CINCINNATI — Ravens coach John Harbaugh made his way through the mostly exultant visiting locker room, where the celebration echoed through the halls deep inside Paycor Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The first words out of his mouth as he stepped to the podium in the small, fluorescent-lit concrete interview room?

“That was exciting,” he said, delivering perhaps the understatement of the young NFL season.

This one had it all.

Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson delivered what running back Derrick Henry called a third Most Valuable Player-level performance. Jackson’s counterpart and Bengals star Joe Burrow threw a career-high five touchdown passes. Ravens kicker Justin Tucker got redemption. Baltimore tight end Isaiah Likely beat ex-teammate Geno Stone for a late fourth-quarter touchdown. Blocking tight end Charlie Kolar rumbling for 55 yards. Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley threw up on the sideline down the stretch in regulation.

The Ravens rallied twice from a pair of 10-point second-half deficits, capping a wildly entertaining, chaotic and high-octane 60 minutes of football and then some with a 24-yard game-winning field goal from Tucker in overtime to lift Baltimore to an implausible 41-38 overtime victory over Cincinnati.

“It’s not how we drew it up, but damn,” said Henry, who rushed 15 times for 92 yards, 51 of which came on one run late in overtime with Stanley clearing the way to set up the game-winner. “I’m glad we got the win, but that’s division games. It comes down to the wire sometimes. It [was] a four-quarter battle; we were prepared for it.”

Except not even four quarters was enough to contain the electric, back-and-forth shootout and AFC North opener for both teams as the Ravens had to overcome what Harbaugh called a “dark place.”

Tucker, who came into the day having missed six of his previous seven field goal attempts from beyond 50 yards, first drilled a 56-yard game-tying field goal with 1:35 left in regulation, then connected in overtime to give the Ravens their third straight win. But it didn’t come without plenty of late drama.

After Tucker’s heroics in regulation and with the score knotted at 38 in the extra session, the Ravens were driving in Bengals territory when Jackson bobbled and then fumbled a shotgun snap that Cincinnati recovered at Baltimore’s 38-yard line.

Three plays later, Bengals kicker Evan McPherson’s attempt to win the game sailed wide left from 53 yards after the rookie holder and punter Ryan Rehkow bobbled the snap.

The Ravens took advantage of their new life. On their next play, Henry, who earlier in the day topped the 10,000-yard mark for his career, raced more than half the length of the field down the left sideline before being dragged down at Cincinnati’s 6-yard line.

Tucker won it one play later, giving the Ravens (3-2) their third straight victory over the Bengals and dropping their AFC North rival to 1-4.

“Green grass, green grass and getting as close to the end zone as possible,” Henry said of what he saw in front of him on the long run to set up the game-winning kick. “I didn’t get in. I probably should have stiff-armed, but ‘Tuck,’ the G.O.A.T., he kicked the field goal to win the game, and we’re going home with a victory. That’s all that matters.”

It was the Ravens’ most unlikely victory of the season after a series of defensive miscues and missed tackles, which was especially evident in a secondary.

In a fast-paced shootout between Burrow and Jackson, the former shredded Baltimore’s leaky secondary with a career-high five touchdown passes (and one ill-timed interception to cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who declined to speak to the media after the game) and completed 30 of 39 passes for 392 yards. Wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase (10 catches, 193 yards) and Tee Higgins (9 catches, 83 yards) each caught a pair of touchdown passes.

But Jackson, the two-time and reigning NFL MVP, kept leading the Ravens back.

He completed 26 of 42 passes for 348 yards with four touchdowns while running 12 times for 55 yards. He put together several key drives in crunch time, including one that went 34 yards in eight plays to set up Tucker’s long game-tying kick inside the final two minutes.

“I just looked at how much time we had left, and I was like, ‘We just have to go score,’” Jackson said. “I always believe in our defense. I have to give my hats to the Bengals, though, because that’s an extremely talented offense over there, on all phases, and we have a talented defense.

“It was just one of those rival games, a division game, and we know anything can happen in those types of games; it’s not necessarily a blowout. I just told my guys, ‘We just have to put points on the board. We just have to keep scoring, as well.’”

Still, it looked like the Ravens would never get the chance.

Baltimore’s defense couldn’t stop Cincinnati, which racked up 442 total yards and time and again connected on big plays and consistently converted on third downs when needed.

After staking Cincinnati to a 17-14 halftime lead, Burrow, the 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick, annihilated Baltimore’s defense over the final 30 minutes, throwing for 235 yards and three touchdowns on the Bengals’ first three possessions of the second half.

It started when they converted three third downs on the opening possession of the third quarter, highlighted by a 39-yard bomb to Andrei Iosivas from the Ravens’ 41-yard line as the receiver beat rookie cornerback Nate Wiggins and safety Marcus Williams to the corner. Four plays later, Burrow found Higgins wide-open in the end zone for an easy 5-yard score.

The Ravens answered right back, with Jackson hitting Zay Flowers on a short pass that went for 15 yards, then connected with tight end Charlie Kolar for a 55-yard gain before former Ravens safety Geno Stone eventually dragged him down at the 4.

Two plays later, Jackson lofted the ball to tight end Isaiah Likely in the back corner of the end zone to again make it a three-point game.

But there was no stopping the Bengals, who drove 70 yards on 12 plays with Burrow hitting running back Chase Brown on a short pass to the left for a 4-yard touchdown.

Again, Jackson and the Ravens responded. Baltimore went 92 yards in 10 plays with Jackson leading the Ravens to another touchdown as he hit Kolar again, this time from 2 yards out.

Cincinnati wasted little time answering, however. On its next possession, Burrow threw a short pass to Chase, who raced 70 yards down the right side for another score that made it 38-28 with 8:54 to go.

Jackson’s heroics were on full display on the next drive. After dropping the snap, he scooped up the ball, stiff-armed Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard twice while running to his right and before reaching the sideline threw across his body and found Likely in the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown pass.

“It really was incredible,” tight end Mark Andrews said. “I went to him and I said, ‘I’ve never seen anybody throw anything like that in my entire life.’ That’s just the type of player he is. The play’s never dead. He’s so special, and that was a really cool one.”

The Ravens’ defense finally stiffened, too, with Humphrey intercepting Burrow’s attempted pass to Chase on second-and-15 at the Ravens’ 27 to give Baltimore the ball back with 3:02 left, setting the stage for the wild ending.

“It was man-to-man,” Burrow said. “I had Ja’Marr on a slant and took a shot. He made a really good play. I’m not sure I would have made any other decision than that.”

And when it came to the team’s confidence in Tucker to convert, there was no one else they would have wanted kicking the ball.

“I had all the confidence in the world,” Jackson said. “I know who he is. I wasn’t worried about what happened earlier in the season, because if you pay attention to the whole unit, it was all of us — we all had mistakes [we] made in the first few games and stuff like that, so it’s the NFL. Sometimes the ‘G.O.A.T.’ may miss, but he came back, and when we needed him, he conquered.”

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