Kyle Goon: With injuries piling up, the Ravens’ only goal for the next few weeks is survival

At its core, football is a game of physical punishment — and how much of it a team can take.

There are fleeting phases when the expanding emphasis on explosive plays and passing-game gimmickery fools us into believing the sport has evolved. The athletes are so much faster, with access to the best tools and recovery, that we can tell ourselves the modern NFL is as similar to its ancestral roots as Formula One racing is to a demolition derby.

With a coaching change and brand-new schemes, the Ravens thought they were taking this spiritual great leap forward — and, indeed, we have seen flashes of an offense with as much horsepower as a Maserati. But then Lamar Jackson twisted his ankle and headed out in the middle of Baltimore’s 24-18 win over the Titans on Sunday — one of a handful of game-changing injuries that have chipped away at the roster depth over the first four weeks.

Now Baltimore is back to mud wrestling. The great leap forward will have to wait. The Ravens’ charge for the next few weeks is simple: just survive.

“We all know it’s a very unforgiving game,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith said. “It’s about the next man up, the next-man-up mentality.”

Lately, that feels like an understatement. The Ravens’ tally sheet would have been unfathomable before training camp started.

Their weakest roster position at the start of camp, center, has lost three players with long-term injuries. In Sunday’s game, their highest-paid offseason free agent, Trey Hendrickson, could not suit up after surgery on a finger.

Their longest-tenured defender, Marlon Humphrey, went out midgame. So did a new starting guard and a blocking tight end. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley is playing on a bad toe and has barely practiced all season.

And now Jackson is hurt? What has Baltimore done to upset the Football Gods?

Nothing, is the cold answer. The game takes its tithing of flesh without care for ambitions or needs — or Super Bowl daydreams, for that matter.

“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us,” coach Jesse Minter said. “We’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves. We’re not going to make excuses.”

It’s a good thing Minter has emphasized that the Ravens can’t get caught looking ahead to the postseason. It will be a week-to-week fight just to get there.

It’s hard to explain just how much talent has been taken off the field. Players who may not feel essential to fans often provide support in unseen and unappreciated ways.

There’s a reason, for example, that offensive coordinator Declan Doyle made sure the Ravens signed tight end Durham Smythe, a 31-year-old who had all of four catches last season: He knows the offense Doyle wants to run and has been a mentor to two rookie tight ends while attacking his role as a blocker.

With an Achilles injury, Smythe can still be a mentor — but for the time being, it seems unlikely he’ll be teaching by example.

The injuries are starting to limit the upside of just what the Ravens can do. With the patchwork offensive line, Derrick Henry is seeing more defenders in his path — even struggling to get back to the line of scrimmage.

Without Hendrickson, the pass rush looked limp and lifeless. Even though Tennessee’s Cam Ward didn’t punish the Ravens as much as he could have, the final Titans drive felt like a warning shot of what might come against more competent offenses.

The schedule is technically forgiving enough for the Ravens to get through October if it takes a few weeks for key players — including Jackson and Hendrickson — to heal. But the upcoming games are not quite the pushovers they first appeared to be.

Atlanta quietly had the best run defense in the NFL across the first three weeks of the season, and it will surely test Baltimore’s struggling short-yardage run game. The 3-1 Browns, led by former Ravens OC Todd Monken, loom in two weeks, and you know he’ll be looking to make a statement after disagreements with his players in the Castle spilled out into the public eye last season.

The Ravens have always needed toughness to achieve their goals this season, but with their injuries, they’ll need more of it. The wavering they showed at the end of the game on defense was not an encouraging sign.

The way Tyler Loop followed a 64-yard jaw-dropper with a 40-yard shank could have been more costly than it was. An offense with as many penalties as the Ravens had Sunday would struggle to win a game against any other opponent than the Titans, who might be the worst team in football.

Hunting for explosive plays on offense and using elaborate disguises on defense are the high-concept goals for this team. But it’s probably grit that will determine if they can win during the upcoming stretch.

In that category, the Ravens have to be better.

Rookie Vega Ioane probably took too much blame upon himself when he said there were “no excuses” for his snap and cadence mistakes in his first career start at center that helped draw a number of flags. But his tone was the right one for getting through the upcoming stretch.

No one cares how many injuries the Ravens have. The Football Gods are indifferent — so the players must be, too, at least for the next few weeks. It has been demoralizing, but with enough toughness, they can at least survive.

“Gotta keep the faith, gotta keep the trust in each other, staying on one accord,” tight end Mark Andrews said. “We have all that we need.”