McKinnie Missing Link On Offense

Bryant McKinnie has had a roller coaster ride of a season/career but now he finds himself as an integral cog in the Ravens high flying post season offense.

Throughout the season Ravens head coach John Harbaugh spoke freely about the team trying to put forth their best five linemen. Many fans argued that left tackle Bryant McKinnie should have been in that conversation but for whatever reasons the season kept going on with McKinnie out of the starting line up.

McKinnie has more NFL experience than any other starting lineman on the Ravens rooster barring center Matt Birk. He has played at the highest of levels and blocked for great players like Brett Favre. How is it that he could not find his way into the starting line up for the Ravens who were struggling at the tackle position?

As it turns out it was a matter of conditioning mixed with lack of motivation culminating in a number of problems that kept McKinnie off the field. Then toward the end of the season coach Harbaugh and "Big Mac" had a meeting in which McKnnie expressed his desire to play more and Harbaugh told him "then practice harder". So he did.

and now here we are with the offensive line everyone wanted from the beginning and quarterback Joe Flacco has only been sacked four times the entire post season. He hasn't been hurried much either. It's amazing the culmination of things that it took for this team to reach the Super Bowl but here they are and it seems that everyone is better off for it.