Between the Lines: What Got Into Arizona's Levi Brown?

After watching the Cardinals offensive line extensively during the season, I thought I had them figured out. Left tackle Mike Gandy was a solid, if unspectacular blocker. Guard Reggie Wells was very good, center Lyle Sendlein was a good tactician who could be overpowered, guard Deuce Lutui were solid enough and right tackle Levi Brown was a disaster. And that was when they were pass blocking, when it came to run blocking, they all struggled.

So what happens when the playoffs arrive? Gandy shut down John Abraham and dominated Julius Peppers. Brown has gone from slow-footed penalty magnet to a right tackle who eliminates his man, while the interior of the Cardinals line has been impenetrable. And in 95 pass attempts during the playoffs, Warner has only been sacked three times.

If the Cardinals' offensive line can keep up its All-Pro impersonation for one more week, they have a pretty good chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. But if they play like they did for most of the regular season, we'll get to remember that Warner isn't very mobile and has a tendency to fumble if struck by a strong breeze.

The Cardinals easily passed on of their toughest tests of the season in the NFC Championship game. Philadelphia sends anyone and everyone in an attempt to kill the quarterback before he can get rid of the ball. Despite that, Warner was sacked only twice, and he was rarely hit. Warner was responsible for a lot of that because he did a good job of getting rid of the ball quickly, but the Cardinals offensive line deserves a lot of credit as well.

Gandy was beaten only once for a sack against the Eagles, while Brown looked like a brick wall on the right side. That's pretty surprising since Brown was one of the league's worst right tackles during the regular season. For a previous Between The Lines, I went back and charted every sack the Cardinals gave up during the regular season. What I found was that Brown was responsible for 11 1/2 of the Cardinals' 28 sacks, while Gandy gave up six. On all but two of those sacks, Brown was beaten to the outside by defensive ends who simply used superior speed to beat him to the corner.

For a 2007 first-round pick who has already been moved from left tackle to the easier job of right tackle, it seemed to be a sign that he was headed to earning the label of first-round bust. But since the playoffs began, Brown seems to have found some quicker feet. He no longer gets beaten to the corner on a speed rush, as he's shown better quickness and the knack for giving a rusher a shove to the outside at just the right time, forcing him to run right on by Warner.

And now that Brown isn't as vulnerable to being beaten to the outside, defensive ends have tried to bull rush him or fake outside before cutting inside. That's playing right into Brown's hands. While he may be slow at times, he is large and strong, so he usually can swallow up a bull rush with no problem.

So what's changed with Brown? Coming out of college scouts saw no problem with his feet, even at the more demanding left tackle position (which explains why he was a high first-round pick). Maybe he's fixed some hidden technical flaw, but it's more likely that he's managed to sharpen his focus now that the playoffs are here--he's also not been penalized after being flagged for six false starts during the regular season.

If that's the case, it's hard to imagine he'll phone it in on Sunday in the biggest game of his life:

On paper, LaMarr Woodley should win the battle against Brown--he's one of the league's better pass-rushing outside linebackers. But Brown's performance during the playoffs gives the Cardinals' fans reason to believe he'll do the job.

On the other side, Gandy will have his hands full with James Harrison. Gandy has generally been pretty solid all season. He had a nightmarish game against the Vikings where he gave up two sacks and several hurries, but otherwise he's managed to hold his own, even as he's battled Justin Tuck, Julius Peppers (twice), John Abraham, Joey Porter and DeMarcus Ware.

He'll likely have to repeatedly handle Harrison on his own. While Edgerrin James is a very good back for blitz pickup, the Cardinals' offense depends almost entirely on the offensive tackles handling their man one-on-one. The Cardinals don't often leave backs in to help out the tackles, and they almost never use backs or tight ends to chip pass rushers on the receivers' way out into his route. So if Gandy wins his battle, it won't be because of extra help.

The other matchup that looks questionable for the Cardinals is at center. Sendlein is a decent, but unspectacular center. If the Steelers play much of their base 3-4 defense, Sendlein will likely have trouble controlling Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton without double-team help. If he can't it will free up inside linebackers Larry Foote and James Farrior to shut down the Cardinals' running game. Sendlein is rarely out of position and usually he has solid footwork, but Hampton is one of the league's best run stuffers, and it's unlikely that Sendlein can generate much push on him.

But he may not have to. The Steelers usually go with a nickel or dime defense against three wide receiver sets, pulling Hampton and replacing him with a defensive back. In those formations the Steelers move Aaron Smith and Brett Keisel inside in to defensive tackle spots in a four-man line. With the Cardinals using three WR formations constantly, there is a good chance that Sendlein will spend most of the game without anyone lined up directly over him, unless the Cardinals run the ball well enough to force the Steelers to go back to their 3-4.

This is a matchup where the Cardinals should struggle, but they've shown enough improvement over the past few weeks that it won't be as much a mismatch as we may believe.