Despite the recent struggles, Micah Parsons feels the Dallas Cowboys are better than their record says.

The Dallas Cowboys were subjected to another beatdown before a primetime national audience Monday evening, falling to 3-7 on the 2024 season with a 34-10 loss at home against Houston.

Despite these high visibility struggles and five-straight losses, star linebacker Micah Parsons insists that his Cowboys are a “damn good team,” adding that the scores in recent weeks don’t reflect the quality of Dallas’ team.

“I’m going to put this out there, we’re a damn good football team,” Parsons said on his “The Edge” podcast. “I know the scores ain’t showing it, and people feel like we’re missing so many key pieces, but I almost believe you need to really go through the things that we’re really messing up on.”

“I think our defense has really things around. Up until that last quarter when they got that touchdown on defense, we only really gave up those two touchdowns in that first quarter. Other than that, we gave up those six points in those other two quarters.”

This season for Dallas keeps redefining the word “strange.”

In lieu of Texans 34, Cowboys 10.

In lieu of the Cowboys losing their fifth consecutive game.

In lieu of now 0-5 here at AT&T Stadium after winning 16 consecutive regular-season home games heading into the 2024 season.

In lieu of the Cowboys now 3-7, their worst start since COVID 2020 and coming on the heels of three consecutive 12-5 seasons since.

And consider the now 7-4 Texans gained just three more yards than the Cowboys and the Cowboys threw for 74 more yards than the Texans.

But dang it, with 4 minutes, 16 seconds left in the third quarter of this Monday Night Football game, with Cowboys Hall of Famers Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin on hand, the Cowboys were only trailing in this Texas Showdown, as this game was being billed, 20-13. And that despite the Texans already having rushed for 92 yards, 80 of those belonging to Joe Mixon.

And then the roof caved in, and must admit there is a cheap line here for what took place on a high-wind afternoon with the roof actually open some 3½ hours before kickoff, causing the roof to recoil on a perfectly blue, uh, sunny day.

This despite still playing without Dak Prescott, DaRon Bland, Brandin Cooks, DeMarcus Lawrence, Marshawn Kneeland and heading into this one without Jourdan Lewis and Hunter Luepke. And then losing tight end Jake Ferguson to a concussion by halftime.

Why, the Cowboys were starting Josh Butler at left corner, signed to the 53-man roster prior to the game, his first NFL game appearance; had Israel Mukuamu playing in the slot; and first-year free-agent Princeton Fant, elevated from the practice squad, making his NFL debut at fullback.

Deion Sanders won’t be the next head coach of the Cowboys… right?

Over the past week, Paul Finebaum, Adam Schefter, Stephen A. Smith, Dez Bryant and Louis Riddick have discussed the possibility of Deion Sanders landing the Cowboys head coaching job, where perhaps Dallas could draft Shedeur Sanders to once again play for his dad.

Cowboys legend Michael Irvin added fuel to the fire on Tuesday, sharing on The Herd with Colin Cowherd that he knows for a fact Deion Sanders would leave Colorado to team up with Shedeur Sanders in Dallas.

“I believe 100 percent. And I can tell you, good sources told me that. Great sources have told me that,” Michael Irvin said. “That’s all I can say like that without violating anything else.”

Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders played together with the Cowboys from 1995-1999. It’s fair to say that they know each other well. The fact that the Cowboys signed Dak Prescott to a huge deal this past offseason obviously complicates matters, as does the fact that the Cowboys may not draft high enough to land Shedeur Sanders.

Still, it’s fun to speculate about the possibility as the 2024 college football season starts to wind down.

With Dak Prescott out for the season, CeeDee Lamb has to step up as the leader on offense.

“We were moving the ball up and down the field, but I feel like it’s been our thing all season of getting in the red zone and not scoring,” Lamb said. “Obviously, good teams do it, and we have been failing to do that, and it differentiates the score a lot.”

The Cowboys have trailed by 20 or more points in their last six homes games dating back to their loss to Green Bay in the playoffs at the end of last season, an NFL record. With that, Lamb knows his team needs to play better together in order to avoid more big losses, much less on their home turf.

“Obviously, everybody is looking to embarrass us, they have their opportunity, when they do, they try to put us out, Lamb said. “We had so much success over the last three years as far as in the regular season… for us, we’ve got to find ways to gel together, play together and finish this thing out.”

In the first half, the Cowboys defense gave up 17 points but strung together a turnover and gave the offense opportunities to tie the game going into the half and getting possession to start the third quarter. They came up short, and Lamb takes to heart that the offense’s shortcomings a reason for these big losses.

“I feel like the defense in the first half played lights out,” Lamb said. “And quite honestly, I take it real personal for us to be the reason that we’re really losing in these blowout games because when you look at it, granted they’re giving up a lot of points, but bro, we’re scoring nine points a game, and everybody should take accountability in that, myself included.”

On Saturday, Lamb popped up on the injury report with a back injury and suffered a shoulder injury a few weeks prior against the Falcons, and it seems like some of that pain is still lingering. That said, Lamb isn’t going to let that show on the field and is still committed to giving this offense everything he physically can.