The penalty story of the Ravens’ 2024 season is not pretty, but it can be neatly told: two drives, one coming after the other in Sunday’s 35-14 win over the New York Giants.

Early in the second quarter, with the Ravens leading 7-0 inside MetLife Stadium, a flag flew. False start, center Tyler Linderbaum. A second-and-5 near midfield backed up to second-and-10. Three plays later, quarterback Lamar Jackson hit wide receiver Rashod Bateman for a 49-yard touchdown.

When the Giants took over, another flag flew. Defensive holding, cornerback Marlon Humphrey. A third-down stop near midfield reset to first-and-10. Nine plays (and three Ravens flags) later, Giants running back Devin Singletary scored on a 2-yard run.

Therein lies the great mystery of the NFL’s most penalty-prone team. On offense, the Ravens are flag magnets, but they tend to overcome. On defense, the Ravens are flag magnets, and they tend to succumb.

“Their [touchdown] drives were penalty inspired,” coach John Harbaugh said Sunday after the Ravens were flagged 12 times for a season-high 112 yards, most of which the defense bore responsibility for. “If it wasn’t for the penalties, those drives wouldn’t have happened, so it’s obviously something that’s very important.”

And a bad habit, too. The Ravens have committed an NFL-high 117 accepted penalties for an NFL-high 997 yards this season, according to TruMedia, costing them dearly in losses to division cellar dwellers (109 penalty yards against the Las Vegas Raiders) and division leaders (80 penalty yards against the Pittsburgh Steelers) alike. Only four Harbaugh-coached Ravens teams have finished a season with more penalty yardage than this squad: 2009 (1,094), 2016 (1,111), 2012 (1,127) and 2015 (1,152), all of which did so in 16-game regular seasons.

These Ravens are, by and large, equal-opportunity offenders. Their 56 offensive penalties are third most in the NFL. Their 47 defensive penalties are second most. They even have 14 special teams penalties, 12th most.

Where the Ravens’ units differ, however, is in their resilience. On offense, Jackson and Co. see a flag as a green flag, a sign to rev up the engine of the NFL’s most explosive attack. The Ravens have 21 drives this season with minus-10 net penalty yards or worse, second most in the league. Eight of those drives have ended in the end zone, a 38.1% touchdown rate. The rest of the NFL has scored just 55 touchdowns on 259 such drives (21.2%).

(Even crazier: The Ravens’ seasonlong touchdown rate on all drives is 34.7%, meaning their offense has in some respects fared better after flag-related adversity.)

The Ravens’ defense has lacked the same sturdiness. A flag has been more like a caution, a warning that more danger is afoot. Coordinator Zach Orr’s unit has had 15 drives with minus-10 net penalty yards or worse, second most in the NFL. Eight of those possessions have ended in the end zone, a 53.3% touchdown rate. For the NFL’s 31 other defenses, 45.1% of such drives have resulted in touchdowns.

Certain defensive penalties have proved crippling. The Ravens have been flagged 13 times for pass interference this season, fifth most in the NFL. On those 11 penalized drives — one possession had two pass interference flags, and another was thrown on a 2-point-conversion attempt — opponents have scored five touchdowns and averaged 3.7 points per drive. The overall NFL average for points per drive allowed is nearly half that (2.0).

The Ravens have also committed six roughing-the-passer penalties, most in the NFL. Opponents have scored a touchdown on five of those six penalized drives, plus a field goal on the sixth, averaging 6.2 points per drive.

Add in a league-worst eight defensive-holding penalties and a handful of other infractions, and the Ravens have lost 52.03 “expected” points this season — another league worst — on defensive penalties, according to TruMedia. The Steelers are in position to wrap up the AFC North with a win Saturday in part because of their cleaner play; Pittsburgh has lost just 20.92 expected points on defensive penalties in 2024, ninth best in the NFL.

“I don’t think it’s a challenge for us, moving on [from penalties], in a sense,” safety Kyle Hamilton said Tuesday. “I think it’s a challenge for us not to have [penalties] in the first place. We played pretty well [against the Giants]. Zach told us this week that on one drive, where they scored the first touchdown, they had 39 yards of offense and 41 yards of penalties. We’re literally giving them points at that point, and I feel like we have a good enough team where nobody should really just drive down the field and score on us just at will. The only way that will happen is if we get penalties, pass interference or holding, whatever it might be.

“We just have to be a little more clean in that aspect, but I don’t think guys need to change how they’re playing in any way. Just kind of fix those little things and just keep playing fast.”

With three regular-season games remaining, the Ravens are running out of time to find fixes. On Sunday, they watched an injury-depleted, quarterback-needy Giants offense that averaged just 3.9 yards per play cross into Ravens territory on five of its eight meaningful possessions. Defensive penalties were the Giants’ main energy source, keeping drives alive and pinning the Ravens further and further back. According to TruMedia, the Ravens’ eight defensive penalties amounted to the loss of 13.42 expected points — almost two touchdowns’ worth — the most any defense has lost to penalties in a single game since at least 2010.

“If those penalties hadn’t happened or just a few of them hadn’t happened, they wouldn’t have probably had any points,” Harbaugh said Monday. “I think we played to the level of that, of them not scoring, especially because we had a couple of big stops. ... So, if we can eliminate the penalties, that would be a little truer in the case of how we played.”

It’s a big “if.” Penalties didn’t cost the Ravens a comfortable win Sunday. They still might cost them a division title Saturday.