Four Decembers ago, the Ravens embarked on a three-game stretch that, if it wasn’t the hardest, was certainly the most oddly constructed: a thrice-rescheduled, late-afternoon Wednesday road game against the Pittsburgh Steelers amid a coronavirus outbreak; a once-rescheduled Tuesday night home game against the Dallas Cowboys; and, finally, a Monday night road game against the Cleveland Browns.

The Ravens went 2-1, and yet: “It sucked,” left guard Patrick Mekari recalled Wednesday. He’d missed the game against the Steelers, but the misery of playing three games in 13 days that late in the season, none of them after a normal workweek, had lingered. “Having a game once a week is tough enough, but how they do it toward the end of the year, everyone goes through it. It’s not just us. It’s not just me. It’s everyone.”

The 2024 Ravens (8-5) know what they’re up against as they push for a postseason berth this winter. According to The New York Times’ playoff simulator, even a 4-0 record to end the regular season would give them only about a 63% chance of winning the AFC North and earning a home playoff game.

It’s not just the Ravens’ opponents — the 2-11 New York Giants on Sunday, followed by the AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers (10-3), AFC South-leading Houston Texans (8-5) and Cleveland Browns (3-10) — who stand in their way but their schedule as well. For the first time in franchise history, the Ravens will play three games in 11 days: a Sunday (in East Rutherford, New Jersey), a Saturday (in Baltimore) and a Wednesday (in Houston). The last one just happens to fall on Christmas Day.

“Really, the big picture is Sunday,” coach John Harbaugh said Wednesday. “That’s the big picture. The big picture is, ‘all hands on deck.’ We’re focused toward playing our best game so far on Sunday. We’re going to need to do that, and that’s what we’re training and preparing to do. We have a plan for the three-game stretch, and that plan starts with Sunday.”

The Ravens should be well rested. After their Week 14 bye, only two players on the team’s 53-man roster missed practice Wednesday: suspended wide receiver Diontae Johnson and injured reserve safety Sanoussi Kane. More reinforcements could be on the way, too, with defensive lineman Michael Pierce and cornerback T.J. Tampa set to be activated off injured reserve.

After playing 13 games in 13 weeks, quarterback Lamar Jackson called the Ravens’ break a “breath of fresh air.” The team’s training camp had one of the NFL’s earliest start dates, and its bye was the latest in the league, leaving precious little time for the Ravens to lick their in-season wounds. Even Jackson, who’s played every meaningful offensive snap for the team this season, had missed practices to tend to minor back and knee injuries.

“I feel refreshed,” he said. “That week off, I just relaxed and let my body rest. It’s done us good.”

The Ravens know how to handle quick turnarounds. Aside from their narrow season-opening loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in September, they’ve won their past three Thursday night games, all of which came after Sunday kickoffs the previous week.

But the Ravens’ upcoming schedule is especially compressed. A normal Sunday-Sunday-Thursday slate packs three games into 12 days. The Ravens this year will have one fewer day to rest, recover and regroup. Of course, so will the Steelers and Texans, both of whom are on the same Christmas Day track.

“I just kind of put myself in a basketball perspective,” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “Those guys play back to back, so I guess there’s a little merit behind us quote-unquote complaining about it, but they are playing 82 games, MLB players are playing 162 games, and we have 17, and we’re trying to fight them to go to 18 right now. I think it’s good in a sense that we’ll see who is most prepared down the stretch, and it’s really challenging for teams, everybody that’s involved.

“I know there are a few more teams that are doing the same thing as us. It all comes down to culture and putting everything in boxes, putting the Giants in one box and winning that game, then moving on to whatever it may be. We could play the next day; we don’t really care. ... We’re going to show up and do well.”

Ravens defensive lineman Chris Wormley, a practice squad member who played three games in 12 days for the 2020 Steelers after the Ravens’ COVID situation shook up their December schedule, compared this three-game stretch to playing a Thursday game, “but twice in a row, almost.”

He half-jokingly hoped that Ravens coaches would “take it easy” on the team in practice — “not a lot of padded stuff after this one [game]” — but said the challenge was largely mental. In a quick turnaround, sleep becomes even more important. So does knowing the playbook. Players have to understand, Wormley said, that if the Ravens can get through Week 17 in good shape, a “mini bye” before Week 18 likely awaits. That’s a Christmas Day present worth working for.

“It’s just what you’re willing to sacrifice,” Wormley said. “The season’s over in two months, regardless of what it is. You have the whole offseason to catch up on your Netflix and stay up late. So it really comes down to what you’re willing to sacrifice.”