Something I realized about the game

[187]

Not ONCE did I yell/mutter/think this phrase:

"COME ON LEVI!"

I have been hard on Levi all year, but he held up fine in pass protection and he was great in run blocking, especially on Beanie's big run. Apparently it's his m.o. to start off poorly and get better throughout the season? I would love to see him turn the corner and play consistently at right tackle, it'd be one less weakness/need going into the offseason. I have to give credit where credit is due and if I don't say Levi's name once all night long in a game he's playing in, it's definitely due!

By all means I hope I am giving Levi credit after the game next weekend! Go Cards!

 

[RugbyMuffin]

I knew it. I just knew Levi would bounce back.

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/f4/the-2-most-important-players-in-sundays-game-146331.html

More specifically:
http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2157819&postcount=3

 

[187]

Good call! Hopefully he keeps this up! Anyone else want to show Levi some love or do the majority of us dare not even speaketh thy name?

 

[Catfish]

Not ONCE did I yell/mutter/think this phrase:

"COME ON LEVI!"

I have been hard on Levi all year, but he held up fine in pass protection and he was great in run blocking, especially on Beanie's big run. Apparently it's his m.o. to start off poorly and get better throughout the season? I would love to see him turn the corner and play consistently at right tackle, it'd be one less weakness/need going into the offseason. I have to give credit where credit is due and if I don't say Levi's name once all night long in a game he's playing in, it's definitely due!

By all means I hope I am giving Levi credit after the game next weekend! Go Cards!

I don't want to be a Levi cheerleader, but I really do think that if we looked at the stats of all the tackles in the league this season, he would rank in the upper 10-15 percent of them, based on the fact that the players and coaches selected him for the all-star team.

The problem with a guy like Levi, is that his mistakes are magnified because he is alone on his island. Whiz seems content to leave him alone there, and obviously has confidence that he can protect the QB without help. O-linemen typically are not heard from when they are playing great. Only their mistakes are pointed out, either by a sack, hurry, or penalty. I would venture to guess that he has fewer of these than most tackles in the league if you really look and compare. Just my guess though.

I believe that we fans have a far greater expectation of perfection in O-line play than is possible. I believe that the coaches and players know that there are going to be X number of breakdowns during a season that are acceptable and within the perramaters of play, and that so long as the lineman is within those perramaters, his play is acceptable. No one ever achieves perfection. (a baseball hitter is considered tremendous if he only hits the ball 3 times out of 10). I don't believe the ordinary fan really knows what is acceptable in line-play.

 

[DRVNFAST]

No sacks, no penalties?


Then props!

 

[187]

I don't want to be a Levi cheerleader, but I really do think that if we looked at the stats of all the tackles in the league this season, he would rank in the upper 10-15 percent of them, based on the fact that the players and coaches selected him for the all-star team.

The problem with a guy like Levi, is that his mistakes are magnified because he is alone on his island. Whiz seems content to leave him alone there, and obviously has confidence that he can protect the QB without help. O-linemen typically are not heard from when they are playing great. Only their mistakes are pointed out, either by a sack, hurry, or penalty. I would venture to guess that he has fewer of these than most tackles in the league if you really look and compare. Just my guess though.

I believe that we fans have a far greater expectation of perfection in O-line play than is possible. I believe that the coaches and players know that there are going to be X number of breakdowns during a season that are acceptable and within the perramaters of play, and that so long as the lineman is within those perramaters, his play is acceptable. No one ever achieves perfection. (a baseball hitter is considered tremendous if he only hits the ball 3 times out of 10). I don't believe the ordinary fan really knows what is acceptable in line-play.

In terms of sacks, pressures, hits, and penalties Levi is in the bottom 10-15%:

http://www.profootballfocus.com/by_...e=r&runpass=&teamid=-1&numsnaps=25&numgames=1

I'd like to see a breakdown of his 1st and 2nd half, because I haven't been bitching about him as much lately. The fact we pass so much also hurts him some in those stats, so it would be nice to see how many of those snaps were in passing situations and you could do the math to find sacks/pressures/hits given up per passing snap. Still, he's bottom 2-3 in everything so even if you give him some slack for being a pass first offense he isn't going to be in the top half and he needs to improve. It seems like he's either fine or gets lit up. No happy medium.

 

[cardsfanmd]

Levi did have a good game. Kudos to him.

 

[82CardsGrad]

FWIW, Levi did have a solid game. However, to keep this in context, Bridges actually had a better game. Where was Levi drafted again??

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

i've changed my opinion on Levi. I would bash him with the best of them but he has turned his game around the 2nd half of the year. I used to bash Reggie Wells too but he has played pretty good for 2 years running. I used to bash Lyle Sendlein but he has played pretty well overall this year. I used to bash.................

 

[LarryStalling]

FWIW, Levi did have a solid game. However, to keep this in context, Bridges actually had a better game. Where was Levi drafted again??

Bridges may have had a better game but I saw Hightower chipping a lot more on his side than on Brown's side.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Bridges may have had a better game but I saw Hightower chipping a lot more on his side than on Brown's side.

Interesting...I noticed that most of the effective runs (with the exception of Beanie's 42 yard toss around the right end), were off our left tackle and guard (Bridges and Wells)...

 

[Evil Ash]

FWIW, Levi did have a solid game. However, to keep this in context, Bridges actually had a better game. Where was Levi drafted again??

Bridges gave up the only sack that also resulted in a forced fumble. Thankfully we recovered

 

[Catfish]

In terms of sacks, pressures, hits, and penalties Levi is in the bottom 10-15%:

http://www.profootballfocus.com/by_...=r&runpasamp;teamid=-1&numsnaps=25&numgames=1

I'd like to see a breakdown of his 1st and 2nd half, because I haven't been bitching about him as much lately. The fact we pass so much also hurts him some in those stats, so it would be nice to see how many of those snaps were in passing situations and you could do the math to find sacks/pressures/hits given up per passing snap. Still, he's bottom 2-3 in everything so even if you give him some slack for being a pass first offense he isn't going to be in the top half and he needs to improve. It seems like he's either fine or gets lit up. No happy medium.

Thanks 187-----I stand corrected on the stats part. I made that assumption based on what the players and coaches saw in him when they named him to the pro-bowl as an alternate.

I still believe that fans expectations of O-line perfection are irrational.

 

[187]

Thanks 187-----I stand corrected on the stats part. I made that assumption based on what the players and coaches saw in him when they named him to the pro-bowl as an alternate.

I still believe that fans expectations of O-line perfection are irrational.

Yeah, clearly the coaches and players saw something that's not found on a stat sheet. I somewhat agree with your beliefs on fan expectations of olineman, but when you're drafting a guy top 5 and see other top OT picks like Jake Long, Joe Thomas (oh how I hate the Browns), etc dominating in pass protection it doesn't help any.

i've changed my opinion on Levi. I would bash him with the best of them but he has turned his game around the 2nd half of the year. I used to bash Reggie Wells too but he has played pretty good for 2 years running. I used to bash Lyle Sendlein but he has played pretty well overall this year. I used to bash.................

I was the same way with Lyle, he's stepped it up a lot lately. Alex Mack was very high on my wish list last year in the 1st round, I'm glad he was gone and Beanie was there. It's funny, in every "what player do you NOT want the team to draft in the 1st" Beanie was always on my list. Oh how I was wrong about beans. It'd be great to see Bridges and Levi prove to be serviceable on the outside (for an entire season) because we could focus on improving our defense early in the draft. Who knows, Brandon Keith or Big Herman might step up and surprise us you never know. It's a longshot in the more immediate future.