The Ravens played rude hosts to another NFC contender, riding their overpowering defense and a neatly varied running game to blow out the Seattle Seahawks, 37-3.

Here are five things we learned from the game.

The Ravens are for real

Kyle Hamilton dropped to the turf for pushups — penance for an interception he did not make — as general manager Eric DeCosta looked on in mock disbelief.

Was this a tense moment in a touch-and-go game between postseason contenders?

Not at all. It was visual proof of just how loose the Ravens felt late in the third quarter after their defense had spent the afternoon beating up another NFC heavyweight.

Just as the Detroit Lions had two weeks earlier, the Seahawks traveled to Baltimore a confident team, winners of five of their past six games and first in their division. They left thoroughly beaten, testifying to the home team’s quality.

“They just went to work, and we didn’t stop them,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “We couldn’t make any first downs and couldn’t convert on third down. So, it’s just a really hard, long day against a really good team. They took it to us.”

After declawing the Lions, 38-6, the Ravens were reluctant to sing their own praises. They seemed less so this time, recognizing that they had not just won decisively but had beaten up an accomplished opponent on both sides of the ball.

They ran where they wanted on offense, permitted no breathing room on defense. The all-for-one spirit — Hamilton’s pushups, defenders pursuing the ball like their hair was on fire when the game was already out of reach, teammates crashing bodies as they thrilled to Odell Beckham Jr.’s first Ravens touchdown — evoked memories of the 2019 team, which won 12 in a row to close the regular season.

The difference, said holdovers from that team, is this one might be more balanced with more mature leaders.

“I said this in camp; I think this is the most talented team I’ve been a part of, the team with the most potential since I’ve been here,” veteran left tackle Ronnie Stanley said. “I still believe that to this day. I just think in every position group we have, we don’t really have any weaknesses.”

The Ravens will quickly revert to not getting ahead of themselves. They’ll ignore the power polls that come out over the next few days, proclaiming them the NFL’s best. They’ll remind us how fleeting this exultation will be if they’re flat next Sunday against the Cleveland Browns.

John Harbaugh was ready with that context even as he dispensed plaudits to more than a dozen players during his postgame news conference.

“As a coach, it’s fulfilling because all the things you work on, and all the things that guys work on, you see it transferred onto the field in a game,” he said. “The guys have success doing the things that you want, but you also understand that it’s one win. You don’t get credit for more than one win, no matter what the score is.”

It’s folly to think any other way in a season that has already featured its share of narrative swings.

That said, run-of-the-mill teams do not handle a pair of division leaders by a combined score of 75-9. The Ravens are very, very good, and they know it.

They ran over Seattle with diversity more than raw power

They had complained a week earlier that perhaps Todd Monken kept his run game in the holster longer than he should have against an Arizona defense that kept dropping eight into coverage.

Seattle, eighth in DVOA against the run, presented a more formidable test on paper, but the Ravens cut to the chase this time around. After two unsuccessful drives to start the game, they unhinged a hot defense with variety. Would it be Gus Edwards slamming into a gap or Lamar Jackson keeping the ball to knife into open space? Rookie Keaton Mitchell entered in the second quarter like an adrenaline shot to the heart, averaging an absurd 15.3 yards per carry in his first extended dose of NFL work.

In the first half alone, the Ravens ran for 121 yards to Seattle’s 30, rolled up 17 first downs to the Seahawks’ four. Those numbers would only mushroom from there. They finished with 298 rushing yards, the fourth-most in the 28-year history of a franchise known for ground assaults.

“There were moments there where we just ran the ball five-plus times in a row and kept getting first down after first down,” Stanley said. “That can be demoralizing for a defense.”

Even without right tackle Morgan Moses, who ceded his snaps to dependable Patrick Mekari because of a shoulder injury, the offensive line paved the way for the Ravens to do as they pleased.

Fans hoped DeCosta would add a marquee back such as Derrick Henry or Josh Jacobs at the trade deadline. But if Edwards is this efficient in the red zone, Jackson this big a threat every time he takes off, Mitchell this difficult for defenders to pin down, they were better off not expending the resources.

The edge rushers have wildly exceeded expectations

On Seattle’s first two possessions, when the game still felt like a defensive struggle between equal opponents, Jadeveon Clowney stuffed running back Kenneth Walker III twice and deflected a third-down pass.

After an odd fumble by Beckham on what seemed the Ravens’ final drive of the first half, Kyle Van Noy took center stage, roaring off the edge to drop Geno Smith on second down and stripping him on third down. That turnover wiped away Beckham’s sin and handed the Ravens the field goal they had seemingly squandered.

“I think that’s the turning point in the game,” Harbaugh said.

On a day when the Ravens’ defense shined in every way imaginable, the veteran outside linebackers DeCosta signed in August (Clowney) and September (Van Noy) set their course.

Odafe Oweh also continued his forceful comeback from the ankle sprain that cost him four games with two tackles and a sack.

The Ravens added four sacks to their league-best total. Seattle went 1-for-12 on third down. Aside from a 50-yard strike to DK Metcalf in the second quarter and a 35-yard hookup with Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the fourth, Smith, one of the NFL’s most accurate passers, put no positive imprint on the game.

We could credit any layer of coordinator Mike Macdonald’s defense for this crushing performance. Geno Stone made his league-leading sixth interception. Marlon Humphrey and Brandon Stephens checked a pair of excellent wide receivers. Justin Madubuike recorded a sack for the sixth straight game, a Ravens record.

“A big part of what you saw today with that was I think the complementary football between the coverage and the rush,” Harbaugh said. “The coverage got the quarterback to hold the ball, and then the rush got there a number of times.”

But it was a day to sing hosannas for the outside linebackers deemed inadequate by so many analysts who surveyed the team’s roster before the season.

The Ravens showed interest in the top edge rushers available at last week’s trade deadline but were unwilling to pay too steep a price in part because the Clowney and Van Noy signings have paid off handsomely.

“Who needs training camp?” the 32-year-old Van Noy said afterward, drawing laughs.

“We knew who we had, the experience that they’ve got, how they still play to this day,” linebacker Patrick Queen said. “It’s everything that we practice, everything that we preach.”

Beyond the pass rush, Queen pointed to the Ravens’ success neutralizing Walker as an outside threat. He came in averaging 4.4 yards per carry but finished with 16 on nine attempts.

“We talk about dominating, and that’s kind of something that we really lean on each other for, and we mean it,” Van Noy said. “We don’t just go out there to win; we want to dominate.”

This was a day to lift up struggling Ravens

Three days before he faced the Seahawks on his 31st birthday, Beckham faced questions about his frustrations. Why had he slammed his helmet on the sideline during a win over the Arizona Cardinals in which he caught no passes on four targets?

“I’ve got high expectations, high standards, but ultimately, it’s a team game,” he said.

Such diplomacy aside, it was apparent how hungry Beckham felt to break out and how hungry his teammates were to facilitate his first touchdown as a Raven.

When the moment finally came in the fourth quarter Sunday, it hardly mattered that the Ravens didn’t need the points or that the throw came from Tyler Huntley instead of Jackson. Joy radiated off Beckham, who had not scored since the first quarter of Super Bowl LVI, nearly 21 months earlier. Huntley was so happy he bowled Jackson over in the celebration.

Beckham had briefly seemed in danger of more frustration after he lost his handle on the ball while spinning to the ground late in the second quarter. But that mishap ultimately mattered little on a day when he reached season highs with five catches and 56 yards and topped his cake with the long-awaited touchdown.

“To see him come back — that’s what you expect out of a player like that, a veteran player who has done it before,” Harbaugh said. “Odell ran a great route [on] a double move back out to the corner.”

Tight end Isaiah Likely has dealt with his own frustrations this season, albeit well outside the spotlight that shines perpetually on Bateman. The training camp star of 2022 had caught all of four passes in the first eight games of his second season.

Which was why Harbaugh made a point of shouting out the three first downs Likely converted on a four-catch afternoon, including a rugged 17-yard catch and run to jump-start the Ravens’ first touchdown drive.

The Ravens have to keep winning because so is everyone else in the AFC North

The Ravens have peaked higher and faltered less than their three divisional foes, but that does not mean they’re running away with the AFC North.

The Pittsburgh Steelers (5-3) often resemble a sputtering jalopy in a world of electric sports cars, but they keep winning.

The Cleveland Browns never seem to know who’s going to play quarterback in a given week, but they moved to 5-3 with a shutout of the hapless Cardinals.

After a ragged start, the Bengals (5-3) are playing like it’s 2021, saying their blessings for quarterback Joe Burrow’s mended calf.

The Ravens will lead by 1 1/2 games when they begin their second run through the division Sunday against the Browns. Projection systems, whether you favor ESPN, The New York Times or Aaron Schatz’s DVOA, strongly favor them to hold that lead.

But they know one stinker could reduce their lead to negligible.

“We’re just worried about playing to our potential,” Stanley said. “We know we play in the toughest division in the NFL. We’ve always had that mindset. We believe we should be undefeated at this moment in time, but we’ve just got to keep pushing to play to our potential.”

Week 10

Browns at Ravens

Sunday, 1 p.m.

TV: Fox

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

Line: Ravens by 4 1/2

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The Treasury Department is about to impose rules that could make it even harder to persuade Americans to buy electric cars — and already has Republicans primed to accuse President Joe Biden of aiding China.

The department is expected to set rules in the coming weeks spelling out how hard a line it’s taking against electric vehicle batteries that contain ingredients from adversaries like China — a key issue for the EV tax breaks in Biden’s signature climate law.

The tax credit — worth up to $7,500 per vehicle — is a major part of the administration’s strategy to get more electric vehicles on the road. But the law forbids offering the incentives for vehicles whose batteries have parts or minerals from hostile nations, in an attempt to counter China’s dominance of the industry and encourage the growth of a home-grown supply chain.

The administration is well aware of the high stakes in how it opts to interpret that prohibition, both for the success of Biden’s climate ambitions and for his ability to persuade voters that his policies will bring jobs and prosperity.

Setting a super strict bar against Chinese content could mean that virtually no electric cars and trucks qualify for the tax break, advocates for the auto industry say. But other industries, including domestic miners, have warned the administration that their own prospects would wither if Treasury leaves a wide-open door to battery ingredients from China.

No matter what the department decides, Republicans including former President Donald Trump are already wielding the soft-on-China hammer against Biden, especially in must-win Michigan.

Meanwhile, uncertainty over Treasury’s decision is freezing private investment in electric vehicle manufacturing in the United States, automakers say — at a time when the growth of EV sales is also slowing below what some manufacturers had expected.

“There’s companies that are holding on to billions of dollars of investment until they know what’s going to be included in the guidance,” said Dan Bowerson, senior director for energy and environment at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group whose members include most of the major automakers and suppliers in the U.S. market. “So it’s critically important.”

The IRA’s rules on where battery components and minerals can come from have already limited eligibility for the tax credit to just 22 vehicle models, from manufacturers such as Tesla, Ford, General Motors, Nissan and Volkswagen.

In a statement, the department said national security is a high priority in how it’s carrying out the climate law.

“The Inflation Reduction Act is increasing our energy security by encouraging investments in America and building secure supply chains,” said Treasury spokesperson Ashley Schapitl. “As the market continues to shift in response to the Inflation Reduction Act and U.S. companies attract additional investment, we will continue to assess and respond to any national security concerns associated with both international and domestic supply chains.”

The law already prohibits giving the tax credit to vehicles that aren’t assembled in the U.S., Canada or Mexico. And it restricts the credit based on the percentage of battery components and critical minerals that are sourced domestically.

The administration is under heavy political pressure to look tough on China heading into an election year, especially when it comes to electric vehicles. Trump, other GOP White House hopefuls and Republicans in Congress have painted Biden’s EV goals as a boon to Beijing. And Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has threatened legal action over Treasury’s existing interpretation of the electric vehicle tax credit, contending it gives too much leeway to automakers to rely on China.

But a strict interpretation of the law’s prohibition on what it calls “foreign entities of concern” would run into the reality that much of the world’s supply chains for electric vehicle batteries and critical minerals still flow through China. Reducing the number of vehicles that qualify for the credit could undermine Biden’s goal of making half of vehicle sales electric by the end of the decade.

“If it wasn’t an election year, policymakers would be behaving a lot more rationally about the reality of global supply chains and China’s role in it,” said Tom Moerenhout, a research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

Interests pressing the administration for a strict anti-China interpretation include the domestic energy production advocacy group SAFE, which is pushing a definition that would bar nearly any partnership with Chinese suppliers, including joint ventures and technology licensing agreements.

The domestic mining industry is also promoting a stringent interpretation that would drive up the incentive to buy domestically sourced lithium, nickel and other critical minerals.

“Further deepening our reliance on China and other geopolitical rivals or nations of concern for our mineral supply chains is a mistake we must not make,” said Conor Bernstein, vice president of communications at the National Mining Association. “Congress was clear in its intent with this tax credit, and it is past time we have rules with the required guardrails to reflect it.”

The department has said it will issue the guidance by the end of the year.

How much is too much?

The Treasury guidance will answer two big questions.

First, automakers want to know if the rule will allow tiny traces of battery content from otherwise prohibited countries as long as they don’t exceed some minimal threshold.

“These manufacturers now are looking deeper and deeper into their supply chains,” Bowerson said. “Typically, manufacturers or OEMs would know their tier one, tier two, maybe even tier three supplier in terms of supply chain. But now they’re digging all the way back into that tier three. Where are they getting their materials from?”

But as deep as they look, he said, many fear there could still be trace amounts that they either can’t detect or can’t prevent, and they don’t want Treasury to ding them for the smallest slips.

The second question is what makes a company a “foreign entity of concern” — the specific term that the climate law uses in describing companies barred from involvement in the supply chain for vehicles that get the tax credit.

The climate law doesn’t explicitly single out Chinese manufacturers or suppliers, but it points to language from 2021’s bipartisan infrastructure law that says these “foreign entities” include companies owned by, controlled by or based in China, Russia, North Korea or Iran.

Treasury adopted language from the Commerce Department last spring when it interpreted another “foreign entities of concern” provision in Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, a law aimed at lessening Chinese dominance of the semiconductor industry. The Commerce language said a company could trigger the CHIPS law’s restrictions if as little as 25 percent of its stock, voting shares or board seats are held by people or businesses based in a country like China.

For the electric vehicle credit, industry watchers were initially expecting a threshold of 50 percent, in line with other parts of the Internal Revenue Code. They contend that Commerce’s CHIPS definition, if applied to the EV tax credit, would slash the number of qualifying electric vehicle models.

“Commerce’s definition would substantially curtail the near-term availability of battery components and applicable critical minerals that could be used in credit-eligible vehicles,” lawyers at the firm Covington & Burling wrote in a blog post in October. “In so doing, it would likely limit the availability of credit-eligible vehicles and undermine [the EV tax credit’s] policy goal of incentivizing EV adoption.”

For example, Columbia University’s Moerenhout said, the 25 percent voting threshold could disqualify much of the nickel flowing from Indonesia, where Ford has made a big bet on sourcing battery minerals but where Chinese companies dominate the sector. It could also knock out battery powders that are processed in South Korea but originate in China.

The electric vehicle industry contends that Treasury shouldn’t apply the CHIPS definition, because the two laws have different objectives. While the electric vehicle tax credit is intended to create a U.S.-based alternative to a supply chain that China now dominates, the CHIPS Act is meant to prevent U.S. semiconductor technology from leaking into China, said Alex Laska, deputy director for the climate and energy program at the think tank Third Way.

Any definition less stringent than the CHIPS guidance would probably inflame opponents, however. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced a bill in March, S. 756 (118), to mandate that “foreign entities of concern” be interpreted to include companies with at least a 20 percent Chinese ownership stake and those that rely on technology licensed from a Chinese firm.

That definition would go even further than the CHIPS guidance, and could ensnare Ford’s agreement in February to license Chinese battery technology for a planned plant in Michigan. The carmaker, which is facing widespread Republican criticism of the deal, has since paused construction on the plant.

Doing the math

For automakers, Treasury’s decision on how to measure and enforce the requirements could be even more important.

The companies have pushed for a “de minimis” threshold that would allow small amounts of parts or minerals from Chinese suppliers, given the difficulty of tracing those that go into a vehicle. The North American Free Trade Agreement and its Trump-era successor, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, used a similar threshold for goods of minimal value that aren’t subject to customs duties.

“What we’re looking for is — and there’s precedent in our trade policy all over — a safe harbor, just a very de minimis for trivial or trace amounts that are otherwise undiscoverable despite good faith efforts,” said Genevieve Cullen, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association. “There are just scenarios in which it would be impossible to comply.”

At least one automaker, Volkswagen, is also pushing Treasury to apply a so-called value-added test to the way it evaluates the involvement of foreign entities of concern in the supply chain.

Treasury is already using that test for another aspect of the electric vehicle tax credit, allowing a car or truck to qualify for the incentive if at least half the value added by either the extraction or processing of its critical minerals occurs in the U.S. or a trade partner. Volkswagen argued in comments to the department in June that it should similarly enforce the “foreign entity of concern” requirement only if a hostile country contributed at least half the value.

But any measurement mechanism that offers automakers more flexibility could draw the ire of Congress’ China hawks.

“Treasury guidance should make clear in the most comprehensive way possible that taxpayer subsidies cannot flow to foreign entities of concern through any structuring mechanism conceivable,” House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) wrote to the Treasury Department in September. “Guidance on this topic should be as strict and prompt as possible so there is no ambiguity that the benefit of taxpayer subsidies cannot end up in the hands of our adversaries.”

Manchin also blasted the value-added test in a hearing in September.

“They’re trying to administer a piece of legislation they never passed,” Manchin said. “The administration appears to care more about getting EVs on the road than our energy security and competition with China.”

In the end, automakers and electric vehicle advocates are just eager for the guidance — whatever it says — to come as quickly as possible. Biden signed the climate law in August 2022, and the ban on battery components from hostile countries takes effect Jan. 1. (The ban on critical minerals from those countries takes effect a year later.) Electric vehicle boosters worry that companies will have too little time to implement the rules.

“Investment decisions are being made today for vehicles that will come to market two years from now,” Cullen said. “The sooner the better — these are very complex, multi-tiered supply chains.”

Chris Getz had discussions in the past with Paul Janish pertaining to potential opportunities with the Chicago White Sox.

For years, Josh Barfield tried to hire Janish with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“Now that we have come together, Josh (as assistant general manager) and I (as GM), we finally were able to bring Paul in to help us build a championship club,” Getz said during a video conference call Thursday.

The Sox hired Janish as the director of player development. The former big-league infielder spent the last six years at Rice.

“I really enjoyed my time at the college level but have always aspired to get back to the professional level in some capacity,” Janish said. “It’s hard for me to convey how much of an aligning of stars that this opportunity is for me, personally, and my family.”

Janish takes over the role previously held by Getz, who became the general manager on Aug. 31.

“The farm director position is a unique role that touches a lot of parts of the organization that I’m really excited about,” Janish said. “And having the opportunity to do it with Chris and Josh above me, having done the job in different capacities prior, is super appealing to me because it gives me the opportunity to plug into a situation where they’ve got a pretty good vision on what they want and me having the opportunity to learn from them and implement some of my own thoughts and ideas about how we can all collaborate in a productive way.”

Janish, 41, played parts of nine seasons with the Cincinnati Reds (2008-11), Atlanta Braves (2012-13) and Baltimore Orioles (2015-17), appearing in 473 games.

“I had the good fortune of, relative to the level, not being that good of a player, so I had to really pay attention to what was going on,” Janish said with a smile. “And over the course of time, in the minor leagues and the big leagues, it was something that I was super intentional about, relationships, understanding the dynamic between coaches and players.

“It was a different lens that I looked through, being for the majority of my playing career a utility player at the big-league level. It just provides a lot of opportunity to communicate with people in a different way, and that’s going to play in this position as well.”

Getz said Janish’s understanding of what it takes to be a professional “is vital when you’re relating to both the players and staff.”

“He understands the journey that it takes as an amateur player to navigate the minor leagues and be successful at the major-league level,” Getz said.

After playing, Janish joined Rice as an assistant coach in August 2017. He served as associate head coach the last two seasons.

Getz said Janish’s path from playing to coaching at Rice to the Sox will provide “a very unique perspective.”

“The responsibility at college now — because of the recruiting, transfer portal, NIL, administrative tasks that are in front of you in that position — I think is going to transfer well to what the farm director responsibilities are,” Getz said.

Janish stressed the importance of communication throughout the organization.

“I do think it’s important for everybody to feel important,” Janish said. “At the end of the day, that’s going to be the aspiration. That’s a big part of the college level. The 18- to 22-year-old, communication with that age group is very much the same way, a lot of different variables that come into play that you wouldn’t even expect.

“It’s going to be more of the same but in a different way, at a more professional level, and I look forward to it.”

Hendriks named AL Comeback Player of Year

White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks on Thursday earned American League Comeback Player of the Year honors at the 2023 Players Choice Awards. Hendriks was recognized for his return after battling stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Hendriks disclosed the diagnosis and began treatment in January. He announced he was cancer-free in April.

The Players Choice Awards are voted on by players from each league.

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It might not be the contract announcement most figured would be next, but the Chicago Bears got a deal done Thursday.

Nose tackle Andrew Billings signed a two-year, $8.5 million contract extension, meaning the run stuffer will be with the organization through the 2025 season.

“We’re extremely excited to be able to keep Andrew in Chicago,” general manager Ryan Poles said in a statement. “The professionalism, dependability and toughness he brings to our defense exhibit the type of player we want in our organization.”

Poles indicated confidence Wednesday in his ability to sign newly acquired defensive end Montez Sweat to an extension, and he also spoke at length about the negotiating process with cornerback Jaylon Johnson. Those remain front-burner issues, but re-upping with Billings ensures a big part of this season’s defensive improvement will remain in place.

Billings’ presence has been one key reason coach Matt Eberflus’ defense has improved dramatically against the run. The Bears ranked 31st in the league a year ago, when they surrendered a franchise-record 2,674 rushing yards (157.3 per game). They enter Week 9 ranked third versus the run, allowing only 78.8 yards per game.

The Bears signed Billings to a one-year, $2.75 million contract in free agency, and he said a few weeks ago that he was comfortable with the situation and could see himself staying with the Bears. The team approached him about starting talks on an extension a few weeks back, and the deal was finalized Wednesday and signed after meetings Thursday morning.

“I came here for a reason,” Billings, 28, said. “I was happy with the first deal. It was a surprise and just all good things.”

Billings will be able to suit up for the same team in consecutive seasons for the first time since his first four years in the league with the Cincinnati Bengals (2016-19).

He signed with the Cleveland Browns in 2020 but opted out because of COVID-19. The Browns cut him loose in 2021, and he hopped around the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs practice squads before playing for the Las Vegas Raiders last season.

“It’s really special,” he said. “It’s Year 8 for me. Just being able to settle down, it’s something I’ve been working for my whole career.”

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