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The most popular question in Baltimore this past week was not a happy one. It played on loop across sports talk radio waves and comment sections, at the dinner table and the end of the bar:

How can you keep Zach Orr?

Ask a question often enough and loudly enough, and the inquiry ceases to be genuine. It becomes rhetorical, a loaded question with an obvious answer.

How can you keep Zach Orr? Well, you can’t, obviously. Not after what the Ravens’ defense has looked like through five weeks. Not after what the Los Angeles Rams will do to them Sunday.

Then Sunday arrived, and the Rams didn’t do much to the Ravens, and Orr’s defensive coordinator seat suddenly felt a little less hot. Even after a 17-3 loss, the team’s fourth straight defeat, the question of whether Orr would make it through the Week 7 bye no longer seemed like a fait accompli.

Asked Sunday whether he was considering shaking up his staff amid a franchise-worst 1-5 start, Ravens coach John Harbaugh indicated that Orr would continue in his current position, along with the rest of his staff. Which means the questions about Orr will persist, too.

“I don’t really have any plans to do that,” Harbaugh said of making staff changes. “No, I don’t think there’s any obvious move there that would make us better. So I appreciate you asking. It’s a tough one. I don’t know why that always comes up, really. I guess maybe it’s part of it, but I love our guys. They work hard, and I think they’re doing a good job of coaching. I’m sure they want some things back, too. Certainly, we can do things better.”

For the first time in a month, the Ravens’ defense was not their undoing. Against an offense that entered Week 6 leading the NFL in opponent-adjusted efficiency, according to FTN, the Ravens held the Rams to season lows in yards (241) and yards per play (4.7) and their second-fewest points in a game.

“I love our guys. They work hard, and I think they’re doing a good job of coaching.”

Ravens coach John Harbaugh

Quarterback Matthew Stafford finished 17-for-26 for 181 yards and a touchdown, almost 120 yards below his season-long yards-per-game pace. The Rams’ running game, which entered Sunday ranked second in the NFL in success rate (51.3%), according to RBSDM.com, finished with a mark that would rank 20th in the league (38%). Star wide receivers Davante Adams and Puka Nacua, who missed most of Sunday’s game with an ankle injury, were limited to six catches on 12 targets for 67 yards.

“I thought our defense played pretty darn well against a high-powered offense,” Harbaugh said. “It was good to see. We needed to see that. … When you watch that, you’re probably going to feel pretty good about that when you watch that tape again.”

One bittersweet afternoon in Baltimore won’t deodorize the Ravens’ putrid start. They have allowed the most points (194) and the third-most yards (2,285) over the first six games of a season in franchise history. There are lingering questions about their pass rush, which sacked Stafford twice but struggled to pressure him from the edge, and new questions about their injury toll. Tavius Robinson’s broken foot, which he suffered Sunday, leaves the Ravens with just three healthy outside linebackers on their 53-man roster.

But, a week after an embarrassing blowout loss to the offensively challenged Houston Texans last Sunday, there are at least flickers of hope for another defensive turnaround in Baltimore. Last year, over the season’s second half, Orr oversaw a worst-to-first turnaround for the pass defense. This year, with the Ravens 3 1/2 games out of first place in the AFC North and their Super Bowl hopes quickly fading, there is even more urgency for an overhaul.

“I’ve seen a lot of football,” defensive lineman John Jenkins said. “This is about my 13th year. You know what happens, but at the end of the day, Zach is a good D.C. He’s been around a lot, and he’s just putting in the work. He’s so passionate about it. I stand behind him 110%. I don’t know what people are saying — I don’t pay attention to it — but I know he comes to work and he puts the work in. It just takes time.”

Orr knows he can’t waste time worrying about his future. He said Thursday that he can “block out” the speculation over his job security, a tunnel vision he acknowledged he lacked last season. Orr credited his faith for his newfound focus — “Everything that’s going to happen is going to be written” — and said he was “just worried about finding a way to get a win on Sunday.”

There were clear signs of improvement. The Ravens’ block destruction, a weakness that Orr had harped on in practice, was notably better along the line of scrimmage. Their communication looked more assured as Stafford motioned receivers around the field. An 11-play opening drive for the Rams’ offense did not snowball into one downfield march after another. The Ravens even managed to force a first-half punt for the first time since Week 3 and a turnover for the first time since Week 2.

With an upgrade in fundamentals, the defense’s floor seemed higher than it’s been at any point in the Ravens’ losing streak. And, with an influx in talent, their ceiling could be rising, too. Harbaugh indicated that injured inside linebacker Roquan Smith would return to action after the bye. Defensive lineman Broderick Washington and cornerback Chidobe Awuzie are also on the mend, along with not-totally-healthy contributors such as defensive lineman Travis Jones, cornerback Marlon Humphrey and safety Kyle Hamilton.

“I think we’re building in the right direction,” said Alohi Gilman, who made his Ravens debut five days after the team traded outside linebacker Odafe Oweh for the Chargers safety. “I told some of the guys, too, we’re right there. A couple plays here and there — mix up a couple techniques, make sure we hone it down on some things — but [we’re] right there from being an elite defense. I feel like I came from a pretty good defense on the other side [in Los Angeles], and we’re close to being there, so just keep building on it.”

Ravens players will return to Owings Mills for practice Tuesday and Wednesday, then break for their bye. Orr will be back, too, the coordinator job still his and the pressure still on.

He knows what’s expected in Baltimore. A good defensive performance won’t stop the questions, not after a loss. It just turns down the volume a smidge.