Houston Texans

Every morning, Monday through Friday, blogger Matt Vensel will hook you up with reading material -- mostly on the Ravens but with some other Baltimore sports stuff, too -- to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday. That way he'll have an excuse to do the same to start his workday, too. RUNNING IT BACK The Ravens got embarrassed in Sunday's 43-13 loss to the Houston Texans . … Linebacker Terrell Suggs was a bright spot, recording a sack and playing well in his return from a torn right Achilles tendon . … The Ravens offensive line had a rough afternoon against a tough Texans front . … Safety Ed Reed downplayed a new injury to his ribs . … Kelechi Osemele was carted off the field in the second quarter, but it turns out the right tackle's ankle is sprained and not broken . … Mike Preston says the bye week comes at a perfect time for the Ravens .   RAVENS STUFF, BUT NOT FROM US Sunday's game was the burial of the Ravens as we know them . … The Ravens got a reality check in Houston . … The Ravens lost to the class of the AFC, but their issues are a serious concern , too. … Linebacker Terrell Suggs was surprisingly impactful in his return . … Quarterback Joe Flacco came undone in the loss . … The offense again left the defense stranded on the road . BEHIND ENEMY LINES The Texans dominated the Ravens , beating them for...

We all wrote the guy off. Me, the rest of the Baltimore media and a ton of Ravens fans, judging by the talk shows and message boards. No way would Terrell Suggs play against the Houston Texans, we all said. He's coming back too soon from that partially-torn Achilles tendon. He's only had three days of practice. There's a bye week coming up. What's the point of him rushing back? We all said that, in one way or the other, all week long. Shows what we know. I still don't know why he was out there, but Suggs had himself some day in that debacle against the Texans.

Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs proved again on Sunday that it's a risky business betting against a special player when he sets his mind to something. He said months ago that he would return earlier than prescribed from Achilles tendon surgery, and he did just that against the Houston Texans. It's still fair to debate whether returning before the bye week was the smartest thing to do on the heel (see what I did there) of such a serious injury, but Suggs did it and played surprisingly well under the circumstances.

As the Ravens' coaching staff huddles during the bye week to determine new strategies, hopefully they will come up with a time to unplug quarterback Joe Flacco and the passing offense. No, this is not to suggest replacing Flacco with backup Tyrod Taylor. It's more about setting parameters on the passing game. Flacco is like any other quarterback in the NFL. He has good days and bad days. But Flacco is no Tom Brady or Drew Brees. Even on some of their worse days, they are still good enough to beat a team.

Last week, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he wouldn't know what to expect from linebacker Terrell Suggs if he played Sunday against the Houston Texans. Maybe he was being coy at the time, but he admitted on Monday that even he was surprised by how much Suggs played in his return from a torn right Achilles tendon. The reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year played 44 of their defensive snaps -- or 55 percent of those plays. “I didn't know he would be able to play that many snaps, in all honestly,” Harbaugh said.

- Standing in the Houston Texans' backfield with his arms raised toward the sky, Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs celebrated after slamming quarterback Matt Schaub to the ground. It was the exclamation point of Suggs' surprisingly speedy return from a partially torn right Achilles tendon suffered in late April during the weekend of the NFL draft. Although the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year wasn't happy with the Ravens' 43-13 debacle of a loss to the Texans on Sunday at Reliant Stadium, Suggs did serve notice that he has recovered from a serious injury initially expected to sideline him until much later in the season.

- Few teams are happy to go into the bye week with a loss, but this might work in the Ravens' favor. They need a break to solve a lot of problems, and they can't be settled with the normal five to six days in between games. In fact, the Ravens haven't solved them all year, and they may not for the rest of the season, especially on defense. After Sunday's 43-13 loss to the Houston Texans, the Ravens tried to find something positive, but there wasn't much. "I think the bye is always coming at the right time," Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco said.

The reality smacked the Ravens in the face like one of Joe Flacco's passes that got batted back toward the line of scrimmage by a swarming Houston Texans defense. Over 60 frustrating minutes Sunday, all the Ravens' flaws through the first six games came to the surface. Flacco struggled, running back Ray Rice never was established and the Ravens' offense wilted again on the road. On defense, not even the successful return of linebacker Terrell Suggs could save a group that struggles to tackle, get pressure on the quarterback and provide adequate coverage.

Well, it has been a quiet week at the Under Armour Performance Center. Let's see, where to begin? Ray Lewis and Lardarius Webb were lost for the season with injuries. A bunch of Ravens were caught in a nightclub during a shooting. Ed Reed dropped a bombshell about a torn labrum in his shoulder that was previously unknown. And Terrell Suggs teased everyone by saying he might play superhero and return early from that partially torn Achilles tendon when the Ravens take on the Houston Texans at Reliant Stadium.

The Ravens face a major hurdle Sunday against the Houston Texans, and it could serve as a turning point for the 2012 season. The Ravens are going into Houston as underdogs and missing three of their top defensive players in cornerback Lardarius Webb and linebackers Terrell Suggs and Ray Lewis. Notice I wrote Suggs because I still don't think he will play. He is expected to have a pre-game warmup that will determine his playing status for the game. There are other factors as well that might contribute to a Ravens loss.