For the first time all day, Vontaze Burfict was coming up empty-handed.

Out on the field a little earlier, when Ray Rice, Baltimore’s hard-nosed running back, had tried to bull up the middle in the first quarter, he instead found Cincinnati’s rookie linebacker waiting to slam him down for just a 2-yard gain.

When the Ravens’ jitter-bugging, back-up quarterback Tyrod Taylor seemed to be headed for another big scamper on a third-quarter keeper, there came Burfict, upending him at the line of scrimmage.

At another point in the third quarter, Burfict made the tackle on three straight plays and forced the Ravens to punt.

Thanks to an all-around strong defensive effort, the playoff-bound Bengals beat Baltimore, 23-17, Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium. Burfict finished with a whopping 18 tackles and that gave him a team-high 169 for the year — even though he didn’t play defense at all in the first game this season and didn’t start until game three.

And for that he was supposed to be getting a championship belt, the big gaudy kind boxers get when they win a world title.

“We have this little championship belt the coaches made up for the leading tackler, so Rey will be handing it over,” a gleeful Burfict said right after the game as he sat at his locker and looked in the direction of fellow linebacker Rey Maualuga, who had been the team’s top tackler for much of the season.

Burfict finished the season on a tear — 73 tackles in final five games — and now he wanted his belt.

He tromped over to Maualuga, who claimed he didn’t have it: “No Reggie Nelson has it — for interceptions.”

Burfict walked over to the veteran safety, who shook his head: “He gave you some bad information. That’s the interception belt, not the tackling belt.”

The beltless rookie finally retreated across the dressing room, sat on his stool, looked in Maualuga’s direction again and grinned: “I don’t know where it is, but believe me, I’m gonna get it.”

And you can bet he will.

He beat odds a lot steeper than this to get what he wanted this season.

A year ago — when still a college player at Arizona State — he was considered a high-round draft pick. Coming out of Centennial High School in Corona, Calif., he had been the No. 1 linebacker prospect in the nation.

At ASU, he had an up and down career. Sophomore year, coach Dennis Erickson benched him for a mid-season game because of the inordinate number of personal foul penalties he was getting and yet he finished the year as an All-American.

But then last year — his junior season — wasn’t quite up to par and the personal fouls and on-field anger issues continued. He followed that with poor pre-draft evaluations, both at the players’ combine and then at his own showcase day.

He ran slow times, didn’t come off well in some interview sessions with pro teams and was reported to have tested positive for marijuana at the combine.

That precipitated a cataclysmic drop in his stock and all 32 teams ignored him in the NFL draft.

Although Bengals coach Marvin Lewis was interested in him, defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer admits he needed convincing.

“I didn’t see (this success ) at all,” he said Sunday. “I was apprehensive about bringing him in because of a lot of the things that happened.”

Burfict credits Lewis — who signed him as an undrafted free agent — for his chance.

“He saw something special in me — he was the only guy. He gave me a chance when no one else would. That’s why every time I see him, every day, I tell him, ‘I love you, Coach.’ And I really do love the guy. For what he did. We have a real bond — it’s like a father and a son.”

And if you know Burfict’s situation, you know that is something he has been longing for his whole life.

His own father — Vontaze Sr. or Lonnie as he’s known — has never been a part of his boy’s life. A long-time South Los Angeles gang member, he’s currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for drug-related offenses.

“The last time I saw him, I can’t remember,” Burfict said flatly. “He was never part of my life. Sometimes that really bothered me, but my mom did it all. She did the fatherly stuff and was the mother.”

Lisa Williams — who had been Lonnie’s girlfriend — was in the gang, too, but walked away from that life when she found out she was pregnant with Vontaze Jr. She turned her life around and worked for the transit authority for a long time.

“She made me believe I could do it,” her son explained.

And he took that belief and applied it with the Bengals , Zimmer said.

“I give him all the credit. He’s really a good kid,” said Zimmer. “He’s done everything to make the team, then to be a starter and now to lead us in tackles. It’s a great story considering all the things said about him prior.”

The Ravens tried to play into that and taunt him early on. Rice eventually got flagged for a personal foul after Burfict said the Raven back “chop blocked me, then took a cheap shot.”

When some other Ravens players followed suit on ensuing plays, Burfict nearly retaliated, but said Lewis pulled him to the sidelines and calmed him down.

“He told me to remember what got me here,” he said. “He said I was better than all that.”

When the game ended, Burfict trotted out onto the field and scanned the scene until he spotted Ray Lewis, the Ravens’ legendary linebacker, making a beeline for the dressing room. He caught up to him and convinced him to pose with him on the field as his Bengal teammate, Tony Dye, snapped the photo with his phone.

“He’s been my idol,” Burfict said. “I had to have a picture with the best.”

But on Sunday — at least for one game — that title belonged to the Bengals rookie, a point none other than Rice brought up once Burfict drifted back to mid-field.

“He stopped me and said, ‘You’re one hell of a player,’ ” Burfict smiled. “He told me the only problem was that he’d have to deal me for the next couple of years. But I told him it would be fun.”

And then Burfict left the field for the Bengals dressing quarters and that elusive his championship belt.