In late January, John Harbaugh heard the news he must’ve known was coming. His brother, Jim, had been named the Los Angeles Chargers’ head coach. Then John realized what the hire meant: There would be another “HarBowl” in 2024.

Still, it was too early to worry about that. The Ravens were in the playoffs, preparing to play the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game. The whole NFL world would be watching, including Jim, who was flying in to Baltimore to support his older brother. One of the game’s many pregame mysteries — besides, of course, whether Taylor Swift would be on hand — had to do with Jim’s public loyalties. Would he wear a Ravens hat at M&T Bank Stadium?

“That’s a great question,” John said. “I actually thought about that. Will Jim be wearing Ravens gear if he comes in for the game this weekend? I don’t know the answer to that. We may have to require it, perhaps.”

Ultimately, Jim didn’t wear a Ravens hat. But he did take a good look at what John had helped build in Baltimore. And, as he set about remaking the Chargers franchise, Jim called on a handful of Baltimore transplants for help, from front-office types (general manager Joe Hortiz) to play-callers (offensive coordinator Greg Roman and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter) to players (seven former Ravens on the active roster or practice squad).

The “L.A. Ravens,” as fullback Patrick Ricard jokingly called them Wednesday, are no sideshow. The 7-3 Chargers’ turnaround has made Monday’s game at SoFi Stadium this weekend’s main event, a matchup teeming with playoff implications — and, yes, plenty of jokes about John’s 2-0 record and Super Bowl XLVII victory over his brother. Here’s what to watch in the teams’ Week 12 matchup.

1. On Thursday, Jackson was asked how he looks back at his time with Roman. He paused, bobbed his head as if he were working out an answer, then smiled.

“It was good,” said Jackson, who ran Roman’s offense from 2019 to 2022, dominating as a runner but stagnating as a passer. “We had a lot of success. I won my first MVP [in 2019] with G-Ro’s system. We had a lot of great seasons. I believe it was just short. It was just short, that’s all.”

The Roman offense that Jackson and Ravens fans remember probably won’t be the one they see star quarterback Justin Herbert leading Monday. Over Jackson’s four-year partnership with Roman, the Ravens were a run-first team. In games with “neutral” game scripts — when the Ravens’ win probability was from 20% to 80% — the offense never finished a season with an early-down pass rate higher than 12th in the NFL (53.9%), according to analytics site RBSDM.com. In 2019 and 2020, the Ravens ran more often than they passed in those situations, a rarity in the modern game.

This Roman offense has swung to the other end of the pendulum. Since Week 6, when Herbert returned from a bye week that helped him recover from lingering lower-body injuries, the Chargers are second in the NFL in early-down pass rate (60%), behind only the Cincinnati Bengals (63.6%). The Ravens are seventh (55.6%).

Still, the threat of the run remains ever-present. Nearly half of the Chargers’ plays involve heavy personnel (at least two backs or two tight ends), according to TruMedia, and 33.6% of their drop-backs have featured a play-action fake, the NFL’s second-highest rate.

“You’ve got to adapt, and I think G-Ro has done a good job of adapting his offense to his players and not the other way around,” safety Kyle Hamilton said Thursday. “They’re playing with the big fullbacks and big tight ends, and it’s hard-nosed football. You know where the ball’s going. You know what’s going to happen. It’s just, can you stop it or not? There’s some beauty in that. There’s some ugliness in that, too.”

2. This hasn’t been a banner season for inside linebacker Roquan Smith, who’s struggled at times in pass coverage in his first year without Patrick Queen by his side. But Smith’s true value to the Ravens’ defense, before and after the snap, might not be fully appreciated until it’s missing altogether.

After leaving the Week 11 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a hamstring injury, Smith didn’t practice last week and is considered questionable for Monday’s showdown. The All-Pro hasn’t missed a game because of injury over his Ravens career, but defensive coordinator Zach Orr indicated Friday that the defense was preparing to play without Smith.

“I think it’ll just be by committee,” he said. “Not one person is going to replace Roquan. Roquan’s an every-down linebacker, a top linebacker in this league, All-Pro for a reason. Not one guy’s going to replace him, but we like our guys that we have in the room. They’re here for a reason, and somebody’s got to step up. They got to step up, and we got to step up collectively as a defense, and that linebacker room’s got to step up collectively as a group.”

Hamilton is poised to take over as the defensive signal-caller, a responsibility the All-Pro safety has prepared for since training camp. The Ravens’ other plans for replacing the NFL’s co-leading tackler won’t be as simple.

Starter Trenton Simpson’s own struggles in pass coverage have kept him from being an every-down option. After the Steelers took possession late in the second quarter, for instance, reserve Chris Board paired with Smith for two plays in obvious passing situations, then came off the field on third down, leaving Smith as the team’s only inside linebacker.

Immediately after Smith was knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter, the Ravens lined up Malik Harrison, who’s typically used as a run-stuffing edge defender, next to Simpson on second-and-10. On the subsequent third-and-4, both came off the field as Board again stepped in.

The Ravens’ timeshare continued throughout the quarter, with Simpson and the hulking Harrison lining up on early downs and Board typically featuring as the only linebacker in dime personnel (six defensive backs) on third-and-longs.

“It’ll be linebacker by committee, depending on what we want to run and what they want to run as well,” Orr said. “If Roquan can’t go, you’ll see a mixture of guys in there.”

3. Running back Derrick Henry has 16 carries or fewer in four of his past five games, an unusually low-volume workload for one of the NFL’s most punishing runners. He should be much busier Monday.

The Chargers have played with a light box (six or fewer defenders) on an NFL-high 80% of their early-down plays this season, according to TruMedia. Only two other teams have used a light box even 70% of the time, and only 10 others are over 60% for the season.

The Ravens won’t need an invitation to test the Chargers’ run defense (110.5 yards per game allowed, 11th in the NFL). They’re averaging 5.7 yards per designed carry this season when running into fronts with six or fewer defenders. And, if Henry’s thundering style isn’t working, running back Keaton Mitchell’s lightning-strike skill set is a good changeup. He had three carries for 37 yards against light boxes in the Ravens’ road win over the Chargers last season.

Outside linebacker Khalil Mack had two sacks in that 2023 matchup, but his contributions to the Chargers’ run defense might be more valuable. Mack, who missed the Week 11 win over the Bengals with a groin injury but expects to play Monday despite a limited week of practice, is one of the league’s best run-stopping edge defenders. When he’s shared the field with standout defensive tackle Poona Ford, the Chargers’ light fronts have allowed an average of just 4.4 yards per carry and 1.07 yards before contact on designed runs, both of which would rank among the league’s best marks.

“They do a great job with light boxes,” offensive coordinator Todd Monken said Friday. “Their interior guys do a great job of anchoring; you don’t see a ton of movement. Their outside ’backers do a great job of setting the edge, so there’s not a lot of space there, and the linebackers do an excellent job of fitting off of that. When backs are hesitant and they don’t press the hole, then, all of a sudden, then they play off the block and play back into the [running] back. So we have to do a great job there of trying to force their hand and try to force them to get an extra defender down there. That’s like any game plan.”

4. Jackson wasn’t just off his game as a passer in Pittsburgh, finishing 16-for-33 for 207 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He was a nonfactor as a scrambler, too.

Jackson had four carries for 46 yards, all of which came on designed runs. He finished the loss without a scramble for the first time this season, turning down several opportunities on broken plays to aim downfield instead.

But, a week after facing one of the NFL’s best scramble-stopping units, Jackson will get one of the worst. The Chargers have allowed 24.3 yards per game on scrambles this season, third most in the NFL, and are allowing 9 yards per scramble overall. Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray gashed them for 65 yards and a touchdown on three scrambles, and Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix had 61 yards on six scrambles.

The Chargers’ shortcomings appear more structural than personnel related. Breakout inside linebacker Daiyan Henley has blazing speed for the position (4.54-second 40-yard dash), and Minter doesn’t blitz often (25.9%, 21st in the NFL). But the Chargers’ zone coverages can sometimes leave second- and third-level defenders vulnerable to quarterback improvisations. Starting inside linebacker Denzel Perryman’s absence because of a groin injury won’t help, either.

“We’ve played against different types of guys, guys who do different things well,” Minter told local reporters Friday. “[Jackson] does everything well. The second you overcommit to where you’re going to have all these eyes on him to run, he’ll throw the ball over your head. There’s no one you can compare him to. He’s one of one.”

5. The 7-4 Ravens needed help making up ground in the AFC North title race. They got it from the Cleveland Browns, who knocked off the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3) in a snowy Thursday night upset.

Despite Pittsburgh’s one-game lead and potential head-to-head tiebreaker, the Ravens are favored to win the AFC North, according to The New York Times’ playoff simulator. With a win over the Chargers, those odds would rise from about 54% to about 62%. A loss, meanwhile, would drop them to 46%.

The Ravens can’t afford to fall off the pace of the AFC’s other division leaders, either. The Ravens have just a 1% chance of earning the top seed and a wild-card-round bye, but the No. 2 seed (10% odds) and No. 3 seed (30%) are still in play. The AFC West-leading Chiefs top the conference at 10-1, while the AFC East-leading Buffalo Bills are 9-2, with a potentially significant loss to the Ravens. The Houston Texans, whom the Ravens face on Christmas Day, lead the AFC South at 7-5.