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The Ravens’ starting defense will be introduced before kickoff Sunday afternoon. You may or may not recognize all the names. The starting quarterback will be shown on the jumbotron inside M&T Bank Stadium. You probably didn’t consider drafting him in fantasy football. The team itself is 1-3. That’s relatively new, too.

The first weekend in October wasn’t supposed to look like this in Baltimore. When the Ravens’ season kicked off Sept. 7, patience was the watchword — not because of any expected growing pains, but because the regular season mattered only so much. Another playoff appearance felt inevitable. Of course there would be meaningful games in January — maybe even February. Super Bowl predictions were everywhere.

Now the team that needed a playoff breakthrough in the worst way needs a regular-season win in the worst way. And it needs it under dire circumstances. The Ravens practiced Wednesday without quarterback Lamar Jackson and seven other projected Week 1 starters. Their starting lineup for Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans (1-3) might not look out of place in a preseason game. But this is Week 5 in an already teetering season.

“We know what needs to happen,” wide receiver Rashod Bateman said Wednesday. “It’s only a matter of [asking ourselves], ‘Are we going to do what needs to happen?’ So, hopefully, we get those things fixed and we’ll start winning some games.”

The last Ravens team to open a season 1-3 was the 2015 Ravens, who finished that injury-ravaged year 5-11. Another loss Sunday would leave these Ravens in even worse company. Of the 28 teams that have started 1-4 since the NFL’s playoff field expanded in 2020, only two went on to make the postseason: the 2020 Washington Football Team (now Commanders) and 2024 Los Angeles Rams.

It’s unlikely either filed a more discouraging injury report than the Ravens did Wednesday. The team was already down Pro Bowl defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike, lost to a season-ending neck injury, and reserve defensive lineman Broderick Washington, who were placed on injured reserve Saturday. Pro Bowl fullback Patrick Ricard hasn’t practiced since training camp.

Also missing at practice Wednesday were two other projected starters on offense — Jackson and left tackle Ronnie Stanley — and four other projected starters on defense — inside linebacker Roquan Smith and cornerbacks Nate Wiggins, Marlon Humphrey and Chidobe Awuzie. Center Tyler Linderbaum, outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy and safety Kyle Hamilton, meanwhile, were limited participants. All but Wiggins and Awuzie made the Pro Bowl last season.

“It’s a challenge, for sure, but it’s a challenge to put it together every week,” coach John Harbaugh said of the Ravens’ game plan. “It’s a challenge to put together when you have a totally healthy 53[-man roster]. It’s always a challenge. I think [our] coaches do a great job. We have really good game-planners. I really love the process that the guys go through, and we’re going to have a really good game plan. Now let’s go out and execute it, and let’s do our best to win this very important game.”

The Ravens’ worst-case personnel scenario is bleak. If Jackson is unavailable — he left Sunday’s 37-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs with a hamstring injury, and Harbaugh declined Wednesday to offer a timetable for his return — the Ravens would turn to backup Cooper Rush at quarterback. Rush went 9-5 as a starter for the Dallas Cowboys over the past four years, but the Ravens are just 4-10 in games Jackson has not started since 2019, including the playoffs.

Jackson, a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player, is one of the league’s most reliable force multipliers, a dual-threat wonder who can keep pass rushers in check, open lanes for running backs and extend plays for receivers. If he’s sidelined, the Ravens’ margin for error on a talented if inconsistent offense would shrink considerably. If Stanley and Linderbaum, the Ravens’ two most talented offensive linemen, are sidelined as well, a dangerous Texans defensive line could tilt the game in their favor almost single-handedly.

The Ravens’ defense, stacked with Pro Bowl players at every level, entered this season with its own game-wrecking ambitions. Then September turned out to be a wreck. No team allowed more points. Only the Cowboys allowed more yards. And now the players responsible for patching together a ripped-up defense could be a mishmash of unproven youngsters, unheralded veterans and banged-up standouts.

Among the Ravens’ potential contributors Sunday: defensive linemen Josh Tupou, a practice squad call-up, and Brent Urban, who started the season on the practice squad; inside linebackers Trenton Simpson, Teddye Buchanan and Jake Hummel, who’ve combined for just six starts since December; rookie slot cornerback Keyon Martin, who made the team as an undrafted free agent; and outside corner T.J. Tampa, a 2024 fourth-round pick who on Sunday played double-digit defensive snaps for only the second time in his career.

No question perhaps better illustrates the sudden precariousness of the Ravens’ defense than this: If both Smith (hamstring) and Hamilton (groin) can’t go Sunday, which rookie would coordinator Zach Orr entrust with the green dot as the unit’s signal-caller? Would it be Buchanan, who’s yet to play every defensive snap in a game this season? (That tends to be a prerequisite for the job.) Or would it be safety Malaki Starks, an every-down player who often lines up as a deep safety, making communication more difficult?

The more starters this defense loses, the more important its on-field leadership and cohesion become. The Ravens, depleted as they are, can’t afford any more breakdowns.

“Being one of the more established guys, it’s just about being a little extra in communication,” outside linebacker Tavius Robinson said. “Making sure with my knowledge and whatnot that I can give it all to the guys out there, communicate a little extra. But, again, we have the guys that are going to step up, play great. So I’m not worried about that at all.”

Two days after Harbaugh gave the embattled Orr a vote of confidence, Robinson backed the second-year coordinator, calling him a “great coach.” He said the defense has good habits — “a hundred percent, yes.”

But, as the Ravens’ Week 7 bye looms, a potential crossroads in a season that could go anywhere, this next stretch of games could serve as a litmus test for Harbaugh’s evaluation of his staff.

In 2021, defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale couldn’t stabilize a late-season defense undercut by crippling injuries and a widespread COVID-19 outbreak. The Ravens allowed at least 20 points in five of their final six games, all losses, including a 41-21 blowout by the Cincinnati Bengals the day after Christmas. With Jackson hurt, too, the Ravens missed the playoffs for the first time since he became the team’s full-time starter.

After the season, Harbaugh parted ways with Martindale, his play caller since 2018, and hired Mike Macdonald. His two years in Baltimore revitalized the Ravens’ defense, refreshing the team’s playbook and installing a system that supported the development and integration of players young and old.

Offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s departure after the 2022 season followed a similar trajectory. There was another Jackson injury, then another downturn in late-season production. After four years with Roman, Harbaugh moved on to Todd Monken, who built on his predecessor’s vaunted rushing attack and brought a new vision for the passing game.

The Ravens’ brain trust will need steady hands and good ideas while the team rides out another spell of injuries. Youth and inexperience are not always obstacles to success. Before signing with the Ravens this past offseason, Hummel spent his first three NFL seasons with the Rams, who last year had one of the league’s youngest defenses. After a bumpy fall, the Rams ended the season by holding four of their final six opponents to nine points or fewer.

The Ravens don’t have that kind of time to figure things out, on offense or defense. But Hummel said the team’s coaches impressed him over the summer with how quickly they taught the defense to its young players.

“They do a really good job of basically getting all the young guys on the same basic fundamental level of being able to go out and run our base defenses,” he said. “So I think they do a good job with that, and from there it’s just about getting as much experience as possible.”

Harbaugh said the Ravens’ focus this week is on playing “our best football.” That will be difficult without their best players.

But the Ravens don’t need to look like Super Bowl contenders. They just need to play better than the Texans. They just need to get to 2-3.