Join the huddle. Sign up here for Ravens updates in your inbox.

After one of the most disappointing nights of his career, a 32-14 loss Thursday to the Cincinnati Bengals that briefly knocked the Ravens out of first place in the AFC North, quarterback Lamar Jackson had a plan to recapture his old form. It was a simple plan.

“Just be me,” he said. “Be Lamar. That’s all.”

The Lamar he watched on the film this weekend was not the Lamar the Ravens will need in their playoff push. Against one of the worst defenses in modern NFL history, Jackson finished with three turnovers and his lowest single-game grade on Pro Football Focus since 2021 on Thursday night.

Jackson’s start wasn’t completely forgettable, though. Here’s a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from his Week 13 performance.

The good

Expanded arsenal: Jackson and wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins have not exactly found enduring chemistry. After a promising start — four catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns through Week 2 — Hopkins has just eight receptions for 78 yards over their past seven games together.

But every so often Jackson will leave clues that he trusts Hopkins to win in ways that he has not trusted other Ravens wide receivers over his career.

On Sunday, that faith showed in the fourth quarter. Over Jackson’s career, he has almost never had the kind of security-blanket outside wide receivers that the Bengals’ Joe Burrow has enjoyed. And so he’s almost never attempted the kind of throw that Burrow has specialized in: the back-shoulder fade. According to Sports Info Solutions, over his first seven years in Baltimore, Jackson went just 1-for-4 on back-shoulder fades, and 0-for-2 when targeting outside receivers.

In training camp, Jackson showed a willingness to look for Hopkins in contested-catch settings. But not until Thursday did he embrace a back-shoulder opportunity. With Bengals outside cornerback Daxton Hill’s back turned to Jackson as Hopkins ran a vertical route down the left sideline, Jackson fired a pass to Hopkins, who paused his route and attacked the ball to secure a 15-yard catch.

Mobility: Jackson said after the game that his injured toe, which had sidelined him for Monday’s walk-through practice, was “good.” He hadn’t needed special accommodations.

Lower-body injuries — first a hamstring, then a knee, then an ankle and most recently a toe — have slowed Jackson all year. But, four days after looking tentative and lumbering at times in a win over the New York Jets, Jackson had some explosiveness back.

He scrambled for first downs in the first and second quarters. He took an option keeper for a third-down conversion in the third quarter. And he showed his trademark keep-the-play-alive ability on a handful of scrambles, most notably a 20-yard completion to tight end Isaiah Likely.

Jackson indicated Tuesday that not all of his injuries are fully healed — “I’m feeling better,” he said, “in some areas” — but having a more mobile quarterback should open the Ravens’ running playbook and add a much-needed dimension to their passing game.

The bad

“Cover 0” management: Jackson saw the Bengals show a “Cover 0” presnap look — no deep safeties and a heavy-pressure defensive front — or bring a Cover 0 blitz from a more conservative presnap alignment on five drop-backs Thursday.

The Ravens did not handle it well. Jackson went 1-for-4 for 7 yards, threw an interception and took four pressures, including a sack.

“You’d like to be able to make them pay for it, get the ball in somebody’s hands quickly or pick it up and extend the play if you can,” coach John Harbaugh said. “All those things are what you try to do. We did not do a good job of that tonight.”

Their failures were consequential. A third-and-9 sack by defensive end Joseph Ossai knocked the Ravens out of field goal range late in the second quarter. A slot blitz early in the fourth quarter forced a throw-away from Jackson, who otherwise would’ve had rookie wide receiver LaJohntay Wester open for a 15-yard touchdown.

And when Jackson was heated up on third-and-3 in the fourth quarter, missing a tightly covered wide receiver Zay Flowers on a throw over the middle, he had Hopkins wide open in the flat and tight end Mark Andrews coming open after a chip block.

The cruel irony of Jackson’s fourth-quarter interception was that it came on a play that should’ve worked. Expecting another unblocked pass rusher, Jackson motioned Likely into the pass protection at the snap, freezing his defender in coverage and getting a blocker in the way of defensive end Myles Murphy.

But Likely couldn’t sustain the block. If he had, Jackson likely would’ve floated a touchdown pass to Andrews behind the Bengals’ dropping second-level defenders. Instead, the hard-charging Murphy got a hand on the ball, which fluttered to rookie linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. for a red-zone interception.

The ugly

Accuracy: Jackson made three of his first four throws Sunday, and he was on target for the lone incompletion. But, after Ossai strip-sacked him late in the fourth quarter, his accuracy quickly unraveled.

First, on a second-and-10 drop-back, Jackson missed a tightly covered Hopkins on a slant route. Then, on third-and-10, he nearly overthrew a wide-open Flowers, who was running an out-breaking route and couldn’t haul in the pass for a would-be first down.

Jackson’s next miss was maybe his most egregious of the night, spraying a pass that was short and wide left of a wide-open Andrews, also running an out-breaker.

Jackson finished 17-for-32 for 246 yards and the interception on Thanksgiving Day, mixing impressive strikes with real turkeys. It’s the first time in Jackson’s career that he’s posted a completion percentage below 60 in four straight games.

Afterward, Jackson and Harbaugh downplayed the impact of Jackson’s lower-body injuries on his accuracy.

“I just think you try to do the best you can from play to play and game to game to execute and make plays,” Harbaugh said.

Added Jackson: “I just have to be more consistent. I have to make those throws. I don’t miss them in practice, so I shouldn’t be missing them in the game.”

But Jackson’s performance Thursday wasn’t an aberration. He’s struggled with his accuracy since Week 10, a week after returning from his hamstring injury. Over that span, on unpressured drop-backs, Jackson’s catchable-ball rate, according to SIS, is 77.3%, 30th among the 31 quarterbacks with at least 30 pass attempts. (Only the Minnesota Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy has been worse.) Jackson’s never finished a season below 83.3%, and through Week 9, his catchable-ball rate was 88.9%.

Jackson’s on-target rate on unpressured drop-backs, meanwhile, is 65.2%, which ranks 29th. (Only the Tennessee Titans’ Cam Ward and New York Giants’ Jameis Winston have been worse.) Jackson’s never finished a season below 67.5%, and through Week 9, his on-target rate was 76.5%.

“We have to roll with the punches and get through the lows and the highs at the same time,” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “[Jackson] is on point and on time in practice, and it just doesn’t go that way sometimes in the game. But he’s a competitor, and he’s one of the best, a two-time MVP for a reason. So even LeBron [James] has an off night.”

Ball handling: Jackson lost a pair of what he called “weird fumbles.” On the first, late in the first quarter, Ossai beat the right side of the Ravens’ offensive line before catching Jackson from behind on a scramble and jarring the ball loose.

On the second, just before halftime, Jackson said he hesitated when trying to throw a deeper pass to Flowers over the middle because he wasn’t sure there was a dropping linebacker in his way. (In fact, Flowers was open and running back Rasheen Ali was available for a check-down.) But when Jackson pulled the ball back in a relatively clean pocket, “it just fell out of my hand,” he said.

Another ball-handling gaffe might’ve cost the Ravens a touchdown. Two plays before Knight’s interception early in the fourth quarter, offensive coordinator Todd Monken called a first-and-10 read-option play with running back Derrick Henry in the backfield. On such plays, Jackson is typically responsible for reading the unblocked edge defender; if he crashes down at the mesh point, Jackson should keep the ball for himself and veer out wide. If the defender maintains his leverage on Jackson, he should hand the ball off.

At the mesh point, Cincinnati’s Ossai did not crash down. Jackson kept the ball anyway. He beat Ossai to the corner, but he was ultimately forced out of bounds after a 1-yard gain. Henry, meanwhile, would’ve had a clear path to the second level. With the Bengals’ linebackers displaced by motion and the Ravens’ blocking scheme, only safety Jordan Battle stood between Henry and a potential 16-yard score.

Less than a minute later, the Ravens’ drive was cut short. It would be their final red-zone trip of the game.

“We had five turnovers today,” Henry said. “Execution just has to be better. String plays together and finish drives with points and not shoot ourselves in the foot with mistakes.”