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Joe Flacco (5) and the rest of the Ravens' offense struggled mightily against Houston on Sunday, leaving in doubt whether the unit could salvage the season for the injury plagued defense.
When the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl after the 2000 season, their offense, it was frequently mentioned, did not score a touchdown in five consecutive games. In every year since, it has seemed, the Ravens have tried to make up for that, constructing an offense bit by bit, acquiring assets like Joe Flacco, Ray Rice, Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith. Many years from now, the Ravens' identity will most likely still be colored by Ray Lewis's eye black and the ferocity of the defense in its heyday, but it will almost certainly be the offense that takes Baltimore back to the Super Bowl, if it is to get there.
Sunday's performance, though, with the defense in shambles and the offense sputtering, cast doubt on whether it could still happen this season. Houston destroyed the Ravens, 43-13, in as thorough a whipping as the N.F.L. ever produces, and an indicator of just how wide the gap is between the A.F.C.'s best team — the Texans, at 6-1 entering their bye week — and the Ravens.
Baltimore (5-2) may be the second-best team in a mediocre conference — the only other A.F.C. team with a winning record is New England (4-3) — but the Ravens are reeling, and they will spend their bye week wondering why the offense that was supposed to carry them is instead flailing, particularly on the road.
On Sunday, with Lewis at home after triceps surgery, cornerback Lardarius Webb nursing a torn knee ligament and linebacker Terrell Suggs taking his first steps back from a torn Achilles' tendon, Baltimore's transition to a team led by its offense was supposed to be complete. But Flacco was sacked four times and was so inaccurate that at halftime his quarterback rating was 4.2.
Combined with a near-miss 9-6 victory at Kansas City two weeks ago, Sunday's loss raises troubling questions about why the offense, which has employed a no-huddle look this season, is struggling on the road. With a decimated defense — the Ravens have given up a total of 622 yards rushing in the last three games — the burden will fall even more on the offense to right itself.
"Is this still a viable team and a Super Bowl contender?" the former Ravens Coach Brian Billick said. "Absolutely, because of the offense. How long has it been since you said that? Literally forever. Is this going to kill the Ravens? My response is by who? New England might begin to play better, but they have their own issues defensively."
As good as the Texans are, Billick added, they lost linebacker Brian Cushing to a knee injury two weeks ago. "If not them, then who? That's not very supportive, but I don't know if there is an A.F.C. team this year."
Billick's point is valid. Like the Patriots, the Ravens have picked the right year to have issues. With the Steelers' victory over the Bengals on Sunday night, the Ravens remain two games up in the A.F.C. North, and their first two games after the bye are against the Browns and the Raiders. But while the Ravens seem likely to remain in position for a playoff spot in a conference in which 8-8 might be enough to make it, they have plenty of questions to address that have nothing to do with injuries.
Most perplexing is the Jekyll-and-Hyde offense, which in three road games this season has produced one victory and just three touchdowns, but has averaged 32 points at home. On Sunday, the Ravens were outgained, 420 yards to 176. The difference in time of possession was stark: 38 minutes 16 seconds for the Texans to 21:44 for the Ravens. Flacco threw two interceptions and had his passes batted or tipped repeatedly, and Rice, the Ravens' best weapon, never got established.
"I'm concerned about everything," Coach John Harbaugh said. "What aren't you concerned about? Sometimes you get tossed out of the bar. We came in with hype, with good intentions and ready to do battle. I thought our guys fought. We kept running back in and they kept throwing us back out."
When the Ravens made the decision to build up the offense and then to run a no-huddle, Harbaugh told Billick that if "we're going to get to the next step, we can't keep doing what we've been doing."
He was right. But what the Ravens have been doing is not enough either.
Panthers in Flux
Much of the attention on the Carolina Panthers' disappointing 1-5 start has fallen on quarterback Cam Newton, whose performance has been nothing close to the one he constructed in his rookie season, and whose odd postgame ramblings — "I'm going to bring in a suggestion box," he told reporters Sunday, saying he did not know what was wrong after the Panthers' loss to the Cowboys — have led to concerns that he lacks the requisite maturity and steadiness to lead the Panthers out of the abyss.
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