The Ravens smashed through the league’s stingiest scoring defense to pick up a crucial 30-23 win against the Los Angeles Chargers in the third coaching matchup between John and Jim Harbaugh.

Here are five things we learned from the game:

The Ravens rediscovered their identity in the wake of a bitter loss

They weren’t in genuine danger of falling off a playoff track, but the Ravens had to know a loss to the Chargers would lead to uncomfortable discourse regarding their long-term prospects. Already, the talk was that they could not get out of their own way coming off a penalty- and turnover-fueled loss to the maddening Pittsburgh Steelers.

While the fraternal rivalry between coaching Harbaughs would be the cheerful surface plot in this matchup of AFC contenders, the trip to Los Angeles represented a low-key reckoning for the Ravens. Fall to 7-5 with the scorching hot Philadelphia Eagles up next, and they’d suddenly be in survival mode, confronting ugly doubts.

They steered right into those doubts to start the night, offering little resistance on an opening drive orchestrated by their former offensive coordinator, Greg Roman. They short-circuited their own powerful offense with a pair of 15-yard penalties, the bane of their recent existence. The nightmare scenario seemed to be unfolding.

And then the Ravens woke up.

They re-fired the engine of their brutal, relentless offensive machine, handing the ball to Derrick Henry, counterpunching with Justice Hill, grinding on the league’s No. 1 scoring defense. Quarterback Lamar Jackson was more workmanlike than magical for most of the night, but he made the necessary throws and runs when it was time to finish drives in the end zone. Coach John Harbaugh, looking to embolden this attack, went for three fourth downs. The Ravens converted all three, not to mention eight of 15 third downs.At its core, this team is special because it can run on anyone and because Jackson is nearly impossible to defend on those high-leverage plays that extend and complete drives. The Ravens made too many mistakes for those virtues to shine through in Pittsburgh, but they were back to being themselves against Jim Harbaugh’s tough, disciplined Chargers.

They boarded their overnight flight 8-4, just a half-game behind Pittsburgh in the AFC North and set for an intriguing battle of the bullies against the 9-2 Eagles.

John Harbaugh’s heart grows three sizes when he’s coaching against his younger brother

He’s just trying to draw them offside.

That’s what we all thought when the Ravens’ offense stayed on the field facing fourth-and-1 from their own 16 as the clock ticked down to the two-minute warning. Surely, they’d punt it away safely when the break was over, content with a one-score deficit going into the locker room.

And then, Mark Andrews lined up under center.

“The upside was that I really thought we’d get it,” Harbaugh said, reflecting on the call that helped put the Ravens up to stay.

Harbaugh’s not a fearful coach under any circumstances, but his little brother seems to draw out the gunslinger within. Who could forget the fake field goal big brother called — the first in Super Bowl history — the last time we saw Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh?

That bit of daring came up a yard short. This time, the math was on Harbaugh’s side. But imagine the howls of derision he would have heard if the direct snap to his tight end did not work.

Andrews powered forward just enough on the Ravens’ version of the tush push. Five plays later, Jackson slipped a 40-yard touchdown strike to Rashod Bateman through blanket coverage. Harbaugh’s gumption paid off more richly than even he could have imagined.

We saw just how significant an upgrade the Ravens made at running back

Henry was alone, moving in the wrong direction with two Chargers between him and a third-down conversion. He extended his mighty right arm to push the first defender aside and turned upfield, but the second still had a good angle to stop him short. Again, Henry thrust out his Muhammad Ali straight right to create the space he needed. Five yards and the Ravens were still moving, on their way to another score.

The run was far from Henry’s longest in a mighty 140-yard performance, but it might have been his most clutch and the one that best illustrated his unique qualities.

His greatness felt particularly significant on a night when the Ravens faced their two top running backs from the pre-Henry era.

J.K. Dobbins averaged a wildly efficient 5.8 yards per carry in Baltimore. Gus Edwards was one of the fiercest battering rams ever to wear the purple and black. But Dobbins couldn’t stay on the field, and Edwards didn’t run with quite as much fury in 2023. Instead of re-upping with either, general manager Eric DeCosta jumped into the running back market with both feet, signing the most proven of proven stars.

Only the most pitiless fan could have felt anything but pained empathy for Dobbins when he left the field with a knee injury Monday night. He carried six times for 40 yards and caught another three passes for 19 yards; perhaps the night would have been his if that knee had allowed it. Edwards, meanwhile, carried nine times for just 11 yards.

On the other side, Henry just kept doing the things that have him pointed toward the Hall of Fame, hauling his 247 pounds of muscle around the edge, throwing that stiff right when he needed it. He has suffered just one significant injury in his career despite carrying 378 times in 2020 and 349 in 2022. He and Saquon Barkley, whom the Ravens will see Sunday when they host the Philadelphia Eagles, are the gold standard at a position where many teams have turned to bargain-hunting over the last decade.

DeCosta had too little cap space to spend on every part of his roster last summer. He could have easily chased value instead of premium talent at running back, figuring Jackson would give the team an excellent ground game no matter what. But his choice to pursue Henry, now on pace for 1,877 rushing yards, created a super-charged offense.

“I can’t give him credit enough for how locked in he is,” Jackson said of the best running back he’s ever partnered with. “How dynamic he is.”

The Ravens can’t stop putting themselves in holes with penalties

Fullback Patrick Ricard’s leg whip wiped out a 17-yard completion and put the Ravens in an impossible first-and-25 hole to stall their first drive.

They were backed up another 15 yards at the start of their second drive when Nate Wiggins drew a flag for blocking a defender out of bounds on Tylan Wallace’s punt return.

The call on Ricard was sketchy given how little contact he made, but that was beside the larger point. Eight days earlier, Harbaugh had lamented how penalties made it impossible for his offense to find any rhythm in an 18-16 loss to the Steelers. A quarter in, the Ravens were right back to the same shenanigans against another tough, disciplined opponent.

They goofed again in the second quarter with an illegal formation in the red zone, but Jackson rendered that one irrelevant with a nifty 10-yard touchdown run.

Not coincidentally, the Ravens played significantly cleaner football during their stretch of five straight scoring drives that gave them a two-touchdown lead. Only a holding call on guard Patrick Mekari, their most penalized lineman, marred that run of elite offense.

But pass-interference calls on Marlon Humphrey and Jalyn Armour-Davis kept the Chargers alive on a last-ditch drive that finished in the end zone and gave Los Angeles a shot at a final onside kick.

Those penalties took the Ravens’ tally to nine for 102 yards, still an unacceptable pace even if the flags did not prove as costly as the 12 for 80 yards they drew in Pittsburgh.

It’s not as if this is an every-year problem for Harbaugh’s teams. The Ravens ranked 26th in penalty yards as recently as 2022. But the bottom line is they’re not shedding what has become a major albatross this season, and as Harbaugh said, that buck stops with him. Though it’s impossible to eradicate holding and pass interference, the Ravens keep making mental mistakes pre-snap and on special teams.

They won’t win four straight games against postseason competition if they don’t clean up their act.

With an unexpected star turn by Malik Harrison, the defense stood tough in Roquan Smith’s absence

Smith sprinted on his sore hamstring during pregame warmups, hoping he could defy the odds and start at linebacker after a week of missed practices. But the Ravens prudently chose to give their defensive leader another week with the bruising Eagles on their way to town and a bye after that.

Boy did they miss Smith on the Chargers’ opening touchdown drive as Dobbins and Edwards slashed off-tackle and Justin Herbert lofted an 18-yard completion to tight end Will Dissly that fell between the Ravens’ linebackers and their back end. The Baltimore defense has been soft in the middle even with its All-Pro middle linebacker. Without him, it seemed disaster might be afoot.

So, give a game ball to Harrison, the reserve linebacker most responsible for stepping into the breach. No one questioned the 6-foot-3, 255-pound Harrison’s sturdiness against the run, but many of us wondered if his lack of mobility would be a fatal liability against Dissly and the Chargers’ other intermediate pass catchers. Nope. Harrison not only led the team with 13 tackles; he earned very good marks on 24 coverage snaps, according to Pro Football Focus’ early grading. A serviceable performance would have been well-received. No one could have guessed Harrison would be the team’s best defender in Los Angeles.

“Malik Harrison steps in and has a career game,” Harbaugh said. “He had [13] tackles. And the thing I appreciate about Malik is he’s a really even-keeled guy, but he’s a confident person. And they go down there the first drive, and we’re trying to figure out what’s going on and how we’re going to play these different things, and [we] talked through it, and he didn’t flinch for one second.”

We wondered also how much the Ravens would get from defensive tackle Travis Jones, who was questionable to play against the Chargers because of an ankle injury that keeps flaring. Well, Jones gritted his teeth through 34 snaps and earned the highest preliminary PFF grade of any Baltimore interior defender.

The Chargers ran for 35 yards on that first drive, 48 the rest of the game. Dissly and star slot receiver Ladd McConkey caught all 10 passes thrown their way for 130 yards but did not rip off the chunk gains that have killed the Ravens for much of the season.

The Ravens will need Smith’s brain, legs and fire to be at their best down the stretch. He has to be delighted that his teammates found those qualities in themselves while he could only watch from the sideline Monday night.

Have a news tip? Contact Childs Walker at daviwalker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6893 and x.com/ChildsWalker.