'TNF' takeaways: Lamar Jackson plays like MVP in Ravens comeback win

The Baltimore Ravens earned a thrilling 35-34 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night to keep pace with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North. 

It also put the Bengals in a deep 4-6 hole that not only has them three games behind the Ravens, but also losing the tiebreaker due to being swept in the season series. 

Here are some takeaways from the Ravens win.

Lamar Jackson is playing his way toward another MVP

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson already has two MVPs on his resume, and he is playing his way toward a third this season. 

With the Ravens trailing, 21-7, midway through the third quarter, Jackson and the Ravens offense took over to give the Ravens another thrilling win over their divisional rival. He ended up completing 25-of-33 passes for 290 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions in the win. He also rushed for 33 yards, including an incredible 10-yard scramble that helped set up a Derrick Henry touchdown.

This is already Jackson's third game this season with at least four touchdown passes, and he is now up to 24 touchdowns to only two interceptions on the season. At the halfway point of the season he has to be the front-runner for league MVP. It is a good thing for the Ravens that he is, because that team still has some problems. 

It is not all good news for the Ravens

The biggest problem with the Ravens — their defense.

They entered Thursday's game with the NFL's worst pass defense, allowing 280.9 passing yards per game, nearly 20 yards worse than any other team in the league. Those numbers are not going to improve after allowing 428 yards and four touchdowns to Joe Burrow on Thursday.

Even worse? One of the few bright spots on their defense, safety Kyle Hamilton, had to leave the game with an ankle injury and was spotted in a boot on the sidelines. 

Jackson is having an amazing year and leading one of the NFL's best offenses. That will take them a long way this season. But if they do not start getting more out of their defense it might put a very limited ceiling on what they can do in the playoffs. At some point you have to stop somebody. The Ravens have not proven they can do that yet this season.

They have another huge divisional game next week at the Pittsburgh Steelers with first place in the AFC North division on the line. 

The Bengals are wasting Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase

If Jackson does not win the MVP this year, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow would have to be the next contender in line. He is playing some of the best football of his career right now for the Bengals, and looks unstoppable with Ja'Marr Chase.

Burrow threw for 428 yards on Thursday and four touchdowns, while Chase caught 11 passes for 264 yards and three touchdowns. That included touchdowns of 67 and 70 yards, as well as a touchdown with under a minute to play in regulation.

It is really hard to lose a game when you get contributions like that from your quarterback and top wide receiver.

The Bengals, however, found a way to do that. 

As good as Burrow and Chase are right now, the rest of the Bengals roster is so flawed, from their offensive line to their defense, that is wasting their contributions. Now they are 4-6 and really facing an uphill battle when it comes to making the playoffs. 

The NFL has an officiating problem

Nobody expects officials to be perfect. It is a fast game, a difficult job and a lot of things happen. Sometimes calls are going to get missed. But there are too many games decided on obviously missed calls at the end, and this was another one as the Ravens got away with two blatant penalties on the game-deciding two-point play.