Baltimore Ravens: Questions Loom Around Defense Heading into Bye Week

Three weeks ago, the Baltimore Ravens stood atop of the AFC North at 3-0. I wrote an article warning that the road was going to get bumpy, but they didn't care.

You still heard the talk of dynasty.

First came the New England Patriots, in New England. In a hard fought game, the Patriots came out on top. Many Ravens and their fans were pointing the blame for the loss on the referees.

With three personal foul penalties called against the Ravens, and every one of the drives where there were personal fouls, the Patriots scored. I can understand some of the anger on the part of the Ravens, but all three calls were called within the rules of the game.

The next week, the Ravens hosted the Bengals for first place in the AFC North. Another game that came down to the wire, and again, a personal foul by Ray Lewis on Chad Ochocinco kept the drive alive, which the Bengals eventually scored on, and the Ravens lost again.

Sunday, against the Vikings, it was not the penalties that killed the Ravens, it was the Vikings. Adrian Peterson rushed for 143 yards while Brett Favre threw for 278. When was the last time a Ravens defense allowed those kinds of yards?

Heading into the bye week, the Ravens have a lot of questions to be answered by the defense. Will they continue the trend that allowed two running backs to rush for 100 yards in back to back weeks continue? Will their pass defense return to form, or are their new corner backs just not good enough? Did losing Rex Ryan to the Jets hurt the team worse than anyone thought it would?

All of these questions need to be answered, and corrected, if the Ravens want to improve from their third place standing in the AFC North.