The Ravens flailed as Lamar Jackson continued to look not himself, but great special teams and a few clutch stops propelled them to a 23-10 win over the New York Jets on Sunday and a tie for first place in the AFC North. Here are five things we learned from the game.

Who knew first place could feel like such an incomplete achievement?

Imagine leaping back to Oct. 12 and telling a distraught Ravens fan the team would be atop the AFC North by Thanksgiving.

No matter the ease of the schedule, no matter the flaws of division-leading Pittsburgh, such a climb felt far-fetched after a home loss to the Rams dropped the Ravens to 1-5.

We’ve spent so long viewing this season as a desperate quest to survive that it’s almost bizarre to think the Ravens are back to even ground with six games to go (two of those against the Steelers).

So why hasn’t their five-game winning streak inspired more exhilaration?

The simple answer is that they’ve beaten severely limited opponents and haven’t looked good doing it. Their contender mojo flows from the miracles Jackson dispenses, and those have been in short supply. The offense has slogged through some of the worst halves of Jackson’s career, leaving the Ravens to rely on a resurgent defense that looked hopeless through the first six weeks.

Is it more likely the offense rights itself and makes the Ravens a complete team going into the playoffs? Or is it more likely the defense recedes against more potent opposition (starting with the Bengals on Thursday night) and the Ravens are left without an obvious strength?

It’s not an uplifting question, but it’s one we’re forced to ask after they stumbled to 72 first-half yards against a team that traded its two best defensive players this month. Like the Browns the week before, the Jets did not have the firepower to punish the Ravens for 30 minutes of butt-ugly football. But, if their execution remains as faulty as Jackson acknowledged it was against New York, they won’t keep winning.

Asked if he was frustrated that the offense didn’t do its part, Jackson said: “Yes, a little bit, because it is our job. I’m an offensive guy. I’m not playing defense. It is great to see our defense playing well, but it’ll also feel great and look great when we are playing as well to match their energy. We just need to do that week in and week out, because those guys are stepping up. We need to do the same thing.”

Left tackle Ronnie Stanley acknowledged the Ravens are coming out too sluggishly and executing too sloppily to be called a complete team. “To win a Super Bowl, that’s the type of offense we need to have,” he said.

We’ve been operating on the assumption, if the Ravens reach the playoffs, they’ll be the same dangerous outfit we saw in 2023 and 2024.

Maybe it’s time to set that notion aside until they give us some indication they possess such upside. The reality is we haven’t seen it since when? The first three quarters of their season-opening loss to Buffalo?

Coach John Harbaugh lauded his team’s capacity for winning ugly, noting it has long been a signature Ravens trait. Fair enough. Harbaugh’s loudest critics said the team had stopped playing for him after its cataclysmic start, and it’s never easy to win five straight games in the NFL. Some pride in what they’ve pulled off is warranted.

But to pretend they’ve done anything more than grind their way back to par would be to ignore what we can all plainly see.

The offense isn’t right because Lamar Jackson isn’t himself

The Ravens’ first drive was strange, to say the least. They tried another bit of chicanery on third-and short, with tight end Mark Andrews motioning into “tush push” position at the last instant only to be stonewalled. They seemed set to punt from their own territory, then called a timeout and used a traditional Andrews tush push to convert on fourth down. Given a new lease, Jackson declined to run until he had no other choice on first down and badly missed an open Andrews on third down. So they had to punt anyway.

This was not the work of a healthy offense.

The Ravens did themselves one worse, going three-and-out on their next drive after Derrick Henry gained 6 yards on first down. Jackson tried to float a pass to tight end Isaiah Likely on third-and-3 but seemed to lose it in the wind.

Only a defensive hold saved them from another three-and-out on their third drive, but it ended soon enough, with Jackson taking a sack — he’s been dropped more in eight games this year than he was in all 17 last year — on third-and-7.

Their final tally from the first half — three yards per play, 0-for-5 on third down, 0-for-1 in the red zone, 23 rushing yards — told a grisly tale. When they did break the game open in the third quarter, the key drive extenders were a pair of pass-interference calls on the Jets. We have rarely seen the Ravens struggle so nakedly with Jackson at quarterback.

And that’s the point: We’re not seeing Jackson as we’ve come to know him. He’s missing that once-in-a-generation feel for extending plays, for attacking downfield. What’s left is a beat-up quarterback playing behind blockers who have not earned his full trust.

“I can’t call it,” Jackson said, reverting to one of his most-used phrases when asked how healthy he feels. “I’m out there, so I feel like I should be able to do what I do.”

No one with the Ravens is likely to acknowledge that we’re watching a lesser Jackson or that their offense is ordinary — 2.9 yards per carry against the Jets for a team that averaged 5.8 last season — if his legs aren’t magical.

“We’re well equipped for all that,” Andrews said.

Going a step further, no one would dare hint that Jackson’s peak form might remain elusive as he plays, without room to rest, through one pain after another.

“I have the utmost confidence in Lamar Jackson, and I always will,” Harbaugh said. “The pretty games will be there.”

The Ravens have no choice other than to believe that. They can’t be great if their centerpiece is not. They know it. He knows it.

On a day of dreary offense, the punter got to be a star

How rare is it to hear a punter serenaded?

After Jordan Stout pinned the Jets at their 5-yard line with a 67-yard kick in the fourth quarter, fans broke into a lusty “Seven Nation Army.” Stout exhorted them with a wave of his arms.

“Oh, let me see if I can get them louder,” he recalled thinking, the game ball he received from Harbaugh stashed behind him in his locker.

Stout had already risen from what he acknowledges was a poor end to last season. He came into the game leading the league in net punting average. But he hit a new peak against the Jets, who came in No. 1 in special teams DVOA. His 74-yard punt in the second quarter tied his mentor, Sam Koch, for the longest in team history.

“The punt team, that kept us in the game, probably,” Harbaugh said. He added that Stout’s 67-yarder, which hit the ground and took a sharp right out of bounds, was “unbelievable.”

Stout laughed afterward, calling the bounce “all luck.”

“I must be living right,” he said.

Stout will be a free agent after this season and knew his performance through three years in Baltimore had not convinced the Ravens he should be their long-term punter. His power wasn’t in question. His consistency was. Kicking coach Randy Brown has told him, “If you do poorly, we’re going to cut you.”

That harsh reality made Stout anxious, but not anymore, he said. “I can go out and have five bad punts, and I’ll still be OK.”

Koch, no longer on the Ravens’ coaching staff but still a sounding board for Stout, helped him get there.

“I had a bad last five games last year,” Stout said. “Him being there for me is a big part of why I got through it.”

Stout has made a loud case for an extension. On Sunday, fans told him so with a song.

Marlon Humphrey added to the Ravens’ soaring defensive confidence

Humphrey was a central character in the defense’s early-season tale of woe, earning some of the worst coverage grades of his career and failing to compensate by creating turnovers.

He hit harder and covered more soundly coming out of the team’s bye week, only to be sidelined by minor surgery to put a stabilizing pin in his finger. He came back against the Jets and made the defensive play of the game, ripping the ball from running back Breece Hall’s grasp when New York was on the verge of cutting the Ravens’ lead to 20-17.

“Marlon, to get that ball out, I don’t know how he did it,” Harbaugh said. “We were reeling a little bit; they had us on our heels. They were running the ball, they had made some plays, and we’d missed some tackles. And then he comes up — he comes up just huge.”

At his apex as a perennial Pro Bowl cornerback, Humphrey mastered the art of punching balls loose, leading the league with eight forced fumbles in 2020.

Takeaways have fueled the Ravens’ defensive resurrection over the last five weeks, giving them confidence that opponents’ best drives won’t reach the end zone. Humphrey reminded us he can be a key figure behind their bend-don’t-break credo.

“Honestly, I was thinking about the missed tackle I had just had a play or two before,” he said. “We talk about the more shots you take on the ball, the better the odds you have to get one out, and I took a shot there and I was able to get it out.”

Dre’Mont Jones has brought a healthy dose of nastiness to the pass rush

Remember when we thought not getting to opposing quarterbacks was the Ravens’ most pressing issue?

Fans weren’t sure general manager Eric DeCosta did enough when he traded for Jones but didn’t add a pass rushing defensive tackle at the league deadline. Nothing against Jones, but the tough, versatile veteran had never finished a season with more than 6 1/2 sacks.

Though we can’t render a verdict until the Ravens take on more formidable quarterbacks and offensive lines, Jones has brought verve to their rush in each of his three games since the deal. He saved his best for his home debut, delivering two sacks, a batted pass and a few other hurries against elusive Jets quarterback Tyrod Taylor.

Beyond his individual production, Jones has helped free rookie edge rusher Mike Green to play his best games of the season. His competitive meanness — Jones couldn’t be nicer in the locker room — has provided a welcome corrective for a group that was pushed around early in the season. The sum is greater than it was before he arrived.

“I love the way he’s just been able to come from a new place and he’s really just fit right into the culture,” Humphrey said. “He’s not causing any stir. He’s really a pro about the way he goes to work, learning [and] just everything he does. He’s fit in really well, and I think, obviously, the trade is really paying off with the sacks he’s getting.”

Jones noted after the game that he’s never played in the postseason. He’s just delighted to be lifting a team that expects to be in meaningful games come January.

“It’s been through the roof,” he said of the defense’s confidence. “When I got here, it seemed weird that they lost or had any slipups, because they were just so good. I’m happy to be a part of something like that.”