As the clock wound down at a glacial pace on the Ravens’ debacle of a loss Thursday night, I couldn’t get this thought out of my head:

They should fire somebody.

It’s not an impulse for which I can mount an ironclad, soundly logical defense. Whom should they fire? Offensive coordinator Todd Monken? Offensive line coach George Warhop? Go absolutely nuts and fire head coach John Harbaugh?

I don’t know if any of those dismissals would help the flatlining Ravens offense we’ve watched wither. But I also am not sure if I care anymore.

This performance — with its five turnovers, its face-slapping, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot moments that bit the Ravens again and again — screams for something to happen.

Hey! The building is burning down! It’s been burning down for weeks!

Is there something you all want to say besides, “This is fine”?

“I felt like we were doing things pretty well on the field,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “We got first downs, we drove the ball down the field sometimes, and then a turnover would happen — a mishap — here and there. We just have to be on the same page [and] be consistent."

Gosh, Lamar, that feels like a bit of an understatement.

I’m sure, behind closed doors, the Ravens feel they are frantically trying to fix an offense that went gangbusters with 8.64 yards per play in Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills and has never come close to that since. But based on the games you’d think they’ve left their sense of urgency in a cobweb-filled closet in Owings Mills.

Maybe that closet contains the playbook for the 2024 offense that actually worked.

A 32-14 defeat by Cincinnati is a “walk home” loss. The Ravens should skip the bus and use the walk home as time to think about what the hell happened.

We have words for this kind of loss — catastrophe, calamity, meltdown or fiasco, in case you’re trying to express your frustration in as many ways the English language can provide.

Let’s really appreciate this. The Ravens — led by the quarterback who should have won MVP last year and the running back who had over 1,900 yards — got their cans kicked by the Bengals, who entered this week as the worst defense in the NFL.

The Ravens fumbled four times. They blew and missed blocks (unsurprising for a line that has been consistently unreliable). Their utter carelessness reversed game-changing plays, even touchdowns. A few bad officiating calls went against them, to be sure, but it was the Three Stooges-caliber slapstick goofiness that really did them in — the first time since 2013 the Ravens had given up five turnovers.

“It’s just one of those kind of games,” Harbaugh said of the fumbles. “We had a bad game with that. We did not protect the football. It’s not good. It’s on me. I’m a coach, and my job is to make it clear to the guys that that’s not OK.”

The biggest offender, unfortunately and unbelievably, was Jackson, who at times appeared as if the Monstars of “Space Jam” had zapped him of the ability to throw a football accurately. Everyone assumes he’s hurt just because it’s so damn weird to see a guy who threw 41 touchdowns against four interceptions last year suddenly toss it in the dirt on a screen to Keaton Mitchell.

Jackson says he’s fine. “Nah, I just gotta be more consistent. I just gotta make those throws. I don’t miss them in practice, so I shouldn’t miss them in the game.”

Something is screwy about that. The explanation illuminates absolutely nothing about the results. Either Jackson is physically limited, or he’s somehow regressed to a level we’ve rarely seen before. Personally, I believe the former, but the longer this goes on, more folks are going to start wondering if Jackson has lost his magic.

The Bengals certainly didn’t show him much respect, blitzing the hell out of him on Cover 0 on third down — even though Jackson last year was one of the best quarterbacks against the blitz.

To make matters worse, for a whole half, their defense stood tall. There were four times when Cincinnati’s offense started in Baltimore territory, yet it scored only six points total from them. The first four times the Joe Burrow-led Bengals got into the red zone, they couldn’t squeeze a touchdown out of it.

On one memorable drive when Jackson fumbled at the 2-yard line, the Ravens defense stonewalled the Bengals, not allowing them to gain even a yard. Kyle Hamilton broke up a pass and rose triumphantly, and a defense that has been overhauled looked indomitable.

But playing on the other side of an offense this dysfunctional will hurt you. After getting the ball back — an absolute gift from the defense — the offense lost a yard on the ensuing possession, forcing Jordan Stout to punt from under the upright trying not to tip backward for a safety.

As gutted as the Ravens seem, Jackson as much as anyone, it’s not enough. There has not been adequate accounting for an offense that has devolved despite having some of the most impressive skill players ever to play the game. When the Ravens were on a five-game winning streak, everyone still understood this was bad, but it was easier to brush over the way that Harbaugh did after the Jets game, when he said Jackson was playing “winning football.”

Don’t confuse beating epically soft opponents with playing winning football. It’s exactly the reason I wrote on Sunday that this team wasn’t ready to beat the AFC North. But even I didn’t expect this slop, which was less appetizing than your Thanksgiving leftovers will be a week from now.

Jackson is a huge part of it, and if there is an explanation, we probably deserve to hear it by now. He has not thrown or rushed for a touchdown in three straight weeks, and in the same span he’s fumbled four times and been picked off three.

Of course we shouldn’t count this all against him, because a needless (and admittedly soft) penalty by Zay Flowers and a fumble by the also-regressing Isaiah Likely robbed Jackson of two touchdown passes.

If you want to chalk it up to weirdness, to freaky occurrences — go for it. Live in denial. I’m past that stage. Watching this offense makes me confused and frustrated. It’s not just the gaffes but also the philosophy.

Why, for example, did Derrick Henry not touch the ball once in the second quarter? He had two of the three most explosive plays of the game. That’s a scheme and coaching question, one that has lacked a satisfying answer since Buffalo in the playoffs last season.

Maybe, if the quarterback is struggling, run the ball with the 11th-leading rusher in NFL history? I’m no expert, but Henry running for a 6-yard average against the 31st-ranked rushing defense might call for more than just 10 carries?

“I think we just have to keep it going and keep the momentum going, and we make sure that’s our identity,” tackle Ronnie Stanley said of the run game. “We have to make it work.”

From Ronnie’s mouth to Monken’s ears, let it be so.

If it seems like the tone here is more than a little bitter — yeah, it is. Aren’t you bitter watching a colossally talented team massively underachieve? Aren’t you tired of Monken saying the Ravens need to “scheme better, coach better and execute better” — and somehow the improvement never happens?

I asked Harbaugh if he has seen evidence, especially in light of struggles against the bottom-feeding Jets and Bengals defenses, that the offense can turn it around.

“Of course, absolutely,” he said. “It is the National Football League. Anybody that watches the National Football League, is a fan of the National Football League or covers the National Football League or watches the other games understands it’s a week-to-week league.”

Yes, John. That’s my point. The opponents have changed, and the stakes have changed, but each and every week, your offense looks bad.

Change something. Do something.

For whatever private moves they are making to fix this, the product on the field screams of complacency — of a hubris from back-to-back amazing seasons of offensive football that now is weighing on them like an anchor. If they need to cut some weight to make change happen, now is the time. If nothing happens, they’re about to get waxed by the Pittsburgh Steelers — again! — and then play three of their last four games on the road.

The Ravens say to a man that they’ll stick together — and they’ll keep believing in Jackson — and that all their goals still lie ahead. Right now, thinking about watching more Ravens offensive possessions gives me a headache. I don’t know if firing people is a solution to their problems, but maybe it could shake up the organization into the reckoning that has been slowly approaching for weeks, even during the five-game win streak.

The worst-case scenario? Nothing changes, and the Ravens’ resurgence quickly fades — right back to the obscurity a 1-5 start suggested.