Stop us if you've heard this one before.
If the Patriots expect to beat the Ravens in Sunday's AFC Championship game, they are going to have to bottle up one of their ghosts of playoff failures past: running back Ray Rice.
The Patriots learned the lesson well in the 2009 wild-card game when Rice ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns -- 83 yards on the first play off the game -- in the Ravens' 33-14 victory at Gillette Stadium.
It was important before, but this season it has become increasingly so as Rice, in his fourth season, led the NFL in net yards from scrimmage (2,068), set a franchise record with 15 touchdowns, and finished second in the league with 1,364 rushing yards.
The coaching staffs that know the Ravens the best -- those in the AFC North -- know the teaching points as well as anyone.
"I think it gets back to the obvious, in that Ray Rice is the key to their offense, both in their run game and the pass game," said Kevin Coyle, the University of Massachusetts graduate and former Holy Cross assistant who has been the Bengals' defensive backs coach for the past nine seasons. "He's their leading rusher, leading receiver, he's the guy that if he can get going, they have a chance to be successful offensively.
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