FRISCO, Texas — Mike Zimmer has felt this sting before. He remembers it all too well, as a matter of fact, and he referenced it directly shortly after he was rehired as the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator this offseason. The "it" in this scenario is the infamous "Pickle Juice Game", and those who know, know; and what happened at the hands of the New Orleans Saints reignited a trauma within Zimmer.
More on that in a moment, though.
"I think the biggest thing is, like last week, don't get too high and, this week, don't get too low," said Zimmer on Monday following the shellacking. "We've got a lot of areas that we need to improve in. Obviously, in the NFL, it's kind of like that — a bunch of ups and downs.
"Tough people fight through it."
He went on to take full accountability for what his defense put on film only one week after taking Deshaun Watson and an offense that features Amari Cooper out to the woodshed in Cleveland, but watched Derek Carr throw for 243 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 attempts in large part set up by the Cowboys' inability to stop the run.
Zimmer disputes Micah Parsons' assessment that it was an effort issue, though.
"I don't know that's the case," he said. "I think we got lined up fine. We were trying to move the front some and they caught us a couple times, and when they were moving guys, so I've just got to do a better job.
"… I said, 'I've watched you guys for over three months now. Right? I've never seen us at one practice like that. I've never seen us [give up] plays in a practice like that.' I mean, these guys, typically, they are on point and do everything the right way. They play very, very hard. They like to compete.
"Again. I didn't allow them to use our strength, which is being able to get him into some third down situations and passing situations. So I've got to do a better job."
For those who don't know of the infamous "Pickle Juice Game" in Cowboys' lore, a very abbreviated history lesson is in order here.
On Sept. 3, 2000, the Cowboys hosted the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1 of the debut season of Dave Campo as head coach and with Zimmer having been promoted to coordinator. All the Eagles did was blow the doors off of Texas Stadium to the tune of 41-14, using pickle juice to stem cramping in the Texas heat, as Duce Staley ran for 201 yards on the ground and totaled 262 yards from scrimmage.
It marked a turning point in how Zimmer approached defense, swearing his fealty to stopping the run at all costs versus allowing the run for the sake of selling out to stop the pass (he is a former defensive backs coach, after all), and he's never once changed that tune since.
So when he watched Alvin Kamara rack up 180 yards from scrimmage (115 rushing) and four touchdowns (3 rushing), the Saints totaled 190 rushing yards on an average of 5.8 yards per carry — it was the turn of the century all over again.
"Yeah, I talked to [the defense] today for a while," Zimmer said. "We watched film together. We talked about things we need to do better, things I need to do better and we'll just keep working on it. My first game here as coordinator was the Pickle Juice Game. I saw to fix it after that.
"If I didn't fix those, I wouldn't be standing here today."
Zimmer went on to greatly improve the Cowboys' run defense going forward, particularly in his second season as coordinator in Dallas only, as it stands, he's not under contract for a second season at this time. That means he'll need to get it repaired far more quickly in his second stint as the defensive maestro.
Zimmer blames his scheme. Parsons blames lack of effort. The film blames lack of execution.
Truth is, maybe it was all of the above.
And if the Cowboys don't get it fixed quickly, they'll be in quite the pickle in 2024.
