There might not be a better magician in the NFL than Lamar Jackson. For a few fleeting drives Sunday, he nearly made the football-watching world forget what it had seen for three weeks running.

The Jackson of November was way below standard. For the last three games, he neither threw nor ran for a touchdown while turning the ball over at an alarming rate. He was not so much “La-Marvelous” as “below La-Par.”

As it had for many observers, my skepticism that the two-time MVP would resurface this season had grown, and I wasn’t encouraged by an uninspired start to Week 14 against Pittsburgh, with a goofy floating interception by James Pierre.

But after that lowlight — and starting with the last Ravens drive of the second quarter — something remarkable happened. Jackson got me to (momentarily) forget all the ugly football that I had watched recently.

With 1:56 remaining and the ball back at the 26, for a few seconds, I actually believed Jackson might help Baltimore pull off the best comeback of an otherwise dreary season.

It didn’t happen in a 27-22 loss to the Steelers, a game in which we still never saw Jackson playing at his highest level. But, for the first time in a while, he gave the appearance of the game changer Ravens fans have become used to.

If not for an officiating review that, in my opinion, stole a touchdown from Isaiah Likely, the Ravens probably would have pulled it off and the final four-week stretch of the season would look a lot brighter.

It wasn’t meant to be. The officiating crew disadvantaged Baltimore, and although the Ravens had a few more chances to save themselves, they couldn’t. Sitting at 6-7 and a game behind the Steelers in the AFC North (with just two division games left), it feels apparent that the Ravens aren’t a very good team and they have a hard ceiling against competent competition.

There’s one thing that could change the potential: if Jackson can use the rhythm he seemed to find in this game to go on a tear.

“We still have how many games left? Four or five games left,” Jackson said. “We are still turning it around.”

It’s hard to get excited about a game the Ravens lost, when Jackson was just 19-for-35 and started in the same funk he’s been in since he came back from injury. The final play of the game was a sack, the one thing Jackson couldn’t take when the ball snapped with just nine seconds remaining.

But, after starting a brutal 4-for-8 with his fourth pick in as many games, it felt like a switch flipped. Jackson showed intensity after the turnover, with CBS Sports reporting that he got into a spat with lineman Daniel Faalele. Then, on the subsequent drive, he led a 60-yard campaign that gobbled nearly six minutes of clock and capped it with his first rushing touchdown since Week 1.

For the last few games, Jackson’s reluctance to run made fans wonder how healthy he’s been. Finally, the Steelers gave him a hole so big he was nearly forced to oblige them.

Jackson felt unlocked by that, on some level. He threw a touchdown pass to Likely (the one that counted) that he helped open by threatening to run.

After weeks of watching Jackson struggle to respond to defensive looks, it was refreshing to see him turn the tables. Even between the two sacks he took, it felt that Jackson was evading pressure slightly better, squeezing his way out of blitzes better than he has all season long.

“I felt like I moved pretty well, kept drives alive,” Jackson said.

For the first time in weeks, it was believable.

This is not to say the Ravens, or Jackson, are playing acceptably well. Obviously not. Getting back to the top of the division is going to require near-perfect football over the next four weeks against very dangerous opponents.

The Ravens were just 2-for-6 in the red zone, experienced blocking issues and had moments when the passing game wasn’t connecting. Jackson himself started somewhat off target but improved throughout the game (drops like Rashod Bateman’s in the red zone didn’t help).

But if you’re looking for a kernel of hope in this cloudy outlook for the Ravens, here it is: Lamar Jackson started to resemble Lamar Jackson.

The utter doubt that has shrouded the offense for the last stretch of games lifted long enough for us to wonder if Jackson could carry the Ravens over the finish line for a win they really needed at home.

It didn’t happen, obviously, and the road ahead is now longer and harder for the Ravens to get back to the playoffs. But, if Jackson can carry over some of this momentum to Cincinnati in a rematch he desperately needs to win, that gives Baltimore a little more hope than it had last week.

Ultimately the ceiling of the team is about its quarterback more than any other part. The Ravens need MVP-level Jackson, a guy we haven’t seen much of this year, back.

But against the Steelers, even in defeat, Jackson showed us a lot more than we’ve seen in a long time. If you want a ray of light to hold on to in this ugly season, that’s the best one Ravens fans have got.