By STEVE KING

In these past few days leading up to Sunday night’s big game against the host Baltimore Ravens, much of the focus of the Cleveland media has been on the return to health of several integral members of the Browns offense.

It appears that running back Kareem Hunt, right tackle Jack Conklin and wide receivers Donovan Peoples-Jones and Anthony Schwartz all may be ready to play. And that is indeed a huge boost — a really huge boost, actually — to the Browns.

The offense has really suffered without them, which has been a major part of the struggles the past several weeks. With those players back, I think the Browns can score enough points against the always rugged Baltimore defense.

But what many, even those in the media, seem to be missing — and for the life of me I can’t understand why — is that the offense, while vitally important, obviously, really isn’t the key to the game for the Browns.

Rather, it is the defense, and its ability to at least slow Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson down a little bit, that will determine whether the Browns are successful in this virtual must-win situation. The Browns are not going to shut down Jackson completely — he’s too good for that — but, again, they can’t let him run wild — literally and figuratively — like he has in the past, making backbreaking play after backbreaking play, mostly with his legs but also with his arm sometimes. They just can’t.

Against every offense, it seems, the Browns defense has had kinds of problems getting off the field on third down. Against Jackson in the past, it has been darn near impossible for the Browns to do that.

If the Browns defense can make marked improvement in that, then they have a real chance to win. And if they can’t, then they don’t, regardless of what their offense does. It’s really that simple, for as many points as the Browns score, the Ravens will be able to score a few more, just like they did in that epic game in Cleveland last season.