FOXBOROUGH, Mass. They wanted the New England Patriots, told the world they would beat them and went into their stadium and dominated the second half like no visiting team has ever done.
It didn't seem possible when they limped into the postseason losers of four of five, or when they trailed the Denver Broncos last week by a touchdown with under a minute to go, or during the first half Sunday night when they were having trouble getting Tom Brady off the field.
But it's reality now: The Baltimore Ravens are going to the Super Bowl.
Avenging last year's loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, the Ravens took apart New England in the second half, punching their ticket to New Orleans with a 28-13 victory.
"We know what it felt like walking off that field losers (last year)," Ravens safety Bernard Pollard said. "They beat us, and we said we weren't going to walk off again like that."
Instead, the Ravens bounced off, one by one, celebrating with their fans who had come down to the first couple of rows at Gillette Stadium.
Safety Ed Reed, who will play in his first Super Bowl and do it in his home state, sang, "We got two tickets to paradise."
Linebacker Terrell Suggs yelled, "We came, we saw, and we conquered."
"I don't know if we had a dream this big," said Baltimore coach John Harbaugh, who will face his brother, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, on Feb. 3.
"We had a few dreams, we had a few fights, we had a few arguments. We'll try to stay out of that business. We'll let the two teams duke it out."
Trailing 13-7 at halftime, the Ravens steamrolled the Patriots in the second half. New England coach Bill Belichick was 72-1 when leading at halftime at Gillette Stadium, and the Patriots were undefeated in four previous conference championship games on their home field.
But they had no answers for Joe Flacco or a Ravens defense that forced three turnovers in the second half.
A week after outshining Denver's Peyton Manning and two weeks after getting the better of Indianapolis rookie Andrew Luck, Flacco outplayed Brady, completing 15 of 24 passes in the second half for 159 yards and three touchdowns.
The Baltimore coaching staff decided to put the game on Flacco's shoulders in the second half.
"We realized we needed to put some pressure on them," Flacco said. "We didn't come all the way here to play it safe."
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