CINCINNATI — After six weeks of getting gashed, the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense finally made a stand.

Staked to a 7-0 lead before they even stepped on the field Sunday against Baltimore, the Bengals allowed Baltimore to drive the Cincinnati 1 before stopping the final three plays for a confidence-boosting goal-line stand in in their 27-24 victory.

“When you have a goal-line stand and keep all points off the board, those are generally big, big transitions in a football game, and that was a huge part,” coach Marvin Lewis said.

Baltimore had a second-and-goal at the 2, but the Bengals stopped Lorenzo Taliaferro for no gain before allowing Justin Forsett to gain 1 yard on third down. On fourth down, Joe Flacco’s pass for Kamar Aiken fell incomplete.

“That was a big stand, obviously, with the game and the way it ended,” defensive coordinator Paul Guenther said. “They had had a pretty long drive there, and I was kind of surprised they went for it, but they did. And we came up on the good end of it.

“It gave us confidence,” Guenther added. “We got off to a pretty good start, and then after that that helped our guys out.”

The Bengals came into the game ranked 31st in the NFL in defense, and they allowed the Ravens to go 89 yards on their first series. But after the 18-play drive ended with no points, the defense allowed just 205 yards the rest of the way.

The 294 yards were the fewest the team has surrendered all season, as was the 43.1 passer rating.

“We needed that a lot,” linebacker Vontaze Burfict said.

NOTES: For the second time in three games, WR Mohamed Sanu posted a career high in receiving yards, netting 125 on five catches against Baltimore. Sanu’s 538 receiving yards are a career high. … DT Geno Atkins had a season-high four tackles and recorded his first full sack and forced fumble of the season. … WR A.J. Green (toe) said he is 80 percent healthy and expects to play this week against Jacksonville.

REPORT CARD VS. RAVENS

–PASSING OFFENSE: B-plus — Andy Dalton completed 75 percent of his passes (21 of 28) for 266 yards without much help from a running game that struggled to keep the Baltimore defense honest. Dalton was 16 of 21 for 175 yards and a 113.7 passer rating when pressured, and an impressive 6 of 9 for 151 yards and a 109.7 rating when he was blitzed

–RUSHING OFFENSE: C-plus — Running backs Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill combined for just 70 yards on 26 carries (2.7 average) and their longest run was eight yards. But the offensive line created space when it had to in the red zone, with all three of the team’s touchdowns coming on 1-yard runs.

–PASS DEFENSE: A — The Bengals held Joe Flacco to a 43.1 passer rating, his lowest since 2011. But the 80-yard touchdown pass from Flacco to Steve Smith in the final seconds that was wiped out by an offensive pass interference call would have boosted Flacco’s rating — and docked this grade — dramatically.

–RUSH DEFENSE: B-plus — Grading on the merits of the game alone, the mark might have been a little lower. But when you look at it through a wider lens, it becomes more impressive as the Bengals allowed 101 yards after averaging 171.8 in their last four games.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: A — Punter Kevin Huber had big kicks out of his own end zone early and against an 11-man rush late. Kicker Mike Nugent was perfect on his two field goal tries and Adam Jones averaged 31 yards on three kick returns.

–COACHING: B-plus — Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther deserves a lot of credit for rallying a group that had been awful the last three games. His defense held the NFL’s No. 7 offense to 294 yards while forcing two turnovers and keeping decent pressure on Joe Flacco all game.