OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Baltimore Ravens are the 7-6 team that absolutely no one in the N.F.L. wants to play in the postseason next month. In a copycat league, the defiant Ravens have become the feared, eccentric nonconformists — radical thinkers who make the rest of the league nervous and jumpy.

With good reason.

In the modern N.F.L., just about every team has made the passing game the principal focus of its offensive attack. Indeed, the deities of the league this season are quarterbacks, who routinely throw as many as 35 or 40 times a game. The high priest of the movement is Kansas City’s Pat Mahomes, who threw 53 passes last weekend against the Ravens.

But about a month ago, Baltimore handed its starting quarterback job to Lamar Jackson, a rookie whose strength is running the football. Jackson had 26 carries and 119 rushing yards in his first game. Since then, the Ravens have become a 1970s throwback, running the football 60 percent of the time, or more, with Jackson leading the way.

This iconoclastic strategy — it helps to also have the N.F.L.’s top-ranked defense — quickly produced a three-game Ravens win streak, which rescued the team’s season. And then, last weekend, in a featured, must-see game at Kansas City, the Ravens ran the football nearly 73 percent of the time in the first half, a stunning run/pass ratio for even a grind-it-out high school football team.