The Cincinnati Bengals are neither the most surprising 3-0 team in the NFL, nor the most impressive, but after Sunday’s performance by Andy Dalton in Baltimore, it’s hard to doubt that the 2015 Bengals are for real.

Dalton led not one, but two late game scoring drives to give the Bengals a lead over the Ravens, and the Cincinnati defense made the second one stick for a 28-24 victory that sent the Bengals to 3-0 and effectively buried Baltimore in the process.

“It’s hard to do it twice in a game and hats off to our guys, driving down the field twice and getting back control of the game,” Cincinnati head coach Marvin Lewis said afterward. “It was a hard-fought win. The way the NFL is supposed to be. That’s a good football team that we came on top of today.”

The Ravens are indeed a good football team, and a division rival that the Bengals have now mired in an 0-3 start to the season, which essentially doubles the importance of the victory for Cincy. Beating Baltimore has been one of the final regular season obstacles for Cincinnati to take the next step in their progression as a team, and it seems they’ve finally figured out how to do so consistently. After going 1-4 against the Ravens to start his career, Dalton and the Bengals have now won four consecutive games against Baltimore, dating back to Week 17 of the 2013 season.

That particular win in December of 2013 capped a dominant season for Cincinnati, where they coasted to the AFC North title. But they were quickly bounced from the postseason a week later, one of four consecutive one-and-done playoff appearances for the franchise under Dalton.

However, Sunday’s come from behind victory in Baltimore is the best sign we’ve seen yet that the Bengals are ready to be taken seriously as a contender, both in their division and in the NFL as a whole.

The AFC North is certainly theirs for the taking once again. The Steelers are once again reeling from the loss of Ben Roethlisberger for up to six weeks, just as they were getting ready to put the team back together. The Browns are the Browns, and won’t factor into the picture this season. And the Ravens are now submerged in the division’s basement, in need of a remarkable rally just to get back into the picture.

With those things working in their favor and a quarterback who appears to be coming of age in his fifth season, the Bengals are primed to run away with the division. Dalton currently ranks sixth in the league in passing yards with 866, tied for second in touchdown passes, and is behind only Aaron Rodgers in quarterback rating among starters with a 121.0 mark. Under his command, the Bengals currently rank second in the NFL behind only the juggernaut Patriots in yards per game on offense. According to Cincinnati offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, that’s largely due to Dalton.

“He is the orchestrator of it all,” Jackson said. “This is Andy’s offense, and I’ve given him carte blanche to do within what we plan to do as much latitude as I’ve ever given any quarterback, just because I think he’s very, very good at what he does that way.”

Sunday’s game in particular was perhaps the most impressive of Dalton’s five-year career. His 383 passing yards were a career-high, and he threw three touchdowns against just one interception. He also ran for a touchdown for just the 12th time in his career, making him responsible for all four of Cincinnati’s scores.

The performance did have its warts. Dalton threw his first interception of the season early in the second half, on a ball he probably shouldn’t have thrown in the direction he did, and he committed a costly fourth quarter fumble that put the Bengals behind for the first time. But what was more striking than the statistics was the way Dalton executed late in the game, rising to the challenge after making a signature mistake with that fumble, and showing a level of command over the Bengals offense that has been mostly absent over his first four seasons in the league.

“To be good in this league and to be really good, you have to be bright enough, smart enough and understand what you are trying to accomplish when the defense changes,” Jackson said. “[Dalton] is well-schooled that way. That’s something that takes time on his part, a lot of time on the coach’s part, and he does it as well as anybody I’ve ever been around. He’s taken himself to another level.”

The usually reserved Dalton has been anything but this season. He’s been vocal and animated on the sidelines and in the huddle, and he’s been making the type of pre-snap reads and adjustments at the line of scrimmage that separate the good from the great at the quarterback position.

“That’s part of his job description,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. “That’s part of the role we give our quarterback in certain situations. He’s got a couple of options and he’s got to take advantage of those options. That’s so important for a quarterback.”

It’s a role Dalton has seemed to shrink from in the past. But he’s handled it with aplomb so far this season, and Sunday’s game was the best example yet.

Cincinnati was rolling in the first half, building a 14-0 halftime lead on the strength of Dalton’s seven-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and a 16-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones early in the second. Dalton was solid in that first half, playing mistake-free football, completing 9-of-16 for 139 yards with the touchdown run and touchdown pass.

He also had what looked to be a second touchdown pass to put the Bengals up 21-0 with under two minutes left in the half, called back. On 4th-and-1 from the 2, Cincinnati elected to go for it and throw the ball, and Dalton hit Tyler Eifert, who appeared to cross the goal line with control of the ball before losing it. But upon review the referees determined that Eifert never possessed the ball and ruled it incomplete, turning the ball over and keeping the score 14-0. It was the type of call that completely changes the complexion of the game and the Bengals likely roll to a blowout victory if it goes their way, as it should have.

Having that score taken away also represented the type of adversity and misfortune that has often caused Dalton, and as a result his team, to fall apart in the past. For most of the second half, it appeared that was exactly what was going to happen.

After the Bengals dominated the first 30 minutes of the game, the Ravens rallied after halftime. Cincinnati started the second half with the ball and drove all the way down the field with ease. But on 3rd-and-3 from the 10, Dalton threw a jump ball to A.J. Green in the corner of the end zone that was intercepted on a nice play by Baltimore’s Jimmy Smith. The key to the play was that Smith had inside position on Green the entire time and there wasn’t a throw Dalton could’ve made to get Green a touchdown, so the quarterback probably should’ve looked elsewhere with his throw.

The Ravens converted the turnover into their first touchdown of the day, on the ensuing drive, then tacked on a field goal early in the fourth to make it 14-10.

But it wasn’t until midway through the fourth that things got really sticky for the Bengals. On 3rd-and-6 from the Cincy 44 with just over seven minutes left in the game, Dalton dropped back and held the ball too long while assessing his options. He was sacked from behind by Elvis Dumervil and fumbled the ball, which was scooped up and returned for a touchdown by C.J. Mosley to give Baltimore its first lead of the day.

It was another instance of a play that would have caused Dalton and the Bengals to fold up shop in the past, as it put the Cincinnati behind on the scoreboard for the first time all season.

But instead, Dalton and the Cincy offense responded immediately. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Dalton threw a beautiful ball that hit A.J. Green in stride running up the seam. The star wide receiver did the rest, shaking off multiple tackle attempts for an 80-yard touchdown. Though he made the moves to finish the play, Green deferred some of the credit after the game to Dalton for the pinpoint pass.

“It was a great ball by Andy,” he said. “I made a move, broke a tackle, and I broke away into the open. It was a big play for us.”

The score put the Bengals back in front 21-17, but that lead was short-lived as the Ravens answered with a nine-play, 79-yard drive, culminating a Joe Flacco touchdown pass, to retake the lead.

However, a locked-in Dalton answered right back once again. Taking over at his own 20 with under four minutes to go, the quarterback was unflappable, in complete command and control of the offense. After completing a pair of short passes to Giovani Bernard and Mohamed Sanu that each got big yards after the catch, Dalton hit Jones for a deep ball to bring it down to the Baltimore 7-yard-line.

Two plays later came one of the biggest moments of Dalton’s career thus far. After getting the Bengals set at the line on 2nd-and-goal from the 7, Dalton read the defense and audibled into a play that sent Green on a corner route, putting him in perfect position when Dalton then delivered another pinpoint pass to Green, over his shoulder in the end zone, to give the Bengals the lead right back.

“That last touchdown was huge,” Lewis said afterward. ” He got us in the right play.”

Dalton went 4-for-5 for all 80 yards on that final Bengals drive and, with some help from Green, 5-for-6 for 160 yards over the last two drives. The six-play, 80-yard drive in particular showed the type of mettle that has been absent in Cincinnati for quite a long time.

“The history in this series is that you’ve got to play all four quarters, and we expect that. We never had a doubt that we were going to come back and score. It’s the mentality you have to have, or you’re not going to be successful.”

It’s the mentality the Bengals have been looking for from Dalton for the last four year and it appears he’s finally taken to it, a gigantic step in his evolution as a leader.

There is still a long way to go for Dalton to overcome the stigma he’s earned, and their are plenty more demons to exorcise. His tendency to come up short in “primetime” games on Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights is certainly going to spotlighted again this season. Dalton is 3-6 for his career in primetime and the Bengals have four such games on their schedule — back-to-back in early November and again in mid-December. Even if Dalton can get through those with Cincinnati still standing tall, that ugly 0-4 playoff record will loom large come January. But, at least for now, Dalton and the Bengals are in a great spot.

Because, if such a thing exists during an afternoon game in Week 3, Sunday was a coming of age moment for Dalton, and the Bengals should be better for it.