FOXBOROUGH — Tom Brady had been intercepted in the end zone by Cary Williams and it was all over for the Patriots, so Ray Lewis began exulting. And now here came Joe Flacco making a beeline for Lewis, sprinting to the goal line with a Super smile and Super wishes for the triumphant old warrior.
“Hey,” Flacco said to Lewis, “we’re going back to the Super Bowl, man. We got one more to win.”
When Ravens 28, Patriots 13, ended, Lewis was engulfed by photographers as he made his way one step at a time to the middle of the field, where he bent over and genuflected in prayer.
Lewis can believe in destiny all he wants now, because the last game of his Hall of Fame career will be in New Orleans at Super Bowl XLVII. It must be destiny, because only destiny can carry John Harbaugh to the Super Bowl to play his kid brother Jim and the 49ers in the first SupeBro Bowl in history, a.k.a. the HarBowl.
“God doesn’t make mistakes, man,” Lewis told his team afterwards. “There was no way He was going to bring us back here twice to feel the same feeling.”
And maybe it was destiny that gave Lewis a quarterback like Flacco, a quarterback who showed up last night as Joe Cool, the Jersey Guy quarterback who needed a Johnny Unitas night and needed to stare down the great Tom Brady to get Lewis his shot for a second ring, a shot the Patriots robbed from him a year ago, before he rides off into the sunset.
The quarterback Lewis dubbed The General showed up as Patton and tossed three touchdown passes in the second half. You bet Lewis and all of Baltimore is wacko for Flacco.
“We didn’t come all the way here to play it safe and hope to win,” Flacco said. “You have to go play to win.”
Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib left in the first quarter with a thigh injury, but Flacco could not immediately take advantage.
Until a 10-play, 87-yard TD drive that culminated with Flacco’s 5-yard strike to tight end Dennis Pitta to make it Ravens 14, Patriots 13. Flacco, who also hit Pitta with a 22-yard completion, was 6-for-8 on the drive for 64 yards.
Then a 10-play, 63-yard TD drive on his next possession that culminated with Flacco’s 3-yard lob while backpedaling to Anquan Boldin in the middle of the end zone against Devin McCourty. Ravens 21, Patriots 13.
After Bernard Pollard forced a Stevan Ridley fumble and Arthur Jones recovered at the New England 47, Flacco went for the jugular. Torrey Smith for 16 yards. A Flacco scramble around left end for 14 more. And finally, Flacco to Boldin over Marquice Cole for an 11-yard TD pass. Ravens 28, Patriots 13.
“He’s a great quarterback,” Boldin said. “I don’t know why people keep doubting him.”
All Flacco (21-of-36, 240 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INT) did to get Lewis back to the Super Bowl 12 years later was slay Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
All Flacco did was throw eight playoff TD passes and zero interceptions and pass Eli Manning with a sixth career playoff win on the road.
“I’m a little biased because I’ve always been a Joe Flacco fan,” Lewis said.
And Flacco has always been a Ray Lewis fan.
“To see how emotional he is about it, and how excited he is about it … the cool thing about Ray is, he’s excited about getting back there and having the opportunity to win another for himself, he’s more excited because he’s felt it and he wants all of us to feel that,” Flacco said. “So to be able to get him back there, is a pretty cool feeling.”
Lewis talked about teammates telling him they loved him, and Harbaugh was asked about Lewis getting this dream chance.
“I’m just feeling an incredible amount of awe, awe in the work that God can do in one man’s life,” Harbaugh said. “Ray is the epitome of that. Ray’s a guy that’s turned everything over. He surrendered everything, and he’s become the man that he is to this day. It’s a great thing for kids to see, it’s a great thing for fathers to see, it’s a great thing for athletes to see. It’s a very special deal.”
Very special team. Very tough team that overcame so much proudly representing a tough town.
“We’ve always believed in Joe,” Harbaugh said. Maybe no one believed more than Ray Lewis.
steve.serby@nypost.com