News: ESPN: Hidden Gems: Mackenzy Bernadeau

[Corso]

How quickly we forget how awful the 2012 line was. So when you wish to rewrite history, as you seem to want to do on occasion, please don't insult some of us that have touted the lack of line play for a while with your fond memories that aren't relevant.

Idgit, you continue to astonish me at your total lack of understanding what you see from week to week.

Not that I'm disagreeing with your overall statement, but who cares about the Line in '12 when the Line in '13 played better and still included him for long periods of time?

OK- don't forget about '12 but dismiss '13?

Just asking.

 

[theogt]

Frederick played well. Bernadeau just played next to him.

 

[Idgit]

How quickly we forget how awful the 2012 line was. So when you wish to rewrite history, as you seem to want to do on occasion, please don't insult some of us that have touted the lack of line play for a while with your fond memories that aren't relevant.

Idgit, you continue to astonish me at your total lack of understanding what you see from week to week.

Please. I've forgotten nothing about the 2012 line, whatsoever. Nor about the reasons for it. Nor about the countless posts in the countless threads where that was explained, TwoDeep. We were in the midst of an overhaul, and the only thing for it was to wait and see how it was going to turn out. We hit on the LT, we hit on the RG. We whiffed on the LG, and were able to rehabilitate the RG we'd invested heavily in. The problem in 2012 was playing a 4th option at OC and having two new OGs come into a new scheme with a new OL coach and not get any time whatsoever together before the games counted. And even then, the issues with this team in 2012 were more with the pass defense than they were with pass protection.

That's not rewriting history in any way, shape, or form. It's exactly what I told you at the time, because it's exactly what I was seeing from week to week. Just like I'm telling you this season that the problem is, once again, with the pass defense and not with Mackenzy Bernadeau or with the play calling or with whatever other phantom bugbears people want to complain about.

 

[ShiningStar]

Please. I've forgotten nothing about the 2012 line, whatsoever. Nor about the reasons for it. Nor about the countless posts in the countless threads where that was explained, TwoDeep. We were in the midst of an overhaul, and the only thing for it was to wait and see how it was going to turn out. We hit on the LT, we hit on the RG. We whiffed on the LG, and were able to rehabilitate the RG we'd invested heavily in. The problem in 2012 was playing a 4th option at OC and having two new OGs come into a new scheme with a new OL coach and not get any time whatsoever together before the games counted. And even then, the issues with this team in 2012 were more with the pass defense than they were with pass protection.

That's not rewriting history in any way, shape, or form. It's exactly what I told you at the time, because it's exactly what I was seeing from week to week. Just like I'm telling you this season that the problem is, once again, with the pass defense and not with Mackenzy Bernadeau or with the play calling or with whatever other phantom bugbears people want to complain about.

purely on the pass defense and not the coaches who kept abandoning the run?

 

[Corso]

Frederick played well. Bernadeau just played next to him.

I think this a very profound statement.
Frederick truly solidified both sides of the line with his play.
He was able to help brace the right side so that the entire team could benefit from a line that's safe on both sides while the left side did Man's work on their side without Fred's help for much of the time.

He helped both Bernadeau and Free in those regards.

Give Tyron and Leary credit though- if they couldn't do their jobs to the ability that they could, Fred wouldn't have been helping that right side as much as he was able to.

So much better than having to worry about Costa getting blown to smithereens on a chip play off a tackle who was really supposed to be taking on the RG and going the "path of least resistance" instead right into Romo's lap.

I was sickened by the folk who defended Costa's play.

 

[Idgit]

purely on the pass defense and not the coaches who kept abandoning the run?

Not even remotely on the coaches abandoning that run. That's a very minor concern in the scheme of things, and it's massively overblown here (though I agree it was an issue in two series in the GB game).

Now, if you want to have a whack at the coaches, feel free to whack them for not beign able to fix our pass defense (coverage & pressure). They deserve whacks for that, because that's what gets us beat much more often than not.

 

[Corso]

purely on the pass defense and not the coaches who kept abandoning the run?

I do have to agree that if more runs were called in the fourth quarters of games when the Cowboys had leads-

Some of these conversations we have would not be happening. No guarantee about that, but the odds are in favor of this being a sound statement rather than otherwise.

 

[TheCount]

What I find humorous about the Bernie situation is that on Talking Cowboys, all they wanted to talk about all off season is how Hatcher should be a backup rotational guy - not a starter and how Livings was clearly the better player over Bernie, no matter what the fans were saying.

Boy did the scout and the veteran reporter whiff on both those calls.

Bernie and Leary played well enough that unlike most years past, I won't be clamoring for a first round offensive lineman, but I certainly wouldn't say their are irreplaceable. We still need that guard that can move bodies off the line.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

I guess that was a knock.

The guy played darned well this year.

Not at all, MW; I have always liked the player.

My comment was to merely point out that while he was indeed a nice surprise this season, his upside is limited. After all, canned potato soup is good but it does not compare to a fresh-made bowl of Vichyssoise! That was the point of my post.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

Pretty much.

Throwing out superlatives like that for a ham and egger like Bernadeau is ridiculous but then I saw it was Todd Archer who did it and it started to make sense.

I agree. I thought he could be a serviceable guard when the Cowboys signed him but there is a definite need to upgrade one of the guard positions and Leary seems to have more upside than Mac. He was a "gem" but let's not overvalue him too much.

 

[xwalker]

In before 'I want this guy out of the starting lineup.' Oh, wait.
In before 'he improved so much because of Brian Waters.' Oh, wait.
In before the disparaging comparisons. Oh, wait.

In before more backtracking? I guess I'll have to go with that.

Some of you guys have been so colossally wrong about just about every aspect of what this team has been doing with it's OL the last three seasons, it's silly. Nothing but complaints while the team spent significant resources shoring up the horrible shape of the OT position, nothing but complaints about the development of Doug Free. Nothing but complaints about the FA acquisitions of the two OG prospects last season. Nothing but complaints about how long it took to sign Brian Waters last season, and mostly-nothing but lambasting the team for the drafting of Frederick for what most of you thought was a 3rd/4th round pick.

Now we get a thread that's explicitly about Mackenzy Bernardeau who, by any *reasonable* estimation was a solid FA signing who had a significant injury that compromised his camp and his early performance as a first time starter last season and who played well for us this last season--both *before* and *after* Brian Waters came into the lineup...and you still can't even manage so much as a 'my bad for those several hundred completely misguided posts I made the last two years which, as it turns out, were dead, dead wrong.'

That's fine, I guess, but it sure would be nice sometimes if all the complaining were met with--not an equivalent number of 'my bad' posts, because that would be just as tedious as the complaints were in the first place--but with so much as a single 'realist' saying 'you know what, I missed the boat on that one.' Just to know that you guys do, in fact, get it that sometimes you actually do have to wait and see how a young player adapts to a situation before you can conclusively say whether or not a signing was a good one or a bad one.

I posted after last season that Bernadeau had a couple of really good games that occurred between his 1st injury and his 2nd injury of the season. I also posted that he was significantly better than Cook when he filled in at Center.

 

[TheRomoSexual]

I'm fine with the current starters. If we can find a good value replacement at RT or guard, great, but there is no longer any need to reach. Our oline depth, however, is a major problem.

 

[Future]

He certainly played better this year but I still wouldn't hesitate to draft his replacement early next May. Upgrade the starting position and let Bern play backup.

Makes sense. I would actually try to draft one of those big tackles who could also play guard. That way, they could replace either Free or Mack in the starting lineup, and then Mack can be the backup C, allowing us to release Costa.

 

[jterrell]

Broaddus last yr was the only media guy that i read or heard say Mack was the better of the two between him and Livings. And the masses on this board called Broaddus every name in the book because he said this every week.

Livings was better early, Bern better late.
There really was never any doubt.

Same as last year Bern played VERY well late.
Most discounted that because we were losing games in painful miss out on the playoffs fashion.

 

[casmith07]

In before 'I want this guy out of the starting lineup.' Oh, wait.
In before 'he improved so much because of Brian Waters.' Oh, wait.
In before the disparaging comparisons. Oh, wait.

In before more backtracking? I guess I'll have to go with that.

Some of you guys have been so colossally wrong about just about every aspect of what this team has been doing with it's OL the last three seasons, it's silly. Nothing but complaints while the team spent significant resources shoring up the horrible shape of the OT position, nothing but complaints about the development of Doug Free. Nothing but complaints about the FA acquisitions of the two OG prospects last season. Nothing but complaints about how long it took to sign Brian Waters last season, and mostly-nothing but lambasting the team for the drafting of Frederick for what most of you thought was a 3rd/4th round pick.

Now we get a thread that's explicitly about Mackenzy Bernardeau who, by any *reasonable* estimation was a solid FA signing who had a significant injury that compromised his camp and his early performance as a first time starter last season and who played well for us this last season--both *before* and *after* Brian Waters came into the lineup...and you still can't even manage so much as a 'my bad for those several hundred completely misguided posts I made the last two years which, as it turns out, were dead, dead wrong.'

That's fine, I guess, but it sure would be nice sometimes if all the complaining were met with--not an equivalent number of 'my bad' posts, because that would be just as tedious as the complaints were in the first place--but with so much as a single 'realist' saying 'you know what, I missed the boat on that one.' Just to know that you guys do, in fact, get it that sometimes you actually do have to wait and see how a young player adapts to a situation before you can conclusively say whether or not a signing was a good one or a bad one.

Come on, Idg. Did you forget where you were!?

 

[jterrell]

How quickly we forget how awful the 2012 line was. So when you wish to rewrite history, as you seem to want to do on occasion, please don't insult some of us that have touted the lack of line play for a while with your fond memories that aren't relevant.

Idgit, you continue to astonish me at your total lack of understanding what you see from week to week.

The 2012 OL was pretty bad but it was actually very improved over the last month when we found a way to lose out of the playoffs.

Where we do agree is that fans are largely dumb and get tunnel vision.
After three years of screaming about the OL they ignored that the RT position was vastly improved, Tyron Smith was coming on and Bern played well that final month.

We still RIGHT now have endless threads where people want OL to be a MAJOR focus of the draft and off-season plan.
Those people are clueless as to the talent on our roster and should take up Madden as means for enlightenment.
Yes, they are so far off-base even Madden will help.

 

[Eddie]

He was a hidden gem.

After he replaced Waters he played very well the rest of the way.

I agree. Our entire OL was solid this year ... so nice compared the walking turnstiles from previous years. I think we have some players to build upon. I'd love to upgrade RT, but I think we're ok for the next year or two with who we have.

We have other issues to solve.

 

[Direwolf63]

Bernadeau has yet to do any OTA's or minicamp due to injuries. That's probably why he's been such a slow starter. This year he will be healthy going into the offseason. Hopefully, a full offseason will get him playing well in September.

At least that's what the Cowboys hope. With the Cowboys cap strapped, I don't think they want to pay $3-$4M to bring Waters in again. They would much prefer Berny on the right with Leary or a draft pick on the left.

 

[Carolina Cowboy]

I hope this franchise doesn't sit on it's proverbial *** WRT the O-line and continues to accumulate talent. MB is okay and had a decent year. Not for one second would I not consider drafting another top tier O-Lineman should they be available when we're picking. Unfortunately, through poor planning / lack of foresight / naivete' / or whatever you want to label it, I think the D-Line is going to, or at least should get most of the attention this off season. Would be great to have enough faith in the Organization to think both could be addressed, but we never seem to work that way. It always more of "What wheel is squeaking the loudest? Well let's fix that." approach.

 

[burmafrd]

I think this a very profound statement.
Frederick truly solidified both sides of the line with his play.
He was able to help brace the right side so that the entire team could benefit from a line that's safe on both sides while the left side did Man's work on their side without Fred's help for much of the time.

He helped both Bernadeau and Free in those regards.

Give Tyron and Leary credit though- if they couldn't do their jobs to the ability that they could, Fred wouldn't have been helping that right side as much as he was able to.

So much better than having to worry about Costa getting blown to smithereens on a chip play off a tackle who was really supposed to be taking on the RG and going the "path of least resistance" instead right into Romo's lap.

I was sickened by the folk who defended Costa's play.

theogt said Costa would make the pro bowl. I fell off my chair laughing at that