The overmatched New York Giants had no chance to keep up with the NFL’s most explosive offense as the Ravens rolled, 35-14, coming off their bye week.

Here are five things we learned from the game:

The Ravens’ offense is too much for the NFL’s bottom feeders: How much could they really prove against a foe that started the season on its heels and has done nothing but lose games and key players over the past two months?

We don’t often see an NFL team favored by more than two touchdowns on the road, but bookmakers didn’t have to look deep to see how little chance the Giants had to match the Ravens’ explosiveness. Only a disastrous performance that allowed New York to hang close or a catastrophic injury would make major headlines on this post-bye trip.

The Ravens messed around briefly with the former possibility.

They started with a 59-yard kickoff return from Justice Hill and gains of 10 and 15 yards on their first two plays from scrimmage, but Lamar Jackson fumbled away near-certain points on that opening drive. Then, they invited the Giants to cut the lead to 14-7 with a remarkable 41 penalty yards on an 80-yard scoring drive in the second quarter.

Could this obvious mismatch have gone pear-shaped from that point? We saw it in an early-season loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. But the Ravens have a much greater sense of their offensive capacity than they did three months ago, and their defense is less prone to fall apart on the back end.

In any event, they never let this game get dicey, scoring touchdowns on five straight drives as Jackson struck with deadly accuracy on third down (9 of 11) and whenever he even sniffed the goal line.

Explosive plays set the Ravens apart, especially from stuck-in-the-mud opponents such as the Giants. There was no way on earth for New York to answer such steady fire, not with Tommy DeVito and Tim Boyle at quarterback.

Jackson played with obvious joy two weeks after he raged against himself in the wake of a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. He made a statistical case to stick close to Josh Allen in the Most Valuable Player race. He threw a strike to Mark Andrews to get his favorite target the franchise record for touchdowns. He turned a third-and-short into the first catch and touchdown of rookie Devontez Walker’s career.

Sure, the Giants had played terribly for months, but no offense had torched them quite like this. On a day when they couldn’t teach us anything new, Jackson and his teammates at least reminded us why their upside is special.

Rashod Bateman showed that the past need not be the prologue: Bateman left the loss to the Eagles with knee soreness, having failed to mark the box score even once. Fans have learned to fret after the 2021 first-round draft pick endures these empty afternoons.

This season has been his most productive and promising, but could he still be in danger of drifting off course?

Bateman rejected this notion when the Ravens returned to work after their bye. “I got a little banged up [in the] Eagles game, but the bye week was big for me,” he said. “I was able to get healthy. I got back on the practice field, felt good, so I’m looking forward to finishing the season strong.”

He backed up those words with one of his finest games as a Raven.

Early in the second quarter, Bateman spun his defender the wrong way with an ultra-fluid fake to the inside, and a rolling Jackson found him all by himself for a 49-yard score.

Moments later in the two-minute drill, Bateman glided free in the back of the end zone and dragged his toes inside the back line for a 20-yard score that put the Ravens up 21-7.

On a day when explosiveness gave the Ravens a commanding advantage, Bateman was their most explosive playmaker. He might’ve had a third touchdown if Jackson hadn’t underthrown him on a play-action bomb in the third quarter.

“I think I’ve definitely shown myself that I am what I say I am,” he said afterward. “And hopefully, I’ve shown the Ravens fans, this organization, coach ‘Harbs’ [coach John Harbaugh], ‘Monk’ [offensive coordinator Todd Monken] — whoever — that I am a playmaker.”

Jackson has made a point of saying there is no substance to past perceptions that he did not fully trust Bateman. They have combined to make a convincing case this season, with Jackson regularly looking for No. 7 as his big-play option when he scrambles to create extra time.

“Yes, ’Bate’ is that guy,” Jackson said after the first two-score game of the wide receiver’s Ravens career.

It was essential for Bateman to rebound from his most frustrating week of the year, and he was outstanding.

This was another day to remind us how fresh faces have lifted the secondary: Despite losses to the Steelers and Eagles, first-year coordinator Zach Orr’s defense found its footing as the weather turned chilly, streamlining its tactics on the back end and embracing a culture of (sometimes) harsh accountability.

New York wasn’t armed to present much of a test to Baltimore’s reinvigorated secondary, but the Ravens did their part, stopping the Giants on 10 of 12 third downs and holding them to 3.9 yards per play.

Safety Ar’Darius Washington and cornerback Nate Wiggins starred in the effort, and it’s worth reminding ourselves that they played significantly smaller roles back when the Ravens were struggling to hold leads against mediocre offenses.

We’ve covered the positive changes that not so coincidentally began when the Ravens released Eddie Jackson, benched Marcus Williams and installed the undersized Washington as a starting safety. After he didn’t travel with the team Saturday because of a personal matter, Washington played another excellent game against the Giants, picking off a pass late and earning one of the top coverage grades on the team from Pro Football Focus.

We’ve talked less about Wiggins, but the 2024 first-round pick will be every bit as important going forward. The Ravens’ growing trust that the rookie will lock up outside receivers — Wiggins allowed just two catches on six targets against the Giants and his sticky coverage thwarted them in the red zone — allows Orr to play Marlon Humphrey primarily in the slot and send the veteran on blitzes. The secondary makes more sense with Wiggins on the field, as he was for the vast majority of snaps against New York.

There are rare seasons when a team’s best lineup is obvious from Week 1, and perhaps we thought that would be the case for the Ravens’ star-studded defense in 2024. Instead, this has become a story of adaptability, with Orr learning to trust his instincts on whom to play. Washington and Wiggins are turning out to be major parts of the solution.

The Ravens practically had to score for the Giants with their familiar foible, the penalty: The Giants were advancing at an anemic 3.9 yards per play. They had not scored and faced second-and-17 after a Kyle Van Noy sack on DeVito. And then the Ravens, the NFL’s most penalized team, did their darnedest to usher an overmatched foe back into the game.

First, Nnamdi Madubuike drew a 15-yard roughing penalty for landing on DeVito. Yes, it’s maddening for longtime fans to watch a flag fly after a pass rusher simply follows through on a hit. But that’s the way the modern game is officiated. Madubuike has to know better.

Next, cornerback Brandon Stephens drew a pass interference flag for gripping Malik Nabers’ shoulder. A close call? Sure, but it highlighted Stephens’ inconsistent feel in tight coverage and more importantly, handed the Giants first-and-goal at the 3-yard line.

The Ravens seemed on the verge of keeping them out of the end zone anyway, but one last penalty, a third-down illegal use of hands by Odafe Oweh, gave New York a fresh shot to score seven.

On an 80-yard scoring drive, the Giants’ offense accounted for 39; Ravens penalties accounted for 41. Maddening stuff.

“Their drives were penalty-inspired,” said Harbaugh, who has said the buck for his team’s errors has to stop with him. “If it wasn’t for the penalties, those drives wouldn’t have happened, so it’s obviously something that’s very important.”

That touchdown drive wasn’t the end of their yellow-flagged hijinks. Stephens again handed the Giants first-and-goal late in the third quarter when he dragged Nabers to the ground while defending a pass that seemed headed out of bounds. Too often, we see Stephens fight for excellent position in man coverage only to blow it by losing his radar lock on the ball. He was a terrific developmental story last season but has taken a step back with free agency looming.

Again and again, we hear players say that only the Ravens can beat the Ravens. Again and again, they feed this gloomy prophecy.

Now comes the game that could define the Ravens’ season: There wasn’t a lot to learn about the Ravens against an opponent as injury-depleted and devoid of hope as the Giants. We already knew that their offensive firepower puts them in a different class than the NFL’s bottom feeders, especially at this advanced point in the season.

A fine showing and no debilitating injuries would be sufficient payoff for their quick trip up I-95. They checked those boxes.

Now, the tension returns to their season as they prepare to host their archrival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, with a Christmas trip to AFC South-leading Houston on tap four days after that.

These games will determine the Ravens’ playoff path and tell us whether they’ve grown up.

The Pittsburgh rematch Saturday in Baltimore is the AFC North game of the year. Win and the Ravens will be right back in the hunt for a repeat divisional crown. Lose and they’ll be left to fight for wild-card positioning. Beyond such obvious stakes, this feels like the Ravens’ chance to prove there’s real mettle underneath all their offensive flash.

The Steelers have won eight of the past nine matchups in one of the league’s signature rivalries, not one of those decided by more than a touchdown. With their disciplined pass rush and aggressive coverage, they knock Jackson out of sorts more regularly than any other opponent. They did it again in an 18-16 win in Pittsburgh last month, picking Jackson off, harassing him into 16-for-33 inefficiency and outclassing the Ravens on special teams.

Mike Tomlin’s team goes in 100% confident it will outplay Baltimore on the margins, a narrative that will hold until the Ravens reverse it. Does Jackson have to break through against the Steelers for his team to get where it wants to go in the playoffs? No. But there would be no greater way for the Ravens to convince themselves they have what it takes.

If they win Saturday, then we’ll talk about the toll of three games in 11 days, Houston’s validity as an AFC contender and all the possibilities ahead in January.

For now, there’s a roadblock of black and gold granite anchored directly in the Ravens’ path.

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