"Who would have thought even five days ago that a Week 3 game against the winless St. Louis Rams would suddenly become a referendum on the long-range potential of the Ravens' new-look offense?

Certainly not anyone who wears purple to work on Fridays, because the resounding victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the season opener seemed to prove that the Ravens had finally established themselves as an elite offensive team. Cam Cameron unveiled the game plan and Joe Flacco executed it to near perfection against one of the league's best defensive teams, and everyone around here assumed that all would be right with the football world, at least until the playoffs.

Of course, the Tennessee Titans disabused us of that happy notion Sunday and now the Ravens need to re-assert themselves in St. Louis to prove that they really are who we thought they were.

Flacco needs to spread the ball around and consistently convert on third down. Cameron needs to keep a hungry Rams defense guessing enough for that to happen. They certainly were on the same page in Week 1, but you had to wonder after the way the offense sputtered Sunday … and you had to wonder even more after Flacco's ambivalent response Wednesday to a question about the supposed lack of "urgency" on offense late in the disappointing loss to the Titans."