HOUSTON — If the run seemed ceremonial, it’s because the record seemed inevitable, too. The NFL’s all-time rushing mark for a quarterback had become a matter of when, not if, years ago for Lamar Jackson, which meant there was no fanfare inside NRG Stadium when, midway through the third quarter early Wednesday evening, he scrambled for 6 more yards in a career that now has an unprecedented 6,110.

In the afterglow of the Ravens’ comprehensive 31-2 win over the AFC South champion Houston Texans, Jackson’s long-expected leapfrogging of record-holder Michael Vick was merely a historic Christmas Day footnote. But Jackson’s dual-threat supremacy has become the foundation on which two compelling cases continue to be built: Do you really want to face these Ravens (11-5) in the playoffs? And can you really find a player in this NFL season more valuable than Jackson?

“What could you say that would maybe parallel what he did?” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after Jackson went 10-for-15 for 168 yards and two touchdowns and added four carries for 87 yards and a score. “It’s just another phenomenal performance. He set the all-time NFL record for rushing yards. … That kind of speaks for itself. It’s just kind of what he does every week.”

On Monday, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans had called Jackson the NFL’s Most Valuable Player — “definitely.” On Wednesday, Houston’s elite defense could do little to keep Jackson from turning Netflix’s broadcast into an infomercial for his second straight award and third overall.

With running back Derrick Henry breaking the Texans’ will inside (27 carries for 147 yards overall) and Jackson breaking ankles on the perimeter, the Ravens averaged 7.7 yards per play until Jackson was pulled from the game in the fourth quarter. Only one other team had averaged even 6-plus yards per play against Houston (9-7) this season. (The Buffalo Bills, led by odds-on MVP front-runner Josh Allen, managed just 4.7 yards per play in a 23-20 loss to the Texans in early October.)

After a third win in 11 days, the Ravens will enter next weekend’s regular-season finale against the Cleveland Browns needing only a win to clinch their second straight AFC North title and a home playoff game. Another big day from Jackson could cement his MVP bona fides. But he does not need much to confirm this season as his best ever.

Jackson has 43 total touchdowns, tied for his career high. He has 4,807 yards of total offense, a career high. He has 3,955 passing yards, a career high. He’s completed 67.9% of his passes, a career high. He’s averaging 8.1 yards per play, a career high, and 0.29 expected points added per play, just shy of his career high (0.30 in 2019). He has thrown four interceptions, a career low as a starter. He has been sacked just 23 times, tied for his career low as a starter.

By almost every measure imaginable, according to TruMedia, this Jackson is better than the 2023 Jackson who won MVP honors easily. With every game he plays, this Jackson looks even harder to stop than the 2019 Jackson who won MVP honors unanimously.

“Lamar is Lamar,” Henry said. “He does it every week. It’s a surprise to nobody. … I’m sure he [is] going to break plenty more records.”

That Jackson would come for Vick’s career rushing mark in Week 17, however, was a little shocking. Jackson entered Wednesday’s game needing 87 yards on the ground, a total he’d reached just twice this season and not since Week 3.

But on the game’s fourth play from scrimmage, Jackson scrambled for 25 yards to lead the offense into Texans territory for the first time. Four plays later, Henry scored from 2 yards out, setting the Ravens’ single-season record for total touchdowns (16).

Late in the second quarter, Jackson broke loose again — or at least it seemed like he would. Rather than scrambling for another big gain, Jackson pulled up a few yards short of the line of scrimmage and found tight end Mark Andrews, who stiff-armed the one Houston defender in his way, linebacker Christian Harris, and was off to the races for a 67-yard catch-and-run down the right sideline. Jackson capped the drive two plays later with another bit of improvised brilliance, buying just enough time and space on a play-action rollout for tight end Isaiah Likely to find his way from the backfield to the flat and then to the end zone on a 9-yard touchdown connection.

Early in the third quarter, with the Ravens leading 17-2, Jackson put the game away himself. On a read-option keeper near midfield, he found a wide-open lane paved by blocks from Andrews and Likely and was gone. Jackson hit 21.25 mph on the 48-yard touchdown run, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats — “I was jogging,” he deadpanned afterward — and celebrated by hurling the ball into the wall ringing the field.

“It’s special,” center Tyler Linderbaum said of watching Jackson run away from NFL defenses, but his special rushing performance wasn’t quite complete. On the Ravens’ next drive, Jackson converted a third-and-3 with an 8-yard keeper. Less than three minutes later, on his final run of the game, Jackson scrambled his way into NFL history. Vick had needed 143 games and 13 seasons to get to 6,109 rushing yards; it took Jackson 101 games and just under seven seasons to outdo him. “Unreal,” Jackson said of the record.

“Mike Vick was kind of like the standard of the dual-threat quarterback growing up,” fullback Patrick Ricard said. “He was the guy you wanted to play on ‘Madden,’ and now Lamar is that guy. It was just inevitable, him breaking the record. It’s just really cool to be his teammate, to be playing with him while he did it. It’s just going to be insane to see what his final rushing numbers will be at the end of his career. He’s probably going to double what the record is.”

Added Linderbaum: “It’s crazy. Growing up watching someone as special as Vick, and then now being on a team that’s surpassed that, it’s hard to realize in the moment that you play with someone like that. But he makes our team so much better. The way he competes, the way he helps our team win football games, it’s special and it’s awesome to be a part of greatness.”

Unlike the 2023 Ravens, this team will not enter the playoffs next month as AFC or Super Bowl favorites. The Kansas City Chiefs, who beat the Ravens in Week 1, are 15-1 and on Wednesday secured home-field advantage through the conference championship game. Buffalo (12-3), the only team to defeat Kansas City this season, has lost just once since early October and is on track to earn the AFC’s No. 2 seed. A freezing-cold Ravens-Bills rematch at Highmark Stadium could await in the divisional round.

The Ravens will take their chances wherever they end up. Since returning from their late-season bye, they have outscored their three opponents — the playoff-bound Pittsburgh Steelers and Texans, plus the woebegone New York Giants — by a combined 100-33. They have one of the NFL’s healthiest rosters, anchored by a mix of veteran leaders and ascendant youngsters. Even kicker Justin Tucker is back to nailing 50-plus-yard field goals.

At the center of it all is Jackson, who was reluctant Wednesday to mess up a good thing. A bite of cake before a real postgame meal? No, thank you. A question about the playoffs before the regular season is over? Not when that Week 18 opponent is one the Ravens have lost to. How about a halftime excursion to see Beyoncé perform for the first time ever? Eh, maybe next time.

“I’m just playing football,” Jackson said. “I’m trying to win. I feel like the world knows I’m trying to win, so that should explain everything.”