The Dallas Cowboys defense took a massive blow on Thursday night near the end of their win against the New York Giants when superstar pass rusher Micah Parsons went down with an ankle injury. Parsons is one of the key pieces to this Cowboys team and any time he misses would be severely detrimental to their chances of winning.

Unfortunately for the Cowboys, it looks like Parsons is going to miss some time. Head coach Mike McCarthy said on Monday that Parsons “will be challenged to play this week” due to his ankle sprain, according to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News.

Parsons was at the Cowboys' facility on Monday, but was in a walking boot and was using a mobility scooter to get around, per Jon Machota of The Athletic. The star pass rusher was feeling dejected after his injury.

“I feel like I’m letting people down,” Parsons said, per Machota. I kind of (thought) of myself as (being) invincible for a while. It’s humbling… I’m trying to get back as fast as possible.”

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Parsons missing games is a rarity. The former Penn State star has only missed one game in his NFL career, when he was held out of a game in his rookie season in 2021 due to COVID protocols. As for when he might return, the Cowboys would be smart to sit him out until after their Week 7 bye. That would give him four weeks to heal and he would only miss two games. However, if he's feeling good, a return in Week 6 against the Lions is on the table.

Parsons hasn't quite been his usual game-wrecking self so far this season, at least in terms of stats. He only has one sack and two tackles for loss this year in four games, which is well off of his pace of 40.5 sacks in his first 50 career games coming into this season. However, his impact on the offense and their game plan cannot be understated. Whenever Parsons is on the field, offensive coordinators have to build their game plan around blocking him, and losing that element of the defense is a massive blow.

The Cowboys also lost defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence to a foot injury, so there's a chance that they will be without their top two pass rushers moving forward.