It was late October, midway through the Ravens’ season, and Lamar Jackson was nowhere to be seen. Two straight missed practices were cause for curiosity if not concern among the assembled media corps at 1 Winning Drive. The absences were quickly explained away by coach John Harbaugh as mere rest days for a sore knee and back amid a heavy workload of football for the $260 million quarterback in what was expected to be a long season ahead.

But behind closed doors there had also been some tough words, Jackson acknowledged, in the days following a sloppy, mistake-filled loss to the lowly, then one-win Browns in Cleveland, and he needed a break physically.

“I’m the type of person if I’m well-rested and my body feel good I should be able to do anything,” Jackson told The Baltimore Sun. “I tell coach all the time, if we rest we should be able to do this. He listens, but sometimes he’s the coach and do what he want to do.”

Harbaugh and Jackson are two ultra-competitive men driven by the same goal — an elusive Super Bowl title together — and at the top of the sport it’s why small details can carry big importance, particularly when the only thing left to be measured by is the game’s ultimate prize for two all-but-certain future Hall of Famers.

It’s part of the reason, for example, that Harbaugh during offseason workouts brought in a sleep specialist to meet with the team. It’s why Jackson’s mother, Felicia Jones, who was on her son’s case following a loss to the Eagles last month for not taking advantage of the running lanes Philadelphia had presented him, will chide him for texting her at 1 a.m., wondering why he isn’t asleep, he said.

“Needing sleep wasn’t something that was ever on my mind,” Jackson, who turned 28 on Tuesday, told The Sun. “My mom, she always told me to make sure I’m sleeping.”

Now in his seventh year and with the bitter taste of last season’s ugly loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in his first AFC championship game still lingering on his tongue, it’s only one of many changes he has made as he prepares to embark on what he hopes will be a deep playoff run, beginning with Saturday’s wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In the regular season, Jackson put together a historic campaign.

He became the first player in NFL history to pass for more than 4,000 yards and run for more than 900 yards in the same season. He set the franchise record for touchdown passes in a season (41) while throwing just four interceptions. He led the Ravens to a 12-5 record, another AFC North title and the No. 3 seed in the conference and is again a candidate for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award, which would be his third.

But Jackson is just 2-4 in the playoffs and never reached a Super Bowl in his six previous seasons.

He has also failed to maintain the same level of play in the postseason with six interceptions and three lost fumbles in six games. Which as usual this time of year begs the question of whether he can turn regular season magnificence into playoff mastery.

Teammates say Jackson this year has been more intentional and vocal.

“What Lamar has done a good job of is take the years before him and really used them, taught himself what he was bad at what he was good at,” wide receiver Rashod Bateman told The Sun. “I think that shows. A lot of people kind of wonder what he be up to in the offseason, but it shows he works behind closed doors. A lot of us are not shocked, but it’s cool for the world to see.”

The importance of being in the second year of offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s system also can’t be overstated.

“It’s important for you to understand that he sees the game different than what you may think is the picture,” wide receiver Nelson Agholor told The Sun. “The picture is this, but he has a different picture. The more you start speaking Lamar, and understanding Lamar the more prolific we’ll be.”

Coaches have also seen physical improvements on the field and greater command of the offense in the film room.

“He made some goals to be quicker on his feet,” quarterbacks coach Tee Martin said. “We made a key point to work on throws outside the numbers, into deeper field zones, outside the numbers, post routes, go routes [and] things of that nature [as well as] on the run [and] scramble throws. Those are things that we intentionally wanted to come into the season to be improved at and better at. So, as you look at his numbers, you look at statistically where he’s at, he’s improved in all those areas.

“From protections, from progressions, from knowing what to expect so that he can anticipate and get the ball out – he’s not getting sacked as much, [and] he’s not being flushed as much.”

Having Derrick Henry alongside him in the backfield is no small matter, either.

Jackson’s eyes widen when asked how significant the future Hall of Fame back has been on him specifically. He let out an audible gasp.

“He made my job A LOT easier,” Jackson continues. “He makes the offensive line’s job a lot easier because the type of running back he is. When he gets downhill or when he hit the outside he just go, when running backs be dancing, making moves, he gets the ball and just go and that’s keeping our line fresh.

“And he just taking the edge off me. I don’t got to run the ball as much.”

Monken put it another, more blunt way.

“There’s nothing like being able to turn around and comfortably hand the ball off to the running back,” he said. “And some of those times – like we we’re talking about under center – it’s kind of a smoke break for your quarterback. There’s not much processing. You can just turn around and hand the ball off, and there’s not a lot of reading it, throwing it, protection.

“That’s really big. You get to exhale a little bit for the quarterback.”

Henry’s addition will also perhaps help with Jackson’s anxiousness when the stakes of the games are at their highest.

“I’d be just too excited,” he said this week. “Too antsy. I’m seeing things before it happened, like, ‘Oh, I got to calm myself down.’ But just being more experienced, I’ve found a way to balance it out.”

He has tried to be tidy in other areas of his life, too, he told The Sun.

He came into the season at just over 200 pounds, his lightest weight in years and more than 30 pounds less than what he weighed two seasons ago. It gave him the ability to get out his cuts faster, he said, and has kept him fresher as the season has worn on, which is in stark contrast to last year’s conference championship when he said his legs felt heavier and his speed was not as fast.

When he signed on for a Gatorade commercial this year, the childhood appeal and money made it attractive. Other companies have called him, too, but Jackson said that “not all money is good money.”

“There be a lot of stuff taking place during the season and I be trying to focus on football,” he told The Sun. “I don’t want anything cluttering my mind … I don’t wanna have that on my mind knowing I have 17 weeks, plus playoffs plus the Super Bowl. After the season, it’s cool but during the season I don’t want my mind focusing on anything but football.”

He has also continued to listen to his mother.

After all, he insists, she knows him better than anyone. She was there from the beginning, the one who guided him through backyard workouts in South Florida and through college, the one he still trusted as he entered the NFL and his most recent contract negotiation and even when to run and when to sleep.

“She pretty much said what I need to do,” he told The Sun. “So I said I’m gonna put that in the back of my mind a lot more, and that’s what’s been going on.”

Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1.