Lamar Jackson played masterfully against the league’s No. 3 defense as the Ravens blew out the Denver Broncos, 41-10, to reassert their place near the top of the AFC.

Here are five things we learned from the game:

The Ravens made it known that they’re still in the AFC’s elite tier

Last year, they made their emphatic, brutal statement in Week 7 against up-and-coming Detroit. The Lions came to Baltimore thinking their defense was pretty special and left on the wrong end of 503 yards, 38 points and a near-perfect performance by Lamar Jackson.

The Ravens needed an extra two weeks, and an unexpected kick in the pants in Cleveland, to get to a similar moment in 2024.

The Broncos did not come to town on quite as buzzy a roll as the 2023 Lions, but they are a team on the rise, led by a rapidly evolving rookie quarterback and a defense devoid of obvious weaknesses. This was a prove-it game for them to show they belong in the AFC’s upper class.

Instead, they scuttled back to the Rocky Mountains nursing wounds to pride and person after the Ravens hung 41 points and 396 yards on the NFL’s No. 3 defense.

We couldn’t call it a flawless performance. The Broncos moved the ball a little too freely in the first half when the result was still in question. But it was a game that helped sort the AFC’s pecking order at halftime of the 2024 season. The Ravens, for all their defensive and special teams foibles and their goofy losses to the Browns and Las Vegas Raiders, belong near the top.

“We played our best, most complete game of the season so far,” coach John Harbaugh said.Executing their formula — Jackson’s precision passing against pressure, Zay Flowers’ brilliantly slippery playmaking, enough defensive stops on third down and in the red zone, Derrick Henry as second-half gavel — against the Broncos is not the same as doing it against the Kansas City Chiefs. That ultimate test still awaits the Ravens in the distant chill of January.

They had little time to enjoy the laugher, turning their attention to a Thursday night matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals before the last game ball from Sunday’s win was handed out.

They needed multiple miracles to get out of Cincinnati victorious in Week 5. AFC North opponents never seem to yield without a fracas.

But they proved they could dictate the script against a quality opponent, and they kept the crowd at M&T Bank Stadium from having to cope with even a moment of real apprehension. Add this one to their thorough beatdown of the Buffalo Bills and their offensive explosion against Tampa Bay, and the Ravens can compete with anyone when it comes to big-time performances.

Lamar Jackson looked like the MVP in putting a hot defense on ice

Jackson introduced mystery to the week when he did not trot onto the practice field Wednesday or Thursday. Harbaugh said he was resting. The injury report said his knee and back hurt coming off 21 pressures in that vexing loss to the Browns.

Jackson said all was well, that it was no more than a well-timed rest midway through a grueling season. But he gave us reason to wonder if he would be somehow diminished against one of the league’s top pressure defenses.

Well, he carried a season-low three times for a season-low 4 yards on an afternoon when the Ravens did not need him to be a runner. Otherwise, he added more pristine stokes to a season that’s rapidly becoming his passing masterpiece.

“Lamar’s on fire,” Harbaugh marveled into his headset at some point during the first half. What else to say when your quarterback came in with the league’s best passer rating and improved on it with the fourth perfect (158.3) game of his career?

Jackson explained it all simply:

“I knew what the assignment was.”

“I was just taking advantage of what they were giving me.”

That must be how it feels when you’re on top of your craft. He sidestepped defenders when necessary. Seemed to know exactly where his receivers would pop open. Dropped the ball to them perfectly with easy flicks of his wrist.

Jackson had run for his life a week earlier in Cleveland, desperately seeking safe ground from which he could throw his team back into the game. His 11-for-12 first half against Denver felt almost casual by comparison.

We’re seeing him in this mode more often in 2024. His feel for moving in space is as breathtaking as ever, but it’s in service of hyper-efficient passing that was not always part of his game when he burst on the NFL scene.

“He didn’t have to,” Henry said of Jackson not running to beat Denver. “If you want to take away him running the ball, [he’ll] go over your head and throw it. If he has to run it, he’ll do that as well. Hats off to him. He’s the engine that makes this thing go.”

“Lamar’s on fire,” was Harbaugh’s comment on one impeccable half, but it holds up just as well as a descriptor of the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player’s season to date. Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Joe Montana and Jim Brown are the only players to win back-to-back MVPs. We’re watching a sixth man make a powerful case to join their club.

The Ravens’ offensive line regained its footing

The Baltimore defense took most of the heat for that loss in Cleveland, but the Ravens’ offensive line also found itself back in the crosshairs after Myles Garrett and Za’Darius Smith rampaged for four quarters.

It would be no easy feat to put that disappointment in the rearview against a Denver defense that came in with the second-highest blitz rate and second-most sacks in the league.

The outlook felt bleaker still when Denver defensive end John Franklin-Myers overpowered rookie right tackle Roger Rosengarten and sacked Jackson to knock the Ravens out of field goal range on their first drive.

“I was just giving up ground a little quicker than I wanted to,” Rosengarten said. “That’s football for you. I gave up that play, and then it’s next-play mentality. You can’t let it carry over.”

The same could be said for his entire unit coming off its collective step back against the Browns. But Rosengarten and his linemates did not continue giving ground. They steadied themselves and gave Jackson — who took just that one hit all afternoon — the time he needed to weave his magic.

“[Denver has] a very good pass rushing group across the board,” Harbaugh said. “There was a challenge with the twist and the games and the picks that our interior guys had to handle. The speed rush outside guys — our tackles did a good job. I thought they did a really good job.”

Because the Ravens’ offensive line became such a pleasant surprise after a wobbly first two weeks, it was easy to forget Rosengarten and right guard Daniel Faalele are major works in progress. They were inevitably going to have to work past hiccups, and that’s what we saw against Denver.

“You can’t dwell on last week at all,” Rosengarten said. “I remember we got in the locker room last week, and we were like, ‘We’re all in on the Broncos.'”

Before he left the stadium Sunday, the rookie was already talking about the mistakes he’ll clean up over the next eight games.

The Ravens’ missing pass rush remains worrying

The Ravens had the Broncos where they wanted them: third-and-10 on the Denver 30-yard line. With a stop, they’d take the ball back and be in position to build a commanding halftime lead.

The home crowd begged for heat on rookie quarterback Bo Nix. Instead, Nix dropped back and looked, and looked some more, remaining unhurried and untouched until his favorite target, Courtland Sutton, burst free between layers of the Baltimore zone. Their 33-yard connection led to a field goal.

Jackson rendered those points less relevant when he answered with a 53-yard touchdown pass to Flowers, but the Ravens’ inability to make an opposing quarterback uncomfortable on a key down was familiar and telling.

They talk during the week about how pressure and coverage must work hand in glove. Then, the next game arrives, and their four-man rush fails to disrupt the opponent’s rhythms.

Nix left at least seven points on the field in the first half. His first pass of the game tipped off wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey’s hand and into the arms of Ravens safety Ar’Darius Washington. He overshot a wide-open receiver in the end zone when Denver went for it on fourth-and-4 to start the second quarter.

If he had been more opportunistic, this game could have been a shootout rather than a blowout.

Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta will try to put the finishing touches on a championship roster before Tuesday afternoon’s trade deadline, and nothing he saw against Denver should dissuade him from trying to add an impactful defender or two. Though their sack total for the season is healthy, the Ravens have not replaced Jadeveon Clowney’s snap-to-snap impact from the edge. Their interior line is banged up, and Nnamdi Madubuike has just two sacks and eight quarterback hits coming off his breakout 2023.

Harbaugh was proud of his team’s stands in the red zone and on third and fourth down. He felt the defensive front kept Nix from scrambling to create scores. The Ravens got to the rookie more frequently once the game was out of hand.

But Denver’s point total did not tell the complete story. The Ravens are winning because their offense might be historically great. They still have a long way to go on the other side of the ball.

Zay Flowers’ touchdown just before halftime was as good as it gets

In the euphoria of his postgame news conference, Harbaugh started listing the Ravens he’d like to be for just a day. He concluded with Flowers. “Could you imagine being able to catch it and run like that? To be that quick?” he said. “I can’t even imagine what that’s like.”

He acknowledged that sometimes, he quietly pulls for Flowers to catch the ball and simply turn upfield for a few good, hard yards. Then, he sees his second-year wide receiver put a crackle in the air as he did against Denver, when he caught Jackson’s pass in the middle of the field, stopped dead in his tracks, stiff-armed safety Devon Key at the same time he backed out of his grasp and then looped around the rest of the Denver defense to score his longest touchdown of the season.

It was an improvisation no coach could diagram. Only a player of uncommon imagination would attempt such a thing. When Flowers pulled it off, Harbaugh and every player on the Baltimore sideline basked in the sheer beauty of his gift.

“The throw, the catch and then the little stop-and-stutter,” Harbaugh said. “Zay is thinking about scoring every time, so that was just a phenomenal football play.”

“God blessed him with the ability to make guys miss,” said Jackson, who knows the feeling. “It’s always been him. Going back to Broward County, back in youth football, he’s always been that player. Him catching a post pattern, making guys miss, and getting extra yards for a touchdown, that’s just him playing ball.”

Flowers scored twice and cleared 100 yards for the fourth time in five games. He’s becoming the No. 1 receiver Jackson lacked over his first five seasons.

But those are just digits. What he did on that 53-yard touchdown, bending time and space to the bewilderment of world-class defenders, was pure inspiration.

Have a news tip? Contact sports editor Tim Schwartz at timschwartz@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/timschwartz13.