Green Bay Packers defensive end Micah Parsons enters Week 8 with 5.5 sacks. The Packers will hope Parsons can keep the momentum he gained against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7 to get after Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers on “Sunday Night Football.”
Parsons had a relatively slow start to racking up sack numbers with the Packers after Green Bay traded for him on Aug. 28. The 2021 first-round pick registered 2.5 sacks through his first five games with the Packers.
However, Parsons looked more like the All-Pro player NFL fans were accustomed to seeing during his days with the Dallas Cowboys, recording three sacks in the Packers’ 27-23 win over the Cardinals.
League officials penalized Parsons for one play he made against Arizona. He was flagged for using a hip-drop tackle to sack quarterback Jacoby Brissett in the second quarter. Green Bay incurred a 15-yard penalty for the action, giving the Cardinals a first down at the Arizona 40-yard line.
The Cardinals would score a field goal on the drive to cut the Packers’ lead to 6-3.
Parsons could have faced a fine for making a hip-drop tackle. New York Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams was fined $17,389 for a hip-drop tackle in Week 3. The league has made the hip-drop tackle a point of emphasis to officiate because it can lead to serious injury.
Per Howard Balzer of USA Today, the league chose not to fine the star defensive end for an illegal tackle.
“Entering Week 7, there had been nine hip-drop tackles where players were fined no penalties called,” Blazer posted on X. “However, Packers DE Micah Parsons was penalized for one last Sunday against the Cardinals, but there was no fine.”
The flag against Parsons came days after he was critical of officials allowing players to hold him without being penalized for holding.
“It’s just one of them things,” Parsons said. “Five years of not getting a call, you eventually stop worrying about it. I think I just got to keep going. That’s the hunt, yeah. That’s part of the challenge is you just got to keep going.”
This week, the league issued Parsons a call in his favor, saving him from a double-digit fine for Week 7.
