OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Two weeks ago, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs admitted his team was in trouble. The defending Super Bowl champions had lost three of their previous four games and had little to feel proud of, even amid the relief of a bye week.

“A state of emergency,” Suggs called his team’s plight after a 19-16 loss to the last-place Pittsburgh Steelers.

The bye came and went. Coach John Harbaugh tinkered with the offense, hoping for a spark. Players hoped they’d rediscover the magic of a season earlier. Instead, another loss followed the bye, this time to the Cleveland Browns — the Ravens’ first loss to their AFC North neighbor since 2007.

So, Suggs stood at his locker stall this past Wednesday and pondered how to describe his team’s 3-5 performance in the first half of the NFL season.

“Defcon-5?” he said. “I think that’s pretty serious.”

Baltimore ended the 2012 season on a postseason tear, shaking off a 1-4 regular-season finish and plowing through the playoffs before lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans. A Super Bowl hangover wasn’t a surprise, but this? The Ravens, with the same coaching staff and much of the same roster — minus a few stars, including one whose departure has perhaps hurt worse than expected — have lost three in a row.

Entering Sunday’s game against the first-place Bengals, Baltimore’s opponents have scored first in six of eight games, and the Ravens have led at halftime only twice. In five games decided by six points or fewer, the champs have four losses.

“We just haven’t played well enough to earn the right to go win the game,” quarterback Joe Flacco said.

One by one, Ravens players insisted last week that they’re still the confident group that stomped Indianapolis, surprised Denver and New England, and held off San Francisco on the way to a second championship. But a flimsy offensive line, a weak rush offense, and a lack of overall answers have defined the 2013 Ravens, leaving little trace of a team that should be strutting through its schedule and showing off its championship rings.

“There’s a lot of unseen improvement in there when you study the tape,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve got a lot of optimism; we do as a team. But boy, we’d sure like to get it going and build some confidence and see our guys starting to make some plays. We believe we can do that.”

The Ravens believe because, in 2012, that much carried them to the top. After an overtime loss to Washington last December, Harbaugh fired offensive coordinator and friend Cam Cameron, replacing him with Jim Caldwell. The new coordinator highlighted Flacco and an up-tempo style, and though it wasn’t always pretty, Baltimore clinched the division championship by beating the New York Giants 33-14.

“We had a goal right there for us. Every week, we had that chance,” Flacco said. “This year is a little bit different, but like I said, we’ve got a bunch of confident guys, and I think if anybody, we’re the locker room to do so.”

A key loss

That locker room, though, now lacks several of the famous faces that led the turnaround less than a year ago. Ray Lewis is an ESPN commentator after retiring following 17 seasons, and safety Ed Reed is a part-time player with Houston.