The Ravens are tied for the best record in the AFC at 6-2.

The offense has shown what it is capable of when clicking, rolling up more than 500 yards and 38 points behind four touchdowns from Lamar Jackson last week against the Detroit Lions.

The defense is perhaps the best in the NFL, having allowed a league low in points per game (13.9) and total yards (1,902) through its first seven games. Then came Sunday’s weird and rocky performance against the Arizona Cardinals.

Baltimore held on for a 31-24 win at State Farm Stadium in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, but one that played out similarly to how a lot of other games against lesser opponents have this season.

“We didn’t play to our standard at the end of the day,” said inside linebacker Roquan Smith, who tied for a team-high 11 tackles with running mate Patrick Queen. “But that’s just a credit to those guys for coming out ready to play. And honestly, we’ve just got to look ourselves in the mirror, knowing that there’s going to be a tough Seattle team coming into town next week, and we just can’t let the same mistakes throughout this game.

“It was just basic fundamentals that I feel like got to us. … When you have those types of errors, it’s really unacceptable on our end.”

There were the illegal contact and pass interference penalties on Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey on the game’s opening drive that, respectively, negated a sack by Justin Madubuike on third down and gave the Cardinals first-and-goal at the 1 on another third-down play. There were missed tackles, missed sacks and missed opportunities, like failing to recover a fumble from a strip-sack by Michael Pierce in the third quarter deep in Arizona territory.

These are just some of the reasons why the Cardinals (1-7) were able to march down the field and strike first on the game’s opening drive, and why they scored 17 fourth quarter points in a furious comeback that fell short when Nelson Agholor corralled an onside kick with 26 seconds remaining.

It should have never even come down to that, though.

“You’re just not going to be hitting on every cylinder every single week,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “You have to find a way to win those games. I think the best teams, over time, prove that they’ll win games even when they’re not at their best. They’ll find a way to win games late. They’ll find a way to win a game when they can’t run it, when they can’t throw it, or when they can’t stop something.

“That’s character. That’s also talent, ability [and] confident guys who can make plays. I felt like our guys did a good job of that today.”

Yet, to a man, the defense didn’t feel it did good enough, from misalignments to missed assignments.

“If they line up and beat us, it’s one thing,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. “But when you’re not getting lined up right, when you’re having fundamentals as far as me getting flags out there. Flags are just poor fundamentals. Not lining up, not [getting] checks, the things they did to move the ball. Missed tackles.

“It’s weird. It’s always good to win in the NFL, but the standard we’re kind of chasing, we felt like it was not that today.”

After the Ravens held Cardinals quarterback Joshua Dobbs to 8 of 12 passing for just 55 yards in the first half, and Arizona’s offense to 133 total yards, things swung wildly the other direction in the second half.

Dobbs connected on 17 of 25 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns over the final 30 minutes. The Ravens’ secondary also gave up chunks of yardage, including a 29-yarder to rookie receiver Michael Wilson and a 22-yarder to tight end Trey McBride, who had eight catches for 79 yards and a touchdown in the second half.

Still, there were notable plays from the defense when the Ravens needed them most.

Safety Geno Stone and Brandon Stephens each had an interception. Both occurred on the Cardinals’ side of the field and both led to touchdowns for an offense that needed all the help it could get.

“Those guys have really stepped up and they’ve been very big for us,” Humphrey said.

So was Pierce.

The seventh-year defensive tackle has been having a very good year, even if the stat sheet doesn’t necessarily reflective it. He’s been consistently disruptive, and Sunday he broke out, recording his first sack of the season. He finished with five tackles, batted down one fourth-and-1 pass and stuffed a fourth-and-1 run.

“Big, big relief,” Pierce said of the sack. “You always want to do your part. I’ve been getting to the quarterback, I just haven’t been getting him down.

“It’s been an interesting year, but our defense has been doing great. We let a lot of stuff slide today, but it’s good to be on the board and hopefully a lot more to come.”

And more work to do if the Ravens are going to get to where they ultimately believe they can go. They can get away with these kinds of mistakes against the Cardinals, the fifth team Baltimore has played this season with a backup or rookie quarterback as incumbent Arizona starter Kyler Murray continues to work his way back from a torn ACL suffered last December. They won’t get away with the same mistakes against teams they share the top spot in the conference with.

“Outside of the Colts [game], that was probably our worst performance,” Pierce said of their jagged victory in the desert.

Added Smith: “What the offense do is what the offense do. I never concern myself with anything those guys do. Got a lot of great, a lot of faith in Lamar, Todd Monken, all those guys. What I look at is defensively, how we played, and I just know we didn’t play to our standards. At the end of the day, a win is very hard to come by in this league, so very grateful to be on the winning side, being able to take a nice plane ride back. But obviously there were mistakes throughout the game that I know we need to get better. And we can’t allow those mistakes to beat us again, and we can’t allow them to happen over and over throughout the season.”

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Here’s how the Ravens (6-2) graded out at each position after a 31-24 win over the Arizona Cardinals (1-7) in Sunday’s Week 8 game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona:

Quarterbacks

Lamar Jackson is so inconsistent and he proved it again Sunday. One week after lighting up the Detroit Lions, Jackson seemed lost against the Cardinals, who hit him with several defensive looks, including rushing only three players. Jackson can dominate most games with either his legs or his arm, but he held onto the ball too long and at times seemed confused. He completed only 18 of 27 passes for 157 yards and one touchdown. Grade: C

Running backs

The Ravens don’t have a consistent running game either. This group started to dominate in the third quarter after a second interception from Joshua Dobbs led to another Ravens touchdown, but neither running back, Gus Edwards (19 carries for 80 yards and 3 TDs) nor Justice Hill (4 carries for 15 yards), dominated. The Ravens appeared more committed to passing than running the ball, especially early in the game. Grade: C

Receivers

The Ravens had trouble getting open against one of the worst secondaries in the NFL, as Arizona entered allowing an average of 237.6 passing yards per game. Opposing teams have started to shut down rookie Zay Flowers (5 catches for 19 yards) on quick screens and they know he is a top option against the blitz. The only other player who could get open was tight end Mark Andrews, who had four catches for 40 yards and a touchdown. Neither of the top free agent acquisitions were factors, and Odell Beckham Jr. made several business decisions with poor blocking and not going after passes. He gets some pass interference calls, but not much separation. Grade: C-

Offensive line

This group gave Jackson time to throw, but he was slow in deciding where to go with the ball. But overall, there weren’t a lot of holes and the Ravens failed to establish the running game early. Right tackle Morgan Moses played well and the Cardinals failed to catch on to the Ravens overshifting on the offensive line, but Baltimore struggled to generate a consistent ground game for nearly two and half quarters until it established a big lead. Arizona finished with four sacks. Grade: C

Defensive line

There wasn’t a player who had more of a dominant presence than nose tackle Michael Pierce, who finished with five tackles. He was excellent in short-yardage situations and even knocked down a fourth-down pass to halt an Arizona drive in the second quarter. But the Cardinals still had success running the ball and would have done even better if they had a passing game. Tackle/end Justin Madubuike finished with three tackles, including a sack, and three pressures. Grade: C

Linebackers

Middle linebacker Roquan Smith delivers some of the most vicious hits on the field every week. He finished with 11 tackles, and so did weakside linebacker Patrick Queen. But the Cardinals had a nice game plan of running away from Smith and the Ravens got knocked off the ball for most of the first half. Overall, it was a decent effort, but not the standard that has been on display on a weekly basis. Arizona had 129 yards on 32 carries. Grade: C+

Secondary

The Ravens’ two interceptions were gifts from Dobbs, not great, athletic plays. Both safeties, Geno Stone and Kyle Hamilton, played extremely well and were good in run support. Hamilton had 10 tackles and Stone finished with four. Stone had an interception and so did cornerback Brandon Stephens. Receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown was the only Cardinal who could challenge the Ravens’ secondary and he had some success against cornerback Marlon Humphrey. Brown had six catches for 33 yards and a touchdown against his former team. Grade: C

Special teams

Justin Tucker hit a 48-yard field goal but missed a 53-yard attempt. Jordan Stout averaged 48.2 yards on four punts and put four inside the 20-yard line. The Ravens got very little out of their return game, but the good news is that they didn’t allow any big returns. The Ravens’ “hands team” on the Cardinals’ first onside kick was disappointing, especially when receiver Nelson Agholor didn’t fight for the ball and the team lost possession. Grade: C-

Coaching

The Ravens were hoping to play consistently at a high level after beating Detroit, 38-6, last week, but the offense was a mess again, especially with the Cardinals showing a lot of defensive looks. The Ravens defense was almost as sloppy but good enough to take advantage of the gifts provided by Dobbs. Grade: C-

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The Ravens’ stint as the greatest show on turf was a short one.

A week after scoring on each of their first four possessions and Lamar Jackson throwing four touchdown passes and running for another against the Detroit Lions, Baltimore’s offense hit a drought against the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Still, it did just enough, finding the end zone four times, and then doing what it does best: relying on its defense.

The Ravens (6-2) stopped Arizona on fourth down twice, intercepted Josh Dobbs twice, and held the quarterback to 208 yards passing en route to a rocky 31-24 win over the Cardinals (1-7). The victory keeps Baltimore atop the AFC North on a day the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers lost and the Cincinnati Bengals won to each move to 4-3.

Leading the way defensively for Baltimore was tackle Michael Pierce, who bullied his way through the Cardinals’ line, racking up four tackles, including one for a loss, knocking down a fourth-and-1 pass and forcing a fumble on a strip sack.

Geno Stone also had his NFL-leading fifth interception of the season, picking off Dobbs on the Cardinals’ 24-yard line late in the third quarter. Stone’s NFL-leading five interceptions tie him with Hall of Famer Ed Reed (2007) for the most by a Ravens player in the team’s first eight games of a season in team history, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

But it was the play of Pierce that helped set the tone for the NFL’s best defense.

The Ravens came into Sunday having given up a league-low 13.9 points per game and having allowed the second-fewest yards per game. Yet, the Cardinals still at times managed to move the ball — until they couldn’t.

After Dobbs scored on a 1-yard sneak to cap a 12-play, 75-yard drive on the opening series of the game — one that was aided by a Kyle Hamilton illegal contact penalty that negated a Justin Madubuike sack on third down and a 23-yard Marlon Humphrey pass interference penalty — Baltimore, and Pierce, bore down.

On the Cardinals’ second possession and facing a fourth-and-1 from the Ravens’ 44, Pierce knocked down a pass intended for former Raven Marquise “Hollywood” Brown. On their next drive and facing another fourth-and-1, this time from the Ravens’ 36, the 6-foot, 355-pound seventh-year veteran stuffed Emari Demercado on a handoff up the middle.

Dobbs was 8 of 12 for 55 yards in the first half.

The Cardinals finished with 310 total yards; the Ravens had 268.

Still, it was enough.

On the Ravens’ first possession, they also drove 75 yards for a touchdown — and likewise got help with wide receiver Odell Beckham drawing a pass interference penalty for a 19-yard gain down to the Cardinals’ 8. Two plays later, Jackson, who was 6 of 7 for 64 yards on the series, hit tight end Mark Andrews for a 5-yard touchdown pass over the middle in the back of the end zone. It was his 40th career score, moving him to within one of Todd Heap’s franchise record for a tight end.

The Ravens then took advantage of a Brandon Stephens second-quarter interception (his second of the year) at the Cardinals’ 47 with just under two minutes left and drove 43 yards in six plays with Gus Edwards plowing in from a yard out.

Edwards (19 carries, 80 yards) then found the end zone again on a 7-yard scamper following Stone’s interception, and Justin Tucker later added a 48-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.

Dobbs finally found the end zone through the air, connecting with tight end Trey McBride from 17 yards out midway through the fourth, then added a 2-point conversion run.

But Edwards put the game out of reach with his third touchdown of the game — another 1-yard run — with 2:51 to go.

Dobbs connected with Brown for a 1-yard score with 1:14 remaining but the 2-point try failed. Matt Prater’s successful onside kick gave Arizona another shot down 10, and Prater connected on a 47-yard field goal with 26 seconds left but the Cardinals failed to recover another onside kick, with Nelson Agholor cradling it and the Ravens running out the clock.

This story will be updated.

Week 9

Seahawks at Ravens

Sunday, 1 p.m.

TV: CBS

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

Line: Ravens by 4 1/2

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Despite the Ravens scoring 38 points and racking up more than 500 yards of offense in their 38-6 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and NFL analyst Kurt Warner saw a lot of room for improvement.

“Although they threw for a bunch of yards, it’s still not smooth and connected,” Warner said on his YouTube show. “It’s kind of clunky right now.”

Offensive coordinator Todd Monken didn’t necessarily disagree.

“There were certain things we did that were really outstanding that you look at and say, ‘Wow, we can build on it.’ And there’s other things that can get glossed over because you won, and you look at it and go, ‘That has to be a lot better, or we can’t be who want,’” Monken said Thursday. “There were some elite things that we did, and there were some things for sure we have to clean up and not just counting on that [No.] 8 is going to run around and make a play, right? He is going to do that. That is what he does, but that’s not my job. Our job is to be elite and getting guys in the right spots, calling it, being aggressive, getting the guys in the right spots and letting our talent shine.”

Warner said that spacing among the receivers was “not great” and that players weren’t always where they were supposed to be.

He also suggested the timing of some plays being off, and that quarterback Lamar Jackson was able to put up so many yards because of his ability to “work through the issues and make plays.”

One of those was a short pass to Gus Edwards that turned into an 80-yard gain. The play was originally designed as a naked bootleg to the left, Monken said, but Jackson instead rolled right, seeing an edge rusher free on the left side of the line. Edwards had the option to block or release on the play and chose the latter.

Another was the Ravens’ third play of the game, a 46-yard completion to Zay Flowers over the middle. However, Warner noted that tight end Mark Andrews and Edwards were too close to one another on their respective routes, essentially allowing one defender to cover both of them. That resulted in Jackson having to go to his fourth option, Flowers.

Later in the first quarter, on a 16-yard completion to receiver Rashod Bateman on a back side hook, Warner again pointed out the lack of space between Andrews and Edwards, forcing Jackson to go to his fifth read on the play.

“I don’t disagree with some of the things [Warner was] saying,” Monken said. “I think in terms of making sure that we’re on point, in terms of your spacing, in terms of everybody being on the same page, but do I think that’s any different than most weeks? No. You can break down anybody and say, ‘Hey, I think that was maybe taking the other side of the narrative.’ Because there was so much one side, so you go to the other side of the narrative a little bit. I don’t think either side’s wrong.”

Yet even though Monken was given a game ball following the victory, said there was some frustration over things they should have done better.

“It’s consistency in terms of route depths here and out of the huddle, if we’re changing a play,” he said Thursday. “There’s just, over time — and this is no different than any game — there’s a missed assignment here, getting lined up here, how we’re doing it here, so we’re hearing it out of the huddle, getting lined up, [and] our spacing’s right. So again, so we don’t count on some ad-lib, not an ad-lib, just Lamar making a play and making up for it.

“Those are things that he has a unique ability to do, but when you really take off is you shrink those other things.”

Still, there were plenty of things that went right in what was easily the Ravens’ biggest offensive output of the season.

The preparation for it stemmed from what Monken and several players called the best practices of the season last week. There was also the performance of the offensive line, which didn’t give up a sack and gave Jackson plenty of time to throw.

Then there is the dynamic playmaking of Jackson, always a threat to run and capable of eluding defenders long enough for receivers to work their way open.

“It makes defensive backs have to cover you two times, basically,” Flowers said.

“You have to practice that all the time because when you have an electric quarterback like we do we understand it’s important to give him a target,” said Nelson Agholor, who was the recipient of a touchdown pass from Jackson after the quarterback spent more than 9 seconds scrambling before finding the receiver in the back of the end zone.

Now the only question is whether they will keep it going this week against the 1-6 Cardinals, or if they will take a step back playing against a lesser opponent.

For now, though, it’s going in the right direction, Jackson said, and Monken was pleased with the end result.

“That’s the way it should look,” Monken said. “I don’t think you ever anticipate scoring touchdowns on your first four drives. But that’s what you’re paid to do. You’re paid to put a product out there, maximize your players’ potential and we did that. It feels good, and it feels like crap when it doesn’t.

“We’re just getting started. We really are. We just have to build from here.”

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