Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer will forever be haunted and motivated by the pickle juice game in 2000.
You remember the first game of the forgettable Dave Campo era of Cowboys football that featured three straight 5-11 seasons before he was fired and replaced by the legendary Bill Parcells.
Well, Campo’s turn as Cowboys started ominously with with a 41-14 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on a sweltering day at old Texas Stadium.
The temperature was 109 degrees at kickoff and it much hotter on the field in a stadium with hole in the roof that was more of a hotbox in September.
The Eagles drank pickle juice to deal with the heat while the Cowboys suffered from cramps and heat exhaustion and gave up 306 yards rushing.
It was Zimmer’s first ever game as a defensive coordinator and he invoked the pickle juice memory upon returning to the Cowboys with the task of fixing the team’s woeful run defense.
Zimmer ran the Cowboys defense from 2000-2006. He took stints with the Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals as defensive coordinator before becoming head coach of the Minnesota Vikings from 2014 to 2021.
“My first year as a coordinator, my very first game — the ‘Pickle Juice Game’ — we gave up 220 yards,” Zimmer said during OTAs in May. “I was [also] the secondary coach and I said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go go go, and let those guys go up front.’
“We gave up 220 yards. Since that day … we’ve concentrated on getting the run stopped. We want to rush the quarterback too, but we feel like in order to rush the quarterback you’ve got to stop the run, to get him in those kinds of situations.”
Two games into the 2024 season and two games into his return, Zimmer invoked the pickle juice game again, thanks to the Cowboys giving up 190 yards rushing to the New Orleans Saints in an embarrassing 44-19 loss Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
There was no cramping or heat to blame. It was old-fashioned butt whipping.
Zimmer put the blame on himself and promised to get it fixed like he did before.
“My first game [in Dallas] was the pickle juice game,” Zimmer said Monday. “I vowed then to fix it. And if I didn’t fix it then, I wouldn’t be standing here today.”
Zimmer fixed things then but it wasn’t an overnight occurence.
The Cowboys finished the 2000 season 31st in rushing and 31st in total defense.
In addition to the pickle juice game, Zimmer’s defense was run over by the San Francisco 49ers (261), New York Giants (203, Jacksonville Jaguars (161), Minnesota Vikings (168), Baltimore Ravens (250), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (250) and Tennessee Titans (158).
The Cowboys improved to 13th against the run in 2001 and 15th in 2002. In 2003 under Parcells, Zimmer’s unit moved to 3rd against the run and first overall.
And that’s when his career took off and his reputation as one of the league’s top coordinator began to solidify.
It’s the main reason the Cowboys brought him back in 2024.
The difference is he won’t get three years or even one year to turn things around.
Zimmer is on a one-year deal like the rest of the coaching staff, including head coach Mike McCarthy.
He must make good on his pickle game promise immediately.
This is a copy cat league and opponents will bludgeon the Cowboys on the ground until they can find a way to stop it.
The Baltimore Ravens are sure to test Zimmer’s resolve next Sunday with quarterback Lamar Jackson, one the league’s most feared runners, and Derrick Henry, a two-time NFL rushing champ.
