CINCINNATI — The Ravens’ defense reached soaring heights against the Cincinnati Bengals — a clutch interception, a last-minute three-and-out, an overtime stand — but the lows reached startling levels as the Ravens gave up four straight touchdowns in the second half.

On the surface, the Ravens didn’t look like they’d experienced any lows in the locker room after the game. After the team beat the Bengals 41-38 in overtime Sunday, the room was raucous and celebratory. But there was also a frenzy to it because, as happy as the players were, they realized how close they had come to losing. It’s hard to hide there’s a lot to clean up after they gave up the third-most passing yards (392) in any NFL game this season.

Safety Kyle Hamilton was in a jocular mood, but he wasn’t shy about pointing out what the defense needs to fix.

“I think it’s just consistency,” Hamilton said. “We have high highs and low lows, and I think just getting the lows out of our game will help us a lot.”

Hamilton helped the Ravens kick the game off on one of those highs. He had a big tackle on Bengals star receiver Tee Higgins on the first drive, which ended in a punt. On the Bengals’ third drive, he sacked Joe Burrow to force another punt.

The Ravens forced three consecutive punts to help give the team an early 14-7 lead.

And then they gave up a touchdown in the final seconds of the half. And a slip turned into a landslide when they returned for the second half.

Over 21 minutes of game time, the Ravens gave up four touchdowns. Their offense responded with touchdowns of its own, but the Ravens were playing catch-up. Since the Ravens’ offense was trying to hurry up and the Bengals’ defense was trying to kill time, the Ravens’ defense got stuck on the field for long periods.

Two of the Bengals’ touchdown drives lasted 6 minutes, 9 seconds, and 7 minutes, 19 seconds.

As the Ravens tired, things spiraled, and Burrow took advantage. He picked apart the secondary, finding receivers for three explosive plays on the first touchdown drive of the half and two on the next. Burrow had 235 passing yards in the second half.

Hamilton explained the Bengals went maximum protection, leaving the running backs and tight ends in to block and buy Burrow time. That made it hard for the Ravens’ four-man rush to affect the quarterback.

The Ravens also hurt themselves. While the two teams finished with a similar number of penalties and penalty yards, the Ravens’ once again came at critical moments.

Defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike was called for roughing the passer on a touchdown play, which allowed the Bengals to attempt a 2-point conversion from the 1-yard line. The Ravens seemed to stop the first attempt when Hamilton intercepted Burrow’s pass, but Hamilton was called for pass interference. Hamilton had returned the interception almost the length of the field, leaving everyone tired from following him. Although the Ravens called a timeout to catch their breath, they couldn’t stop the second attempt.

“I knew somebody was going to catch me, because once I hit the 50, it was over,” Hamilton said. “And then I got the flag. I didn’t realize that. If I realized that, I would have took a knee.”

Then cornerback Marlon Humphrey seemingly broke up a 17-yard pass on third-and-14, but he was called for holding, and the Ravens didn’t challenge whether there was a catch. The Bengals went on to score.

On the next Bengals drive, outside linebacker Odafe Oweh was called for illegal use of hands, which advanced the Bengals from the Baltimore 10 to the 5-yard line. They scored two plays later.

The Ravens also had difficulty finishing. They would make two great plays and cancel them out when they failed to make the third. The Bengals had seven straight third-down conversions in the second half.

Nineteen of their first downs came through the air. Nonetheless, linebacker Roquan Smith reiterated his trust in the secondary, which features Pro Bowlers, a first-round pick and two typically solid players.

“Granted, there are some really good receivers on that side of the ball, some of the top receivers in the league, so they’re definitely going to make plays at the end of the day,” Smith said. “But I like our DBs on any given Sunday.”

Coach John Harbaugh said something similar.

“They made a lot of tight throws,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, all those stop throws were well covered in the first half. Then there were times where guys were a little more open than we needed them to be, and that’s something we have to work on. We’re not there with our pass defense yet, but they made the stops when they needed to to get the win.”

It was what the offense was waiting for. The Ravens tied the game with one minute, 26 seconds left.

”The whole second half, we’re like, ‘D, just one stop, baby. Give us one stop,’” center Tyler Linderbaum said. “They got us our stop.”

It also energized the defense.

Humphrey came through at the last minute, making an interception with the Bengals threatening from the Baltimore 33-yard line. That led to the Ravens’ game-tying field goal, and it energized the defense to make the final two stops, one in regulation and one in overtime to force a field goal try that the Bengals missed.

Hamilton and Smith acknowledged that a win changes the perspective on the mistakes and said that, despite the celebrations, they know they have to clean it up.

“That goes back to each and every person doing their one-eleventh,” Smith said. “[...] Each and every guy looking themselves in the mirror and not having an ego thing to it and just knowing, ‘Hey, I can do better.’”