BALTIMORE -- Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh walked past Steve Smith in the training room before the wide receiver took on his former team on Sunday and asked him, "How are you doing? You doing OK?"

"Nope," the mercurial Smith replied.

From Harbaugh's viewpoint, that meant Smith understood the gravity of the situation and he recognized that he needed to get control of his emotions. That businesslike approach, as well as a little luck, proved to be the difference as Smith delivered the critical plays in the Ravens' 38-10 rout of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Smith didn't shake hands with his former Panthers teammates before the coin toss. He didn't even use his trademark spinning of the ball after a big catch.

Instead of living up to the promise of "blood and guts" with this reunion, Smith delivered his payback with two big plays and a parting shot in his final answer of his postgame media session.

"I'll give you a one-liner: That film was a coaching session," said Smith, who caught seven passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns. "They're going to be coaching how, at 35 years old, a man ran around boys like they were schoolyard kids."

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco said Smith didn't make a big deal about the game throughout the week. Everyone, though, knew how important it was to him.

That's why the Ravens targeted Smith on three of their first five passes. Strangely enough, Smith's most memorable play of the game came on a pass not intended for him.

His 61-yard touchdown in the second quarter first deflected off the right hand of tight end Owen Daniels and fell into Smith's arms at the Carolina 45-yard line. Smith raced past safety Thomas DeCoud, then took a bow in the end zone.

At the start of that play, Smith ran 10 yards out to the left sideline, but he thought Flacco was going to scramble. That called for Smith to run downfield, like he did in the season opener on an 80-yard touchdown. As he took off and Flacco threw the pass, he noticed the nose of the ball was up, so he kept running. The pass then tipped off Daniels and went right to Smith in stride.

"One of the craziest plays you'll see, one of the craziest touchdown passes you'll see," Flacco said. "But I'll take it."

Smith now has 29 career catches of 50 or more yards, the most among active players. This was his second for the Ravens.

In total, Smith's 429 yards receiving are the most by an NFL player over age 35 in the first four games of a season. Harbaugh was hoping Smith would be productive when the Ravens signed him in March. He saw Smith on tape making tacklers miss and covering a lot of ground with that long stride.

"But, the kind of production he's had, it would be pretty hard to predict that," Harbaugh said.

Smith's second touchdown catch involved some good fortune as well. Later in the second quarter, Flacco dropped the snap from center, picked up the ball off the ground and immediately heaved it to the left side of the end zone. Even with a cornerback grabbing his right arm, Smith was able to make the 21-yard catch to put the Ravens up 21-7.

The reason Flacco threw it so quickly was based on his pre-snap read. He saw the Panthers pressing Smith at the line of scrimmage, and Smith was running a go-route. So Flacco had already made up his mind that his best option was throwing Smith's way.

"I knew I was going there with the ball right away, so when I dropped the snap, I tried to pick it up as cleanly as I could and give him a chance -- kind of lucky, but it worked out," Flacco said.

Smith threw his first touchdown pass into the crowd. His second one is being saved. It's going in his son's room.

"I know so many people were saying this over and over: I'd get ejected, I fight, I talk mess," Smith said. "I just went in there and played, not have anything good, bad or indifferent to say. I just played, and at the end of the day, honestly, they didn't deserve anything I had to say that would be derogatory, and I had no need to. It was all business."