Mike Zimmer’s first game as Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator was Sept. 3, 2000. The Cowboys got destroyed 41-14 by the Philadelphia Eagles at Texas Stadium.
Led by running backs Duce Staley, the Eagles rushed 46 times for 306 yards and three touchdowns. It is known as the “Pickle Juice Game” because Philadelphia players drank pickle juice to help prevent cramping in the 100-degree heat.
Zimmer made reference to that game during his Monday afternoon news conference with reporters at The Star.
“I vowed to fix it after that,” he said. “If I didn’t fix those (issues), I wouldn’t be standing here today. … All I know is that we went to work to fix it, and we did.”
Cowboys DC Mike Zimmer on yesterday’s loss: “I don’t really think it was an effort issue. That team beat us off the snap quite a few times. … We didn’t get moving quick enough. … I just got to do a better job.” pic.twitter.com/foPV8qkb3H
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) September 16, 2024
The Cowboys didn’t give up 300 yards on the ground again that season, but they did allow over 200 rushing yards four more times as they finished 5-11.
Zimmer had that game on his mind a day after Dallas allowed the New Orleans Saints to rush for 190 yards and four touchdowns in a 44-19 beatdown of the Cowboys in their home opener.
There’s plenty of blame to go around on the entire roster, outside of maybe kicker Brandon Aubrey. It would be difficult for anyone associated with the defense to say they played well. But the defensive tackle position was of particular concern.
The position hasn’t been a strength for several years. It has contributed to a Dallas run defense that hasn’t finished a season ranked higher than 16th at stopping the run since Mike McCarthy was hired as head coach in 2020.
“We made some technique adjustments that we need to be better at,” McCarthy said. “We can’t get gapped, and we were gapped time and time again. That puts more pressure on your second-level defenders, obviously your linebackers and our primary support element. But yeah, we have to. It’s that first step, the discipline, playing the technique and making sure the fit behind them is in order. We definitely were not clean and we weren’t consistent.”
Zimmer, who is two games into his second stint as Dallas defensive coordinator, tried to take blame for the poor showing. Although star pass rusher Micah Parsons said on his weekly Bleacher Report podcast that “the effort was not there by all 11,” Zimmer said effort was not an issue.
“Most of the guys, I didn’t coach up good enough,” he said when specifically asked about the defensive tackles. He paused a few seconds and added: “It really isn’t one spot. There were things we didn’t do well. We ran under some blocks, we had some perimeter run force issues. But that’s me.”
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday morning on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas that Zimmer told him they would improve and that their issues were correctable.
Did Jones think there was a lack of defensive adjustments?
“No. No. Not at all,” he said. “We can do this and we can do it with the personnel that we’ve got out there right now.”
But do they have the personnel in the middle to be a quality run-stopping team?
Through two weeks, Pro Football Focus doesn’t have a Cowboys interior defensive lineman ranked among the top 90 in the league. Osa Odighizuwa is 92. Linval Joseph is 112. Jordan Phillips is 114. Mazi Smith is 115. In run defense, Joseph has the highest grade and he’s ranked 108.
Odighizuwa played the most defensive snaps of the group Sunday with 40. Smith was next at 33. Joseph followed with 24, and Phillips played 19. Odighizuwa played 61 against the Cleveland Browns, followed by Smith (23), Phillips (15) and Joseph (13). In two games, those four have combined for eight tackles and one tackle for loss.
What gives Zimmer confidence they do have the right guys at the position?
“(They) will be,” he said. “I’ve done this for 28 years in this league. I’ve seen a lot of defensive tackles. As long as they continue to do what we’re asking them to do, they’ll have success. They may not be the greatest pass rushers, but we’ve got other people to do that.
“But like the game (Sunday), we didn’t allow us to rush the passer. They didn’t give us the opportunities because we didn’t get the run stopped. I just obviously have to make a better effort of it. I have to get more detailed in the things that I’m telling them. I’ve got to make sure that we’re working on those specific details every single day, which we will.”
The most significant investment of the group is Smith, whom Dallas drafted 26th in 2023. He was the first defensive tackle the Cowboys picked in the first round since Russell Maryland in 1991. Smith has not recorded a tackle this season.
“Honestly, I think he’s progressing a lot,” Zimmer said. “I think he’s in the right place 99 percent of the time. What he needs to do is, and we’ve been working at it, once he defeats the block, getting off the block and going and finishing and going to make the tackle. He had a couple nice rushes (at Cleveland in Week 1). He didn’t rush quite as well this week. But I’m not displeased with Mazi at all.”
Dallas has struggled to hit on defensive tackles early in the draft. Over the last 10 years, the Cowboys have drafted five defensive tackles in the first three rounds. Smith, Odighizuwa, Neville Gallimore, Trysten Hill and Maliek Collins. The last three are no longer on the team. None received a second contract from the Cowboys.
Jason Hatcher is Dallas’ last defensive tackle to make the Pro Bowl, and that was in 2013. The last to make All-Pro was Jay Ratliff in 2009.
Though that is an issue that needs to be fixed, it doesn’t mean they must be elite in the middle to stop the run. The Cowboys had the NFL’s best run defense in 2016. They allowed only 83.5 yards per game on the ground with a defensive tackle group that mainly consisted of Terrell McClain, Collins, David Irving and Cedric Thornton.
Since taking over in February, Zimmer said the Cowboys have not had a single practice look like the way they played against the Saints. It’s odd that all of a sudden, only two weeks into the season, there would be such poor play.
What’s alarming is that it looked familiar to a few games last season, specifically the wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers, Week 15 at Buffalo, Week 3 at Arizona and Week 5 at San Francisco.
Things only get more concerning when considering Dallas’ next opponent. Led by the reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens were the league’s top rushing team last season and have been top three every year since 2018. And the Ravens should be a motivated bunch, going from hosting the AFC Championship Game in January to starting this season 0-2.
“In this league,” Zimmer said, “they’re all going to copycat, so we have to fix the things that we didn’t do well.”
(Photo: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
