As the NFL’s regular season winds down, HBO’s “Hard Knocks: In Season With the AFC North” is preparing for the end, too.

The Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, the only teams in the division with postseason spots clinched, again were featured heavily in Tuesday’s fifth episode. The Cincinnati Bengals, a long shot to make the playoffs, earned third billing. The Cleveland Browns, resigned to a lost season, made little more than a cameo appearance.

With the docuseries running only as long as an AFC North team is still standing, the Ravens and Steelers — and, sure, maybe the Bengals — will find themselves earning even more screen time in the playoffs. So get ready to learn a lot more about how meeting rooms look, coaches sound and players prepare ahead of the biggest games of the year.

This week, it was the Ravens’ Christmas Day romp over the Houston Texans. Here’s what you might’ve missed.

Best Ravens quote

The first Raven featured prominently in the episode was offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who addressed the offense a few days after the team had secured a playoff berth with its win over the Steelers.

“Congratulations. Easy to get spoiled making the playoffs. Do not go beyond that, OK? Before I came here, eight years in the NFL, one time in the playoffs — my first year in Jacksonville. I thought, ‘This shit’s easy. We’ll just make it every year.’ I wanted to put an addition on the house, had all the extra playoff money. It was going to be great. Next year” — here, Monken blew a raspberry before continuing — “we went from 11-5 to 5-11. It can happen.”

Best non-Ravens quote

As Steelers coach Mike Tomlin spoke with cornerback Donte Jackson during a practice about the privilege of playing on Christmas Day, Jackson joked with his coach: “I told my wife last night, ‘Man, I feel like Steph Curry.’ ”

Best joke

Ravens coach John Harbaugh and quarterback Lamar Jackson’s light-hearted back-and-forth via press conference about Beyoncé's presence at Houston’s NRG Stadium carried over into Harbaugh’s breakdown of the team’s game-day schedule.

“Halftime will be approximately 20 minutes. Lamar will not be in the locker room for that. He’s going to be watching Beyoncé, he said. So that’s all right. Just know, if you don’t see Lamar, he’s outside watching the show.”

Jackson, dressed for a snowstorm, made this face.

Most surprising plot twist

Outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy did not sound like a player ready for his third game in 11 days. “Damn, brah,” he told defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike in a darkened meeting room. “I’m tired. I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to play this game.”

Van Noy laughed.

“Just play it,” Madubuike casually replied. A few days later, the 33-year-old Van Noy had four tackles, including another sack.

Most unexpected speaking role

Last week, it was Ravens defensive analyst Noah Riley. This week, it was director of high performance Sam Rosengarten. (If you couldn’t tell by his Australian accent, he is not related to the Ravens’ other Rosengarten, right tackle Roger.)

Rosengarten, who uses biometric information to help guide the Ravens’ coaching, strength and conditioning, and medical strategies, was taken aback as he reviewed tracking data from a practice with Harbaugh.

“Wait until you see the speeds from today,” he said. “Four guys over 21 [mph]. Four guys over 20 [mph]. We had two guys hit their fastest speed ever, and one guy set a new personal record.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Harbaugh said. “Two days after we play?”

After the Ravens’ win over the Texans, Harbaugh praised Rosengarten and the team’s performance staff. “I think the plan we had, it was unmatched to what other teams did. I felt that we came out fresh, ready to go, but that quick turnaround is about who can recover the best, who can have the best plan, and I felt that we had a better plan than them, and I thought we were a little bit fresher than them.”

Best caption

Kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

Notables

• Monken’s first real close-up in the series included another emphatic reminder of the Ravens’ place in the NFL’s pecking order: “You want to be in this situation. Don’t ever lose sight of it. You don’t want to be Sunday at 1, Sunday at 1, Sunday at 1, Sunday at 1. Pretty average. You want to be Monday night. You want to be Thursday night. You want to be a Saturday game. Look at the teams that are playing this schedule. Look at it. Us, Steelers, Chiefs, Texans. Pretty good frickin’ group. So just understand that. That’s pretty cool. It means you’re really good.”
• The six “Jeopardy” categories in the Ravens’ inside linebacker room: “Texans Offense,” “What’s Our Job,” “Name That Pressure,” “Don’t Mess With Texas,” “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader” and “Jordan Number.” Roquan Smith nailed his first two responses — both in football categories — before being quizzed on Texas’ nickname. He thought it was the Longhorn State. He thought wrong: It’s the Lone Star State.
• Jackson pointed out the Steelers colors on the chain he got from a fan and then gifted to Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta — until he realized the black and gold could have been an homage to Beyoncé's BeyHive.