Now we know why NBC didn’t flex out of this one.

The New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens played some rock ’em, sock ’em football in the pouring rain on Sunday night.

It was a night fit for neither man nor beast in Foxborough. But the 23-17 Patriots win certainly wasn’t the Lamar Jackson show we watched last year; far from it.

The Ravens were as undisciplined as ever, taking ridiculous penalties. The Patriots were back to being their hard-nosed, competitive selves, with fan favorites Jakobi Meyers (he is now, right?) and Rex Burkhead coming through. And Damien Harris, rushing for over 100 yards once again, making us wonder why he didn’t play much last season and further bury Sony Michel either on injured reserve or the depth chart, take your pick.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh must feel stupid once again as he was outcoached. The victim of a trick play, a Julian Edelman to Danny Amendola TD pass back in the 2014 AFC playoff game at Gillete, he saw it happen again. Meyers, remember, was a quarterback in high school and college, and he hit Burkhead with a great TD pass.

“It was a lot of fun,” Burkhead said. “Jakobi threw a tremendous ball, perfect pass to me. … He put it right there, where he needed to for me to make the catch.”

“Our coaches,” Meyers said, “do a great job preparing us. They’re the best in the business, in my opinion.”

The roles were reversed. It was the Ravens who couldn’t stop the run, and they didn’t exactly run it all that well, either. The Patriots game plan was to force Jackson to throw, and for some reason he did when he should have taken off for green, green pastures.

And wet pastures at that. Mother Nature provided her own ingredient, a monsoon New England style. It certainly had to be fun to watch on TV and probably a good night for Gillette Stadium to be empty.

The wind was strong enough you expected Dorothy and Toto to be flying overhead on their way to Oz at any time.

Ravens center Matt Skura may not want to go to any film sessions. He’ll be chewed out for his two bad snaps that cost the Ravens points and killed a late drive, forcing Baltimore to give the ball back to the Patriots with under five minutes to play.

Let’s face it, there wasn’t much pretty about this one for either side, especially in the second half. But what we learned on Sunday night was that the Patriots haven’t lost their fighting spirit, that’s for sure.

They were staring 2-6 in the face last Monday night in the Meadowlands, spat in the face of it and lo and behold, they are now 4-5. And, with Romeo Crennel’s Houston Texans next week, they could reach the .500 mark.

Relevant again?

OK, maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves. But maybe not.

These looked like the tough Patriots again. Burkhead talked about how he could see the focus and determination in his teammates eyes. “That makes you hunger for a win even more,” he said.

“Hopefully we can build some momentum off of this,” Meyers said. “Everybody played well, and fought hard.”

Buffalo helped things out with ridiculous Hail Mary defense in a Kyler Murray Miracle in Arizona yesterday. Now the Bills have old friend Brian Flores and the Miami Dolphins breathing down their necks.

The Patriots could make things interesting. They made things interesting on Sunday night. But the key is they have to keep it up.

The Ravens, meanwhile, can forget about matching what they did last season when Jackson was the MVP. He’s clearly not the guy you want in charge of a drive with his team behind and the game on the line. The league has caught up to him, and it’s made him much more tentative than he was a year ago.

The Patriots weren’t tentative about anything. Sure, the conditions made things tough.

But suddenly, it feels like there’s still a football season in New England to talk about.

No reason to flex out of it now. The Patriots were the ones doing the flexing

Tom King may be reached at @Telegraph_TomK on twitter, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com

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