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NFL Advertisement The Baltimore Ravens have routed the Miami Dolphins 28-6 in Lamar Jackson's return from injury on “Thursday Night Football. ” Playing for the first time since Week 4 after recovering from a hamstring injury, Jackson threw four touchdowns, two of which went to Mark Andrews. Derrick Henry recorded 119 rushing yards on 19 carries, while Rashod Bateman and Charlie Kolar caught the other two TDs. Baltimore improved to 3-5 and has won back-to-back games for the first time this season, while Miami fell to 2-7. Share your reaction with us by emailing live@theathletic. com and be sure to check out this week's live coverage on The Athletic. GO FURTHER Ravens-Dolphins takeaways: Lamar Jackson throws 4 touchdown passes in first start since Week 4 Veteran general manager Eric De Costa probably wouldn’t have sold off veteran pieces even if the Ravens were 2-6 after Thursday. Waiving the white flag is not in the organization’s DNA. However, with their second consecutive win, the Ravens have moved closer to the first-place and 4-3 Pittsburgh Steelers, who play the 7-1 Indianapolis Colts Sunday. ackson and other key players are back healthy, and the team is starting to gather momentum. The defense has had three consecutive solid outings, but the Ravens badly need to add to their pass rush, either with an outside linebacker or an interior defensive lineman. De Costa has the cap space and draft capital to acquire help before Tuesday’s trade deadline. Advertisement Maybe it should have been expected that Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense would show some rust. He hadn’t played in over a month because of a right-hamstring strain. Jackson looked unsettled in the first half. He wasn’t looking to run. He struggled to find open receivers. The Ravens had just four first-half first downs. But the Ravens looked like an entirely different offense in the second half. They had six first downs on their opening drive of the second half alone. Jackson got in a rhythm in the second half, throwing two third-quarter touchdown passes. Baltimore also finally started to run the football. With a healthy Jackson, the Ravens will always have a chance. A healthy Jackson with a defense that can force turnovers is an even better recipe. Harbaugh on Lamar: “I’m proud of the way he came out and played. ” Lamar Jackson said he felt rusty early. Missing the throw to Rashod Bateman early, Jackson said, ticked him off: “It was just great to be back and get a dub. ” Yes, the Ravens are just 3-5, but they have won two straight games, and our NFL playoff simulator has Baltimore as the favorite to win the AFC North at 64 percent with a 66 percent chance to reach the playoffs. Miami is 2-7, and the Dolphins are on the OUTSIDE of the playoff hunt for sure. On our NFL playoff simulator, Miami has less than a 1 percent chance to reach the playoffs after tonight's loss. Advertisement Lamar Jackson completed seven passes to his tight ends for 105 yards and three touchdowns tonight. He spoke about those players (Mark Andrews, Charlie Kolar and Isaiah Likely) on the Amazon Prime postgame: ? "Those guys just love football. At the same time, they just want to win. They pretty much feed off each other. " Lamar Jackson made his return from injury, which he suffered on Sept. 28. He talked about that on the Amazon Prime broadcast: ? "It felt great just to be out touching the grass with my guys. … It was awesome. " The Dolphins’ first possession of the game reached the Ravens’ 31-yard line, and it ended in a Riley Patterson field goal. Miami then reached the red zone four times and got points on one of those drives on another Patterson field goal. The other trips? Tua Tagovailoa completed 25-of-40 passes for 261 yards, but it felt like there were a lot of empty yards in that game tonight. He threw one interception. The Ravens have two consecutive road trips at the Vikings and at the Browns in Week 10 and 11. That is followed by consecutive home games against the Jets and Bengals. Can Baltimore get back into the AFC playoff hunt? Advertisement The Dolphins are at home next week against the Bills before heading to Madrid to play against the Commanders in the NFL's first-ever regular season game in Spain. A bye week is sandwiched between that and another home date against the Saints in Week 13. Jordan Stout has taken a lot of criticism in recent years, but a strong case could be made that he's been the Ravens' most improved player this year. Lamar Jackson really gonna mess around and lead the 2-5 Ravens to the playoffs, huh? Dolphins Ravens Lamar Jackson returned to the field and returned to his favorite — tight end touchdowns. All four TDs for the Ravens tonight went to his TEs … Advertisement How does a team fall to 2-6? Well, the Dolphins showed how tonight. They had three turnovers on two fumbles (one led to the Ravens’ first touchdown and the second was in the red zone) and threw an interception in the fourth quarter. Baltimore had zero turnovers. It’s hard to win in the NFL when you lose the turnover margin like that. Lamar Jackson - 18-of-23, 204 yards and 4 TDs, 143. 2 rating Derrick Henry - 19 carries for 119 yards Isaiah Likely - 3 catch for 60 yards Charlie Kolar - 2 catches for 23 yards and 1 TD Rashod Bateman - 2 catches for 13 yards and 1 TD Mark Andrews - 2 catches for 22 yards and 2 TDs Fumble recoveries - Alohi Gilman (1), Marlon Humphrey (1) INTs - Malaki Starks (1) While last week's win over the Falcons was fun, the Dolphins now have to be concerned with finishing last in the division. AFC East Patriots 6-2 Bills 5-2 Dolphins 2-7 Jets 1-7