NFL Playoffs 2012: Why Ravens RB Ray Rice Needs to Come Up Big vs. Patriots

The Baltimore Ravens struggled on offense in their divisional round playoff game against the Houston Texans, but managed to do just enough to win.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco had two first-quarter touchdowns, achieved on short fields thanks to his defense intercepting Texans quarterback T.J. Yates. Aside from those two early touchdowns (plus a first-quarter field goal), the Ravens managed to score only three more points in the remainder of the game and pulled out a 20-13 victory.

Up next for the team is the New England Patriots, whom they play on Sunday in the AFC Championship Game. While the Patriots defense has given up huge chunks of yardage in the air in the regular season, it won't be from the arm of Flacco that the Ravens offense can find success.

Instead, the team will need to rely heavily on running back Ray Rice to gain the bulk of his offense's yards.

In the Patriots' divisional-round drubbing of the Denver Broncos, their defense held Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow to just 136 passing yards and no touchdowns. They put constant pressure on Tebow, and he thus completed just nine of his 26 passing attempts and fumbled the ball once.

However, the Broncos gained quite a few yards on the ground—144, to be exact—which netted them a single touchdown. Running back Willis McGahee had the biggest day for his team, with 17 carries for 76 yards and ran in that lone score.

Clearly, the Patriots will be employing a similar defensive strategy on Sunday, given Flacco's lack of pocket awareness is similar to that of Tebow's. But if they don't also follow up with holding down Rice, they could be in serious trouble.

Flacco benefits from a short field, as evidenced by his successes when handed one last week against the Texans. But he can also have a short field with which to work if he can hand the ball off to Rice and let the Ravens' top playmaker gain the bulk of the team's yardage.

Rice isn't unstoppable, however. The Texans did a great job containing him last Sunday, with Rice gaining just 60 yards from 21 carries and catching four passes for only 20 yards.

However, the Texans have a better all-around defense than New England and it's not likely the Patriots will be able to both maintain pressure on Flacco and stop Rice in this game.

If the Patriots offense manages to put up 30 or more points, the Ravens need to be careful not to abandon the run and let Flacco throw 30 or 40 times. That's not going to be effective enough and, in fact, sets the team up for failure.

Instead, the Ravens should continue to hand the ball off to Rice, especially when trying to build a scoring drive. While Flacco might be useful when it comes to the red zone, it will be Rice who needs to get them there.

Rice is the league leader in total yards from scrimmage for a reason. The Ravens need to make sure he is heavily involved in every drive this week if they have any hope of defeating the Patriots and making it to the Super Bowl.