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CLEVELAND — They call the play “Hurricane.” On that, the Ravens can agree. It’s everything else about the biggest play of Sunday’s game, and one of the biggest plays of this Ravens season, that is shrouded in mystery. And it is that negative space that only feeds the legend of Hurricane.

How long had the “tush push” variant been in coordinator Todd Monken’s playbook? Tight end Mark Andrews, who put the Ravens ahead for good, 23-16, with his 35-yard trick play touchdown, would say only that the offense is “always constantly working on different things and variations of certain things.” Fullback Patrick Ricard said the Ravens didn’t start practicing it until this past week of preparation for the Cleveland Browns.

How many times had the Ravens practiced Hurricane before its grand debut on fourth-and-1 late in the fourth quarter? Andrews said they’d repped it “a few times, so we had it down pat and ready to go.” Ricard said “a couple of times.” Running back Derrick Henry declined to offer a ballpark number. “Just know that it got repped to perfection,” he said, “because we scored.”

Safety Kyle Hamilton couldn’t remember seeing the play in practice, owing partly to his focus on the scout team offense.

How many times, then, had the scout team defense seen it before Sunday? Rookie safety and part-time scout team player Keondre Jackson was asked in the locker room afterward. His eyes went deer-in-the-headlights big.

“Umm, honestly, I’d never seen that before,” he said. He’d seen the Ravens’ conventional “tush push” play with Andrews under center before. That was no secret. But Andrews spinning to his right, away from the congested line of scrimmage, and into daylight? “I’ve never seen that before.”

Not even in practice? “Not even in practice. So, when he did that, I was turnt, to be honest. I was lit. That’s my first time seeing that.”

OK, so maybe Jackson was on another practice field when the Ravens tried it out for the first time last week. … “They ran that at practice this week?” Apparently so, a reporter told him. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen that. I’ve never seen that, man.”

He added: “But I’ve seen it today. I got a chance to see it today for the first time. Touchdown? I enjoyed that.”

After a fourth straight win lifted the Ravens (5-5) to .500 for the first time since Week 2, the details around Hurricane’s origin didn’t really matter. They had practiced the play enough times. And it’d worked, hadn’t it?

Andrews hit a top speed of 20.09 mph on the career-long run, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, his highest speed as a ball carrier over his seven-plus seasons in Baltimore, fast enough to outrun Browns rookie linebacker Carson Schwesinger to the front right pylon.

On an afternoon of ugly football, the Ravens had saved a moment of brilliance for just the right moment.

“That was the call that was going to be made,” coach John Harbaugh said. “It was so beautifully executed. When you see it — and, ‘A good idea has many fathers’ — but when you see it executed well, that’s what makes it a good idea. That’s what I’m probably most proud of.”

The Ravens probably never expected to need Hurricane — not at the start of Sunday’s game, not near the end of their go-ahead drive. They entered Huntington Bank Field as touchdown favorites over a Browns team with maybe the NFL’s worst offense and worst special teams. Cleveland (2-8) had won just one game since late September.

But the Ravens trailed 16-10 at the start of the fourth quarter, undone by a string of turnovers, Myles Garrett four sacks and the ambient chaos that afflicts them in divisional play. Not even the removal of Browns starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who left at halftime because of concussion symptoms and was replaced by fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders, was enough to tilt the field dramatically in the Ravens’ favor.

Their comeback came together piecemeal. After another red-zone flop by the Ravens’ offense, rookie kicker Tyler Loop hit a 24-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to cut the Browns’ lead to 16-13. Loop’s 44-yarder with just under five minutes left tied the game for the first time since the second quarter.

After a three-and-out by the Sanders-led Browns offense on the ensuing drive, the Ravens took over at Cleveland’s 44-yard line. An 11-yard completion from Jackson to wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins set up the offense with a third-and-1 at the Browns’ 35.

Tush push time? Not quite. Monken called for an inside handoff. Henry was stuffed at the line of scrimmage. Loop stayed on the sideline for fourth-and-1; a field goal in gusty conditions would’ve been from about 52 or 53 yards. So on came Andrews, who in the first quarter had set the Ravens’ franchise record for receiving yards but had never scored a rushing touchdown.

“I think the critical-down plays are something that we’re constantly focusing on [when] finding unique ways to gain an edge, and that’s what it was really all about,” he said.

Nothing about the Ravens’ presnap look suggested chicanery was afoot. Andrews was under center. Behind him were Henry and Ricard, two of the Ravens’ strongest players. Their offensive line was packed together, their backs almost parallel to the ground, ready to fire forward.

But at the snap no tushes were pushed. Andrews turned counterclockwise with the ball. Was he handing it off to Henry? Was he pitching it to Jackson, as he had in the Ravens’ Week 10 win over the Minnesota Vikings? No and no. He was turning around and finding Ricard. Project Pat would lead the way.

“I trust Pat with my life,” Andrews said. Grant Delpit was the end man on the line of scrimmage. Once Andrews saw Ricard forcibly removing the Browns safety to a spot far outside the hashes, the path was clear. Tight end Charlie Kolar and right tackle Roger Rosengarten had already sealed the edge against defensive end Isaiah McGuire. “Let’s go,” Andrews thought to himself.

“I think it was executed in the best way we possibly could have imagined,” Ricard said. “I honestly thought the play was dead, because when I went out there to block the guy [Delpit], he kind of just stood there, almost. I don’t think he knew what was happening. So I thought it was like a dead play, and all of a sudden, I turn around and see Mark, and I’m just trying to run as fast as I can for him.”

Added Kolar: “It’s a copycat league, and you try to use what you can, and then create your own niche. That was a great play by ‘Trav’ [run game coordinator Travis Switzer] and ‘Monk.’ And then they showed up in a look similar to what we had with the sneak, and we were able to get to the edge quickly, and Mark did the rest.”

And Lamar Jackson: “‘Go.’ That’s all I was saying in my mind; ‘Go, go, go, go, go, go.’”

With one last defensive stand on the Browns’ final possession, Hurricane’s place in Ravens lore was secure. Of all the plays to help push the Ravens one step closer to the playoffs — according to The New York Times’ playoff simulator, the team’s AFC North title odds are up to 79% — a 35-yard run for Andrews seemed about as likely as a 35-yard pass from Henry. “We need to get [No.] 89 more touches in the run game, maybe,” Hamilton deadpanned afterward.

Where Hurricane had started, exactly, was hard to pin down. Where it ended up Sunday in Cleveland was indisputably glorious.

“I was hoping for a first down,” Harbaugh acknowledged afterward. “But you knew it had a chance.”