Le’Ron McClain can’t dance. Neither can Troy Smith, apparently. Ray Rice simply flexes his biceps. And Willis McGahee? It seems every time he tries to bust a move in the end zone, he gets mobbed by his teammates.

The fact that we now know the Ravens runners need to take some dancing lessons — maybe Kelley Washington can help them out — is a major cause for optimism heading into the season’s final three games.

Thanks to the return of Baltimore’s three-headed backfield beast — a monster that this season has inexplicably been seen as scarcely as the one from Loch Ness — Sunday’s game against the Lions quickly turned into a 48-3 Ravens rout and an impromptu episode of “So You Think You Can Dance.”

As the 7-6 Ravens ran for 308 yards and a franchise- record five rushing touchdowns, the aforementioned dancing quartet took turns embarrassing themselves in the end zone. None was worse than McClain’s tummy-shaking shimmy — we’ll call it the “Jelly Roll.” I’m not sure fans will want to see that dance again. They’ll take the six points but will avert their eyes once Mount McClain starts rumbling.

The Ravens won’t get any style points for the way they embarrassed the Lions on a cold, rainy, windy afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium, and that’s OK. They used to not care about that sort of thing. They didn’t try to impress the judges a year ago when they got physical like Olivia Newton-John and lugged the rock the whole way to the AFC title game.

This season, however, Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has been obsessed with transforming his unit into one of those pretty, pass-happy offenses he sees lighting up scoreboards in New Orleans, Indianapolis and San Diego.

But with a talented young line and a strong stable of backs, the Ravens are constructed to be a running team. Finally, in Week 14, the Ravens made a concerted effort to establish the ground game and stick with it until the final whistle.

Sure, the Lions suck, and emotionally, they had already boarded the flight back to Detroit by halftime, but it was refreshing to see those old ugly Ravens back in the building.

Rice, who racked up 219 total yards on 17 touches, made the Lions look like old hound dogs chasing a hare — except the old hound dogs were blind and had only three legs. When Rice was pulled from the game for precautionary reasons, McGahee and McClain pounded away at the Lions and quickly eroded the visitors’ desire to be on the field. The Ravens ran the ball 40 times and averaged 7.7 yards a pop.

Cameron’s smart game plan also took some pressure off Joe Flacco, who was consistently accurate for the first time in more than a month — unless you’re counting his performance in that terrible, oft-aired Pizza Hut commercial.

Once again, I’ll concede that the run-oriented offensive dominance came at the expense of the Lions, who have now lost 19 consecutive road games. But with the Bears and the Raiders — two teams in the NFL’s bottom third at stopping the run — coming up on the schedule, as well as a date with the struggling Steelers in Pittsburgh, the Ravens should stick to this script in their quest for 10 wins and the playoffs.

That may mean we’ll be forced to see more of the Jelly Roll, but fans will be busting out awkward dance moves, too, if the Ravens can rumble their way into the playoffs.

Matt Vensel is a content creator for b. E-mail him at matt@bthesite.com.

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