But the Ravens are coming off a miserable performance last Sunday in San Diego, a game in which the Chargers scored on their first five possessions and never punted in a 34-14 rout.

“It’s the NFL. It can be very humbling,” Pagano said Wednesday. “That’s why you take it week to week. Keep it on the highway, we say. Never too high and never too low. We know we’ve got to get over it and move on.”

Pagano and the Ravens (10-4) have turned their attention toward beating Cleveland (4-10) on Saturday to stay on course to win the AFC North.

“There were spots where I could have done a better job in helping these guys out,” he said. “So we go back to work and fix the things that needed to be fixed.”

After spending three years working with the Ravens secondary, the 51-year-old Pagano took command of the defense in January after Greg Mattison left to become defensive coordinator at Michigan.

Pagano calls his new post “a dream come true.”

“If you ask anyone given this opportunity, they’d tell you the same thing,” he said. “We’ve got great assistant coaches, great guys to work with, great players, great leadership, a great organization. I was just in the right place at the right time. I’m very fortunate.

“It’s been more highs than lows and it’s been exciting watching these guys play. It’s been a great experience to this point, but our goal is to get to (Indianapolis, site of the Super Bowl) and be the No. 1 defense in the league. If we don’t accomplish that, it will be a disappointing year as far as I’m concerned.”

Perhaps, but no one in the locker room would blame Pagano if the Ravens fall short of expectations.

“I love playing for coach. I have a ton of respect for the dude,” linebacker Terrell Suggs said. “He definitely gave us our swagger back. He’s a very good chess player. You got to win the chess match. You got to be a strategist. Chuck’s been doing a good job.”

Pagano broke into the coaching ranks as a graduate assistant at Southern California in 1984. He has studied the art of defense for well over two decades, knowledge that enabled him to come up with a multitude of alignments that turned this Baltimore defense into a swarming, unpredictable and relentless crew.

“Chuck is unorthodox,” Suggs said. “He’s like The Joker. You never really expect what he’s going to do, and everything has a motive.”

His players consider Pagano to be just one of the guys.

“What makes him good? He relates to the players a whole lot,” Ravens defensive end Cory Redding said. “He’s almost like a player in a D-coordinator’s position. The guy has so much fun with us. He treats you like more than a player. It’s like we’re his sons. He wants us to do well. He keeps it fresh. He knows everybody’s strengths and puts them in position to make plays.”

With the exception of Mattison, every previous Ravens defensive coordinator has gone on to become an NFL head coach. Marvin Lewis, Mike Nolan and Rex Ryan made the step up, and it’s quite possible Pagano may one day follow suit.

“Absolutely,” Ravens linebacker Paul Kruger said. “Chuck has a leadership quality about him. He’s humble but he also knows when to take the reins and take charge. He doesn’t try to dominate you in every meeting. He’s just a coach that knows exactly how players are and what direction they need. He’s a hell of a coach and I really think he’ll be a head coach one day.”

Pagano has been thinking of that moment since he was a young boy.

“When I was a kid growing up, my dad being a football coach, he asked the same question of all the assistants that he ever hired: ‘Is your goal to be a head football coach?’ He always said if somebody had answered him, ‘Not really, I’m OK just being a position coach,’ then I don’t think he really wanted him on his staff,” Pagano said. “Because he wanted ambitious guys.

“I think if you ask anybody they’d say yeah. That would be something you always work for and toward. But for now, my focus and our focus is on the Cleveland Browns. Period.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t face each other on the field for the rest of the regular season, but the AFC North rivals are engaged in the NFL’s best battle over the next four weeks.

Both teams boast 9-3 records, the best marks in the division as well as the AFC. Both teams realize they can’t afford another loss. And both teams know what’s at stake.

The winner takes the AFC North title, a home playoff game and likely a first-round bye. The loser gets to pack its bags and head on the road for the postseason.

So, the Ravens and Steelers aren’t fighting over supremacy of the division. They’re fighting for a trip to the Super Bowl, based on recent history in the AFC and between the franchises.

The past four AFC champions have either been a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. The last fifth or sixth seed in the AFC to reach the Super Bowl was the 2005 Steelers.

The Ravens began talking about their quest for a top seed before the season began. Getting home field in this rivalry isn’t only an advantage, it’s a necessity. Baltimore is 7-2 against the Steelers at home since 2003, while two of the Ravens’ past three seasons have ended in Pittsburgh.

Players on both teams anticipate Baltimore and Pittsburgh meeting in the playoffs once again.

“We’re going to have to see this team in January,” Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs said after the Ravens won in Pittsburgh last month. “We just positioned ourselves for them to have to come to M&T [Bank Stadium] so we can do it.”

The Ravens and Steelers are the class of the AFC, even though they have the same record as New England and Houston. It’s just difficult to think of the Patriots and Texans as serious contenders when New England has the NFL’s worst defense and Houston has a third-string rookie starting at quarterback.

It’s also difficult to think the Ravens or the Steelers will go to the stadium of their fiercest rival and leave with a victory. That’s not to say it’s impossible. Joe Flacco has led the Ravens on last-minute, game-winning touchdown drives on his last two regular-season trips to Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field. And Ben Roethlisberger has thrown two winning, fourth-quarter touchdown passes in Baltimore in 2008 and 2010.

Still, both teams and their defenses are playing at a different level when they’re in front of their home crowd. The Ravens have won eight straight games at M&T Bank Stadium, the second-longest current streak in the NFL (behind the Green Bay Packers). Baltimore has outscored opponents at home 175-95, beating the likes of Pittsburgh, Houston, San Francisco, Cincinnati and the New York Jets.

The Steelers are 29-9 (.763) at Heinz Field under coach Mike Tomlin, including 5-1 this season. Pittsburgh has outscored teams at home 159-77, defeating the likes of New England, Tennessee and Cincinnati.

What makes it so tough to beat these teams at their own place is Ray Lewis, Suggs, Troy Polamalu and James Harrison. Since 2008, the Ravens have given up the fewest points at home (13.4) and the Steelers have allowed the second fewest (15.7). Over that same span, Pittsburgh has given up the fewest yards at home (268.6) and Baltimore has allowed the second fewest (272.2).

The difference is the Ravens can decide their playoff future. If Baltimore wins the final four games, the Ravens will host their first playoff game since 2006.

“We know we control our own destiny,” Ravens running back Ray Rice said. “Regardless of who we play, we’ve got to take care of business.”

The reason the Ravens control their destiny is because they swept Pittsburgh in the regular season for only the second time in their history. Giving up that 92-yard drive to Flacco in the final minutes represents the difference between the Steelers leading the Ravens and trailing them.

Now, in order for the Steelers to win their sixth AFC North title, they have to finish one game ahead of Baltimore. That means Pittsburgh needs to win its last four games (home against Cleveland, at San Francisco, home against St. Louis and at Cleveland) and the Ravens need to lose at least one of their remaining games (home against winless Indianapolis, at San Diego, home against Cleveland and at Cincinnati).

“Coach Tomlin always talks about just playing,” Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward said. “Don’t look at Baltimore. We just have to worry about what we can do [and] take it one game at a time.”

Ward added: “We just have to keep playing. We can’t control what Baltimore does. If we do what we do, at the end, we might be there in the hunt of things.”

For the Ravens and Steelers, the end of this season has a different feel because the teams aren’t playing each other in December for the first time in five years. Instead of delivering knockout blows to one another, the Ravens and Steelers know that beating the other teams could hurt their rival just as much.

If Baltimore wins out, it likely will earn the top seed in the AFC based on a better strength of victory over New England and Houston. That would mean the road to the Super Bowl would go through Baltimore for the first time in the Ravens’ 16-year existence.

“Our guys understand the importance of where we’re at,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said, “because if you’re going to be at this level, you’re not just competing against the team you have to play on Sunday.”

Baltimore (9-3) set a franchise record with 55 rushing attempts against the Browns in a 24-10 victory. Ray Rice led the way with a career-best 204 yards rushing on 29 carries, and Ricky Williams chipped in with 76 yards on 16 attempts.

The Ravens won their only Super Bowl in 2001 with an offense dominated by running back Jamal Lewis and a defense centered around middle linebacker Ray Lewis. Jamal Lewis is retired and Ray Lewis has missed three straight games with a toe injury, but the formula for success hasn’t changed.

“We believe in running the football, absolutely,” coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “We think you have to run the ball and stop the run to be the kind of physical football team we want to be.”

Flacco threw only 23 passes against the Browns, but Harbaugh attributed the run-pass imbalance in part to the muddy field in Cleveland.

“We felt like we could run the ball, possibly. We wanted to be able to do that,” the coach said. “On the same token, it was rainy and it was windy and the field was real sloppy. The conditions for throwing the ball weren’t really ideal. … We try to be built for all weather conditions, but I think the way the game played out, the type of game it was, the best approach was to run the ball and keep running the ball because we were having some success doing it.”

In losses to Jacksonville and Seattle, the Ravens abandoned the run and attempted to win through the air. Baltimore has won its share of games on the strength of Flacco’s throwing arm, but this team seems to be at its best when it uses the run to set up the pass.

Against the Browns, the offensive line was only too happy to surge forward instead of drop back into pass protection.

“The guys up front did a great job,” fullback Vonta Leach said. “Ray did a good job of hitting those holes. Obviously with the weather the way it was and the field the way it was, you got to run the ball. We established the run and we kept with it.”

Center Matt Birk said, “That’s what we need to do. It was that kind of game. As an offense, we were able to run the ball.”

The Ravens have thrown 412 passes this season and have 284 rushes. That is, in part, because the NFL has become a passing league and Baltimore has a host of capable receivers, including Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith.

So Harbaugh isn’t about to commit entirely to the run as the Ravens seek to stay on course to capture the AFC North title — and perhaps the top seed in the conference.

“The teams that are scoring the most points are the teams that are throwing the ball the most,” Harbaugh said. “But our objective here is not to score the most points, per se. It’s to score more points than our opponent on any given Sunday. That’s why we’re really not willing to sit here and say that we are a run-first outfit.”

But to win in December, when the weather gets cold and the pressure to win intensifies, the Ravens have found that smashmouth football is far more effective than finesse.

“We’ve always had good teams. We play good defense. We’ve been able to run the ball,” Harbaugh said. “Some years we’ve been better running the ball. We’d like to believe that we’re built for December. Everything we do is built for December. We’re trying to be our best in December and January.”

The Ravens have four games left, the next three against losing teams. The winless Indianapolis Colts (0-12) come to Baltimore on Sunday, and although it seems as if the Ravens could afford to let Lewis rest his ailing right toe another week, Harbaugh doesn’t see it that way.

“We’re going to try to win the game against the Colts,” Harbaugh said. “We want to go in there full strength. Obviously a healthy Ray Lewis, playing at the caliber he’s capable of playing at, helps us beat the Colts. Is he going to be ready to do that? We don’t know. He says he’s going to be ready to do it. He’s got some orthotics that may give him a chance.”

Baltimore has won three straight without Lewis, who has watched from the sideline in each instance.

“We have, probably, been somewhat cautious,” Harbaugh acknowledged. “We want to make sure that he doesn’t re-injure it. So, we’ll just have to see how it goes again this week.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

OWINGS MILLS – With the emotions of a victorious Harbaugh bowl and a rare sweep of the Pittsburgh Steelers already behind them, the Baltimore Ravens are bracing for a familiar, recurring challenge for the remainder of the season.

How will they handle success after three previous losses to losing teams immediately following big wins?

To earn the elusive home-field advantage granted to the top seed in the AFC, the Ravens will have to take care of business against teams they’re expected to beat.

Only one of the Ravens’ upcoming five opponents sports a winning record, and Baltimore travels to play those emerging Cincinnati Bengals in the season finale after defeating them last week at home.

For the next month, the Ravens (8-3) will square off with teams with losing records starting with the Cleveland Browns next Sunday followed by the winless Indianapolis Colts, the slumping San Diego Chargers and the Browns again.

“It’s an opportunity going forward, it positions us really well,” Harbaugh said. “Now, we have to conquer a game in Cleveland, one that’s been plaguing us all year. You’ve all written about it extensively. It’s a big challenge we have, but we have an opportunity now to get healthy. And that’s what we have to take advantage of in the next couple of days.”

The Ravens are competing with the Steelers to remain atop the AFC North division, and the title would grant them at least one home playoff game.

If the Ravens can finish with a superior record to the New England Patriots and the Steelers, it would ensure playing all of their playoff games at M&T Bank Stadium.

That could provide an easier path to the Super Bowl considering the Ravens have won 16 of their last 17 home games, including a 6-0 mark this season and nine consecutive wins dating back to last year.

“Obviously playing here, we’re pretty tough to beat because we’ve got a great atmosphere the fans created,” quarterback Joe Flacco said. “We haven’t had one since I’ve been here. It would really be beneficial to get one.”

The home-field advantage conversation grew new life after the Ravens’ 16-6 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Thanksgiving.

“Well, it’s probably too early because you have five games left,” Harbaugh said. “But it’s December football, and that’s when you start thinking about things like that. The only thing we need to be focused on is getting healthy, first of all, and the Cleveland Browns.

“That’s something we’ve struggled with on the road, and we have to go conquer that. That’s going to be a really tough task. I know all of our guys are going to focus on that and take care of first things first.”

In order to do so, they’ll need to handle a Cleveland team they swept last year.

With embarrassing losses to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Seattle Seahawks and a setback against the Tennessee Titans, the Ravens have proven that they’re vulnerable against teams they were favored to beat.

That has raised questions about whether the Ravens overlooked teams that were regarded as inferior to them.

“We’ve always had focus,” Pro Bowl outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said. “Sometimes the game or the game plan gets away from us and we’ve given away a few games. As long we always keep the game plan in our grasp and do what we do best, play Ravens football, feed every defense a lot of Rice, I think we’ve got a good chance of making a good run at this thing. When we get away from ourselves, that’s when you never know what’s going to happen.”

Suggs was referencing how the Ravens abandoned the running game and star running back Ray Rice in losses to Seattle, Jacksonville and Tennessee when they fell behind.

However, the Ravens were stubborn with the run against the 49ers’ top-ranked run defense even though Rice finished with just 59 yards on 21 carries. That kept the defense honest and created manageable third-down situations.

The Ravens haven’t played a home playoff game since the 2006 season when they lost to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC divisional round following a first-round bye.

“That’s key,” Suggs said. “You know when you get home-field advantage you have a good chance of making it to the big dance. I think we have the best fans in the world. We win all of our home games and that’s because it’s loud and because our fans give us the energy, and we want to play well for them.

“We haven’t had a home playoff game since coach has been here. We just want to take it one game at a time, but that’s definitely an overall goal: win the division, get it at home-field.”

Under Harbaugh, the Ravens have gone 8-4 in December games dating back to the 2008 season.

“It’s a long season, and you all know November and December football is tricky,” Suggs said. “You can’t afford to give any away. You have to win the games you’re supposed to win, and try to steal the ones that you aren’t.

“We’re going to enjoy this win and after the long weekend we’re going to come back and get ready for Cleveland. November and December football is very important, and we’re just going to focus on the next point.”

Brant Ward / The Chronicle

Jim Harbaugh and staff keep the 49ers’ defense fairly simple, often using just 13 players in a game.

The injury-depleted Steelers will try to stay atop the AFC North standings this Sunday when they take on the rival Baltimore Ravens at Heinz Field.

There’s no disputing that the next two games are huge for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens come to town, and everyone knows what that means: The Steelers get another crack at ending Tom Brady’s dominance over them and get an opportunity to avenge a season-opening beatdown from the Ravens.

But the motivation for these next two weeks at Heinz Field goes beyond redemption. It’s revelation time for Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu and the rest of the Steelers.

Eight weeks into the regular season, the Steel City gets to see if this year’s team has championship mettle. The Steelers can prove they’re a major player in the AFC by beating the Patriots. They can show who’s in control of the AFC North by taking down the Ravens.

Who are the Steelers at this point? They’ve beaten the teams they’re supposed to beat. Pittsburgh’s five victories have come against Seattle, Indianapolis, Tennessee, Jacksonville and Arizona — teams with a combined 8-24 record (.250).

This isn’t a knock against the Steelers, because the Ravens haven’t been able to do the same (see the Monday night game at Jacksonville). The point is the Steelers don’t have a marquee win yet. They don’t have a victory that exclaims they’re the team to beat. Shutting out the Seahawks and finishing off the Cardinals pads the win total but doesn’t send messages.

Pittsburgh has gone against two legitimate playoff contenders (Baltimore and Houston) and lost both times. In fact, the Steelers have looked below average in both games. (Let’s be clear, the adjectives “old” and “slow” were not used to describe those performances, but some people have.)

Statements can be made by the Steelers if they can knock off the AFC’s top-rated quarterback and the NFL’s top-ranked defense. Those are the types of victories that build confidence in the locker room as well as a playoff-caliber résumé.

In coach Mike Tomlin’s Tuesday news conference, a reporter brought up the importance of securing the inside track on a playoff seed midway through the season.

“It’s October,” Tomlin said. “We are just trying to win week to week and keep pace with the elite and put ourselves in position to be considered in that conversation. Those things will sort themselves out. I truly believe that. We like to stay focused on things that are in our control, and that’s our preparation and, ultimately, our play this week. When you start talking about playoff seedings and things of that nature, particularly at this point in the season, you are scoreboard watching. That’s not going to be our bag.”

Tomlin added: “We are going to see enough quality teams over the rest of this season to deal with a lot of those things firsthand, and that is really how we prefer to look at it.”

That’s not exactly true unless there’s a different definition of the term “quality teams.” After playing New England and Baltimore, Pittsburgh finishes the season with four games against Cleveland and Cincinnati as well as games against Kansas City, San Francisco and St. Louis.

The Steelers will likely be favored to win all of them. No one truly knows if the Bengals and Browns will be able to sustain solid starts. The 49ers are the best in a bad division. And the Chiefs and Rams have looked horrible at times this season.

That’s why the games against New England and Baltimore aren’t “must wins” in terms of the playoffs. Pittsburgh realistically could lose both and easily make the playoffs by running the table.

The problem is the Steelers might not see Heinz Field in the playoffs if they lose these games. Yes, it’s October. But games in the fall count just as much as those in the winter when it comes to tiebreakers.

Some suggest that the Steelers’ game against Baltimore is more important because of the implications in the division. Tomlin acknowledged his team is more emotionally vested in the Ravens rivalry than the one on Sunday, despite the fact that the Patriots stopped Pittsburgh from going to the Super Bowl in 2001 and 2004.

“Many of our guys were not a part of this history when it started, because you are talking about 2001 and 2004,” Tomlin said. “So, it’s not similar in that way. We play Baltimore twice a year, sometimes three times a year over the last three to five years. So it’s different from that standpoint. I am not going to assume anything. I am going to educate our guys about this matchup and this football team because it is different in that way.”

What the Steelers have proved so far is they don’t suffer letdowns (except for one half against the Jaguars) and they don’t make excuses.

Pittsburgh is sitting atop the AFC North even though it has put out different starting lineups for the offensive and defensive lines each week. The Steelers have watched a top pass-rusher (James Harrison) go down for an extended period and their most experienced wide receiver (Hines Ward) leave last Sunday’s game.

At this point, the Steelers have overcome challenges to beat the teams they’re supposed to beat. Now let’s see if they can beat the teams they need to beat.

“We are perfect by no stretch,” Tomlin said. “I think we are improving and finding ways to win along the way. The arrow is pointed up, and we need to continue moving in that direction.”

OWINGS MILLS, Md. – For years, the Baltimore Ravens have tried — without success — to put together an offence that could match the play of its esteemed defence.

They hoped that several off-season moves and the maturation of quarterback Joe Flacco would make a difference this season. Over the first four weeks, it appeared as if the changes had successfully taken hold.

Then came Monday night’s performance in Jacksonville, a stinker of historical proportions that showed just how far Baltimore’s offence has to go to be a factor on a team with Super Bowl aspirations.

The Ravens didn’t make a first down until the third quarter, converted only two of 12 third-down opportunities and managed only 146 yards, including a franchise-record low 16 yards before halftime. It all added up to a 12-7 defeat that dropped Baltimore (4-2) out of first place in the AFC North.

Rather than dance around the subject, coach John Harbaugh on Tuesday acknowledged the obvious.

“No excuses. It has to be a lot better. Not even close to the way we’re capable of performing on offence,” he said. “Everybody realizes that. We have to do a better job, starting with me. I got to do a better job of making some decisions. We all have to do a better job of coaching, playing, executing, all those different things.”

The off-season addition of linemen Bryant McKinnie and Andre Gurode, along with fullback Vonta Leach and wide receiver Lee Evans, was supposed to improve an attack that sputtered at times last season. After the Ravens scored 35 in the opener against Pittsburgh and dropped 37 points on the St. Louis Rams, there was optimism that Baltimore had finally become a complete team.

Not quite.

Ray Rice gained only 28 yards on the ground against the Jaguars and Flacco received very little protection during a night that ended, appropriately, with an interception.

“That was a tough loss,” Harbaugh said. “We played bad on one side of the ball especially, and we didn’t play well enough on the other two sides to overcome that.”

Perhaps, but it’s tough to fault a defence that didn’t allow a touchdown or blame the special teams, even if Billy Cundiff did miss horribly on a 51-yard field goal try.

No, this one was all about the offence — or lack of it. Sure the line is a work in progress, and Evans has been missing for weeks with a sprained ankle. But there is no excuse for a performance that awful.

“We’ve been pretty wildly inconsistent, especially on offence,” Harbaugh said. “With our offensive line situation, I don’t think that’s completely unexpected.”

Offensive co-ordinator Cam Cameron said, “First of all you have to be fundamentally sound. We have some new moving parts. That’s not an excuse. That’s something we’re working through.”

Rice rushed only eight times, lost a fumble and spent long stretches on the bench. He never got into a groove, and the same can be said for the offence as a whole.

“He’s got to get more than eight carries,” Harbaugh said. “We were just trying to find a way to beat the defence and get a first down and get going. Because when you do that, that’s when those carries start adding up. You go three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out, it’s going to be hard to get those carries stacked up too much.

“You go first-down run and you get a yard, now you’ve got to find a way to get nine yards on the next two. By the same token, eight carries is never going to be a winning formula for Ray Rice, there’s no doubt about it.”

Harbaugh was asked if Cameron deserved much of the blame.

“It’s warranted for all of us,” he replied. “We all deserve to have fingers pointed at us when the offence plays like that. That’s tough. It’s just a bad performance and everyone knows it. … It’s still early in the season, but we can’t afford more performances like that. We all know that.”

By DAVID GINSBURG
AP Sports Writer

BALTIMORE (AP) – Thirty minutes into the first game of the season, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis stood before his teammates and delivered an inspirational and insightful speech that set the tone for the entire season.

Baltimore held a 21-7 lead over the defending AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the identical score at halftime of their playoff game in Pittsburgh nine months earlier. In that one, the Ravens came apart in a 31-24 defeat.

Lewis placed himself in the middle of the locker room and emphatically spiked the comparison.

“Everybody was saying, ‘We’ve been here before,’” Lewis said. “And I was like, ‘We haven’t been here before, because 2010 is 2010, and 2011 is a whole new year.’ If you understand it that way, then you understand that this is a new team.”

And so it is. The retooled Ravens went on to hammer the Steelers 35-7, and they enter this Sunday’s bye with a 3-1 record, alone atop the AFC North and charging toward a fourth straight playoff appearance.

Baltimore general manager Ozzie Newsome retooled the team during a whirlwind offseason shortened by the NFL lockout.

Almost every move he made has thus far appeared to be the right one, beginning with a salary cap purge of wide receiver Derrick Mason, tight end Todd Heap, running back Willis McGahee, defensive tackle Kelly Gregg and fullback Le’Ron McClain.

At this point in the season, the Ravens don’t miss any of them. Not even a little bit.

Ricky Williams has proven to be a capable backup to running back Ray Rice; Lee Evans and second-round draft pick Torrey Smith have made up for the loss of Mason; Vonta Leach is an upgrade from McClain; Terrence Cody has proven to be just as immovable on the line as Gregg; and the tight end tandem of Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta has made it easy for Ravens fans to scrap the “HEAP!” cheer that resonated throughout M&T Stadium for the past decade.

Newsome also added safety Bernard Pollard and a pair of offensive linemen who made an immediate difference.

The signing of free agent tackle Bryant McKinnie enabled Michael Oher to move back to the right side – where he is more effective – and free agent guard Andre Gurode has been invaluable during Ben Grubbs’ absence with turf toe.

Oh, and the defense under first-year coordinator Chuck Pagano has been spectacular.

As Lewis said, this is indeed a new team. And it’s not outlandish to believe the Ravens could become even more formidable with the sooner-than-later return of Evans (ankle injury) and cornerbacks Chris Carr (hamstring) and Jimmy Smith (ankle).

“The scary part is, I think we can only get better,” Rice said. “What you’re seeing is a token of hard work. Guys are not afraid to work.”

The Ravens aren’t good enough to just show up and win. That was proven in Week 2, when they followed up their emotional victory over the Steelers with a 23-13 defeat at Tennessee. Then came a 37-7 rout in St. Louis and a surprisingly easy 34-17 win over the New York Jets.

Against the Jets, Baltimore scored three touchdowns on defense and allowed only seven first downs to hit the first quarter of the season tied with five teams for the best record in the AFC.

“We can’t ask for anything else,” Lewis said.

Moments after the Jets game, there was an aura of cautious confidence in the locker room.

“We feel good,” center Matt Burk said.

“Certainly we wish we were 4-0, but we’re 3-1. We take pride in what we’ve done to this point, but when we come back from the bye it’s a whole new deal. There’s still a long, long way to go in this thing. They didn’t pass out the Lombardi Trophy after this game. Good teams get better as the season goes. We’ll see where this thing goes and where this journey takes us.”

The goal is to get to Indianapolis, site of the Super Bowl, and the easiest way to get there is to play at home leading up to the game.

The Ravens were eliminated at Pittsburgh in 2008 and 2010, and in 2009 their postseason run ended in Indianapolis.

Baltimore has won 12 of its past 13 at home, including two this season in which it outscored the two participants in the 2010 AFC title game by a combined 45 points.

“We’re only going to get better, but getting better is a choice. It’s based on how hard we decide to work,” coach John Harbaugh said. “I’m excited, I’m proud of these guys, yet, hey, we have a long way to go.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.