nittany Lion linebacker built on it with the best game of his career.
Helping Penn State earn a 53-39 win against Memphis at Cowboys Stadium, thanks to an MVP performance in which he collected 14 tackles and a pair of sacks, even Parsons understood its significance.
“This was another level,” Parsons said. “This was my best game.”
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The sentiment might have been an understatement.
Having vacuumed up tackles since his true freshman year, leading the Nittany Lions with 83 stops despite starting just one game, then following it with a team-leading 95 tackles during Penn State’s 2019 regular season, Parsons has become a steady presence at the top of the stat page.
His singularly outsized impact on games, however, has never been as recognizable as it was Saturday afternoon.
Twice, Parsons was credited with forced fumbles, though neither produced takeaways for Penn State. Three of his tackles were in the Memphis backfield, most notably blowing up a reverse in the first quarter for a 10-yard loss. And two more times, Parsons was credited with pass breakups, though he likely would have preferred another shot at a sure interception that flat-out slipped through his hands.
All game-impacting plays, none were at the level of his game-wrecking quarterback hurry on Memphis’ signal-caller Brady White late in the third quarter. Locked in a 38-36 game, Penn State just surrendering possession on a failed fourth-down conversion, the Nittany Lions were in desperate need of a stop.
Forcing the Tigers into a third-and-8, Parsons' next move did that and more. Launching himself through the Memphis offensive line and toward a hapless White, Parsons’ pressure forced the quarterback to try to get rid of the ball, though it found its way directly into the hands of Penn State safety Garrett Taylor. Soon after, Taylor made his way 15 yards untouched into the end zone to give the Nittany Lions a 45-36 cushion that wouldn’t truly be threatened the rest of the way.
“Yeah, we like pick-sixes. They're good. They're good. Obviously, it was at a huge time in the game,” Franklin said, lamenting the failed fourth-down attempt that preceded it. “For our defense to come back and what you probably consider a sudden-change situation, and be able to get that play, I think it was a huge momentum play in the game… that was, I think really, really important and a huge momentum play in the game.”
Parsons echoed his coach’s thoughts.
“We wanted to just challenge them up top with some pressure, obviously with them chipping our defensive ends. Obviously, I was able to get my opportunity and make the most of it and I'm grateful for it,” Parsons said of the performance.
“When you get your opportunity, your moment, you just got to take advantage of it, I believe. And I was able to take advantage of it today.”
For his effort, Parsons was granted the Cotton Bowl’s McKnight Trophy honoring the game’s most outstanding defensive player.
Along the way, he built on an already impactful season by eclipsing 100 tackles, finishing with 109, and by making double-digit tackles in eight of his 13 appearances on the season.
None of it is to the level that Parsons says he’s trying to reach, though. Back for a third season in 2020, Parsons already had a critical eye toward the future following his performance.
“I’ve just got to build on it. No one is perfect. I’ve got to keep learning. I’ve got to keep doing more, keep helping the younger guys,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep building on top of this, and we’re just going to keep getting better and better.”
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