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Running back Derrick Henry was the last Raven to leave the team’s locker room late Sunday afternoon. He took his time getting dressed, the stink of a 27-22 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers still in the air. As he addressed reporters, he spoke calmly but glumly.

The thought of how a second straight AFC North loss might have affected the Ravens’ postseason odds had scarcely crossed his mind. The burden of the defeat itself was enough to bear.

“I really am not trying to think about the playoffs, just because we just lost,” Henry said. “I am just trying to focus on watching film, figuring out [what] I can do and do better. Finish the season strong, and then see where we land. We still have time, but I’m just trying to focus on this game, learn from it and move to the next one.”

At 6-7, the Ravens are now fighting for their playoff lives. According to The New York Times’ playoff simulator, their odds of earning a berth have fallen to 27%.

The Ravens’ four final regular-season games — Sunday’s road matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals (4-9), a Week 16 home game against the New England Patriots (11-2), and back-to-back road trips against the Green Bay Packers (9-3-1) and Steelers (7-6) — will be their final proving ground. If they do indeed have playoff bona fides, now would be a good time to show them.

But their flaws will be probed each week, too. Here’s a look at the Ravens’ biggest tests as they enter a decisive homestretch.

Bengals: Can Ravens stop elite QBs?

After the Ravens returned from their bye, life sure got easier for their defense. Top-line quarterbacks were finally out of the picture: Caleb Williams in Week 8, Tua Tagovailoa in Week 9, J.J. McCarthy in Week 10, Dillon Gabriel (and then Shedeur Sanders) in Week 11 and Tyrod Taylor in Week 12. The Ravens won five straight games, never allowing more than 20 points.

Now they’re back to a problem that’s bedeviled the defense all season: Are they good enough to stop Pro Bowl-level passers? It hasn’t happened yet:

• Week 1: The Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen passed for 394 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for two more scores.
• Week 3: The Detroit Lions’ Jared Goff passed for 202 yards and a touchdown.
• Week 4: The Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes passed for 270 yards and four touchdowns.
• Week 5: The Houston Texans’ C.J. Stroud passed for 244 yards and four touchdowns.
• Week 6: The Los Angeles Rams’ Matthew Stafford passed for 181 yards and a touchdown.
• Week 13: The Bengals’ Joe Burrow passed for 261 yards and two touchdowns

Add it all up, and the damage allowed is significant: 258.7 passing yards per game, 14 touchdowns, zero interceptions, 67.6% accuracy and an 0-6 record. On the basis of expected points added per play, every quarterback but Stafford played at or above a Pro Bowl level against coordinator Zach Orr’s defense.

It’s not just the accuracy and playmaking ability that stars like Burrow bring to the table. It’s also the presnap problem-solving. In a 32-14 win in Week 13, Burrow appeared to get Cincinnati into seven-man protections several times against the Ravens’ potential heavy-pressure looks. Despite having just three downfield routes quickly available, he converted a third-and-11, a third-and-10, a third-and-7 and a third-and-6 and connected with wide receiver Andrei Iosivas for a 29-yard touchdown on a third-and-9.

“You run a blitz into seven blockers, you know he is probably going to have a chance to get the ball out, but there’s only three receivers out, so that’s OK,” coach John Harbaugh said last week. “So then, when he starts to move, you have to get him down. And if I was disappointed in anything, I was disappointed in the fact that he was able to get out and extend plays a little more than we were hoping for. And even with that, I have to give him credit, too, because probably four of those, maybe five of those conversions, were really great throws and catches.”

If the Ravens can handle Burrow, the next two weeks won’t be any easier. The Patriots’ Drake Maye is second in the NFL in EPA per play. The Packers’ Jordan Love is first.

Patriots: Can rushing attack take off?

The Ravens finished with 40 carries for 217 yards (5.4 per carry) Sunday against Pittsburgh, their first 200-yard game since Week 1. So is the rushing attack fixed? Or was it just taking advantage of a leaky run defense that was missing starting defensive lineman Derrick Harmon and lost run-stopping linebacker Malik Harrison midway through the game?

An answer might have to wait. The Bengals have one of the NFL’s worst run defenses. On Sunday, they allowed 183 yards (6.3 per carry) to the Bills, including 78 to Allen.

The Patriots will be a stiffer test. Well, they could be a stiffer test. Over the season’s first nine weeks, New England ranked second in yards per carry allowed (3.6), fourth in EPA per rush play and fifth in success rate, according to analytics site RBSDM.com. They allowed over 100 rushing yards just twice in that span, and no running backs finished with over 50 yards in a game.

Since Week 10, however — one week before star defensive tackle Milton Williams was placed on injured reserve with an ankle injury that will sideline him through Week 16 — the Patriots rank 29th in yards per carry allowed (4.9), 25th in EPA and last in success rate. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Jets, Bengals and New York Giants averaged 121 rushing yards per game in that stretch.

The Ravens have struggled against worse run defenses — they had just 98 yards (2.9 per carry) in Week 12 against a Jets unit pulverized Sunday by the Miami Dolphins — but New England appears vulnerable up the middle. Since Week 10, opponents have converted 37.8% of their inside carries for first downs against New England while averaging 4.8 yards per designed rush, both bottom-five marks leaguewide, according to Sports Info Solutions.

The Ravens’ inside run game, meanwhile, has been a boom-bust proposition most of this season. They rank seventh in rushing average on designed carries there (4.5), but their rate of plays stopped for no gain or negative yardage (22%) is fourth-worst in the NFL. Guards Andrew Vorhees and Daniel Faalele have continued to struggle with their execution.

Packers: Will pass rush get home?

On the Steelers’ first drop-back of the first half Sunday, quarterback Aaron Rodgers took a shotgun snap, faked a pitch, swung his hips around, set his feet and launched a 52-yard bomb down the right sideline to wide receiver D.K. Metcalf from a clean pocket.

On the Steelers’ first drop-back of the second half Sunday, Rodgers took a shotgun snap, looked right, then left, then over the middle, brought his arm back to throw once, then twice, then left the pocket under minimal pressure, scurrying out to his left and winging another pass to Metcalf for a 41-yard gain.

Entering Week 14, Rodgers had been one of the NFL’s least effective downfield passers over the past month. He’d also been one of the least effective quarterbacks under pressure. But the Ravens’ defense seemed to bring out the best in the 42-year-old. He was hit just once and was never sacked as he finished with a season-high 284 passing yards and one touchdown.

The Ravens will need more from their pass rush over the next month. They have one sack over the past two weeks, tied for last with the Chicago Bears despite several teams having a bye week. The team’s trade for outside linebacker Dre’Mont Jones has been helpful, but far from transformative: Since his arrival in Week 10, the Ravens rank 26th in sack rate (4.9%) and sixth in pressure rate (41.4%), according to SIS.

With the ruthless efficiency of quarterbacks like Maye and Love, the Ravens will need sacks to keep their opponents’ offenses off schedule. But Green Bay, in particular, makes that difficult. Despite a string of offensive line injuries and an inconsistent ground game, Packers quarterbacks have been sacked at the NFL’s sixth-lowest rate (4.2%) and pressured at the 10th-lowest rate (34.7%) this season. Love has taken more than one sack in a game just three times.

Blitzing Love is often more trouble than it’s worth, too. He’s been sacked just four times on plays with five or more pass rushers and has thrown eight touchdowns and one interception. And with the return of wide receiver Christian Watson, who has 25 catches for 452 yards and five touchdowns in seven games, Love has a big-play release valve he’s unafraid to target.

Steelers: Is red-zone offense fixable?

With more forgiving officiating, the Ravens would’ve finished Sunday’s game with three touchdowns in six red-zone trips. Instead, they left the loss 2-for-6.

Neither mark is good enough to sustain this Ravens offense. A 50% conversion rate might’ve been enough for a win over Pittsburgh, but over the course of this season, it’d rank near the bottom of the NFL. That’s where the Ravens have found themselves for most of this year; only two teams have a lower red-zone touchdown rate (44.9%).

If the Ravens’ season comes down to a Week 18 rematch in Pittsburgh, a playoff spot could depend on their success inside the Steelers’ 20-yard line. Pittsburgh has overcome a generally shoddy defense with a knack for takeaways (23, tied for second-most in the NFL) and a sturdy red-zone defense (52.1% touchdown rate, seventh best).

The Ravens’ passing and rushing attacks both got bogged down near the goal line Sunday. Quarterback Lamar Jackson scrambled for a 6-yard touchdown, but he otherwise went 4-for-11 for 22 yards and a touchdown on his 12 red-zone drop-backs. Running backs Rasheen Ali and Henry, meanwhile, combined for 9 yards on seven carries.

As the Ravens search for answers, they could rely more on wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, perhaps their best tight-window option. He’s been targeted just once in the red zone this season — fewer times than tight end Charlie Kolar (three targets) and wide receiver Tylan Wallace (two) — despite running the fifth-most routes.

Harbaugh said Monday that the Ravens “really need” to get Hopkins more involved. The red zone could be a good starting place.

“We don’t run out of hope,” Harbaugh said of the offense’s difficulty finishing off drives. “I’m not a hopeless person, so we don’t run out of options. We keep working, and we keep developing, and we keep coming back and keep fighting. We don’t throw up our hands and say we’re out of options. We don’t do that.”