Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons had not missed a game for injury in his career until last week. He will miss another this week as the team has ruled him out for Sunday’s game against the Lions.
It appears Parsons is targeting Week 8 following the off week in Week 7 as he works his way back from a high ankle sprain.
The Cowboys will play a second consecutive game without their starting defensive ends, with DeMarcus Lawrence on injured reserve with a foot injury. Their top backup, Sam Williams, was lost for the season during training camp, and another backup, Marshawn Kneeland, went on injured reserve this week.
The Cowboys also won’t have starting linebacker Eric Kendricks (calf/shoulder).
Cornerback DaRon Bland (foot), cornerback Caelen Carson (shoulder) and linebacker Nick Vigil (foot) are questionable. Vigil is Kendricks’ backup.
Bland remains on injured reserve, but the Cowboys are expected to activate him to the 53-player roster Saturday.
The Lions will have their starting center when they play the Cowboys on Sunday.
Frank Ragnow (pectoral) is officially off the injury report and is ready to go for Week 6.
Given Detroit’s bye, Ragnow will have missed only one game.
Safety Kerby Joseph (hamstring) was added to the injury report on Thursday as a limited participant. But he was full on Friday and is set to play.
Defensive back Brian Branch (illness) will play but offensive linemen Christian Mahogany (illness) has been ruled out.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff set NFL records for the most passes and most yards in a game without an incompletion in the Lions’ last game, and on Sunday against the Cowboys he’ll try to break the NFL record for most consecutive completions.
Goff completed the last pass of the Lions’ Week Three game and then went 18-for-18 in Week Four, so he has completed 19 consecutive passes. The NFL record is 25 consecutive passes without an incompletion, shared by four different quarterbacks: Ryan Tannehill, Marcus Mariota, Philip Rivers and Nick Foles. No quarterback has ever thrown 26 in a row without one falling incomplete.
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was asked this week if he would call some short passes to start the game and help Goff set the record, but he insisted the Lions wouldn’t call a play that put individual stats ahead of team success.
“Not even on my thought process. We’re playing ball,” Johnson said.
Goff is completing a career-best 71.0 percent of his passes this season.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has torn down his house, and he’ll build a new one on the site of it.
The demolition project received plenty of coverage this week. On Thursday, Prescott expressed frustration with the extent of it.
“I think it’s crazy the coverage that it got,” Prescott told reporters. “Just being frank, you know. Trying to live — keep my personal life my personal life. Build a home or a place or have a property that you know I’m about to raise a daughter and a family there that I truly don’t appreciate the drones, the extra videos, and honestly the conversation of it. I’m super blessed to be able to at this point build what I want. So, enough said.”
It’s a fair request from Prescott. Pro athletes deserve to have privacy. Complicating this specific case is that Prescott had the Dude Perfect crew help tear the place down, with videos of it.
So some will say Prescott wants to have it both ways. Seeking attention while reserving the right to resent the extent of the attention he seeks.
Regardless, there’s a limit. Even if reasonable minds will differ as to where that line resides.
Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis has a reputation for getting under the skin of opposing receivers and he added to it in last Sunday’s win over the Steelers.
Steelers receiver George Pickens grabbed Lewis by the facemask and threw him to the ground at the end of the game, which is an emotional response that Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown can understand. St. Brown said on his podcast this summer that Lewis was “talking crazy” during last December’s game between the teams and Lewis recalled that this week by saying “we’re going to see what’s real and what’s not” when the two teams meet again this Sunday.
On Thursday, St. Brown called Lewis a “good player” and said that any chatter is going to serve as motivation for him to come up with a big game.
“Yeah, typically don’t get too involved,” St. Brown said, via Rainer Sabin of the Detroit Free Press. “I might say something back a little, but for the most part, it fires me up, gets me going. So, I love it.”
St. Brown had six catches for 90 yards and a touchdown in last season’s loss to the Cowboys and a repeat of that production — along with a lack of reporting issues for eligible receivers — would be a boost to the Lions’ chances of a win in Week Six.