Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson has overtaken San Francisco’s Brock Purdy in the MVP race after leading the Ravens to a dominant 33-19 road win against the 49ers on Christmas Day.

Entering into the potential Super Bowl preview between the AFC and NFC’s best teams, Purdy boasted the best passer rating in the league thanks in part to his ability to avoid big mistakes

But on Monday night in Santa Clara, California, Purdy faltered, throwing a career-worst four interceptions to dig a hole his club could not dig out of.

Meanwhile Jackson, the 2019 MVP, threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 45 yards as the Ravens improved to 12-3.

The dual-threat Jackson has 3,357 passing yards through 15 games along with 19 passing touchdowns against just seven interceptions. On the ground he has 786 rushing yards and five touchdowns.

With the win the Ravens moved one win away from clinching the AFC’s top seed and will get their first shot at doing so when they host Miami on Sunday.

“I thought Lamar had an MVP performance,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said after the game.

“It takes a team to create a performance like that, but it takes a player to play at that level. Lamar was all over the field doing everything.”

Jackson is now the favorite to win the award ahead of San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey, who rushed for 103 yards Monday and added 28 as a receiver, with Purdy falling to third, according to oddsmakers.

McCaffrey, who leads the league with 1395 rushing yards and has 21 total touchdowns, would be the first non-quarterback to win the award since running back Adrian Peterson accomplished the feat with the Minnesota Vikings in 2012.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is also in the MVP mix and could go a long way toward improving his changes with a win over Jackson’s Ravens on Sunday.

The winner is decided by a panel of 50 sportswriters and is limited to players’ regular season performances.

For his part, Jackson said he is more focused on avoiding another postseason flop than he is taking home MVP honors after the Ravens fell in the wild card round in 2019 and divisional round in 2020 and 2021.

“We’re just going to keep taking it a day at a time, a practice at a time and a game at a time,” Jackson said.

“That’s all I’m focused on right now.”