This team could very easily win less games than last year. I'm not sure I would call things much of an improvement if we equal or do worse than a 3-13 record.
Yes the offense has gone from awful to mediocre. They have shown flashes at times but have also been putrid.(much of Lions game, 4th quarter Carolina).
the defense is terrible, but it often was as well during the Kurt Warner years. In order for this team to win games the offense will have to be much better than mediocre.
Also, you can't blame the defense for the Baltimore loss. Had Murray and the offense actually converted some in the red zone, the Cards win.
Well if you simply compare the first 3 games of each season than we have been hugely improved overall over last year.
Last year we were 0-3 and were outscored 74-20 in those 3 games. This year we are 0-2-1 and have been outscored 88-64.
Overall that is far more competitive than the team that started last season and we should expect the team to get at least marginally better as the season progresses.
Ultimately when you are rebuilding a team it can't simply be about wins and losses as there will always be a handful of games that are about 50/50 to win and some years you get some lucky breaks and win a good amount of those and sometimes things don't go your way.
That is quite often the difference between a team being 10-6 one year and 7-9 or 8-8 the next. Last year we had about 6 of those games and won 3 and so far this year we have had at least 2 so far (Detroit and Baltimore), but just haven't gotten it to go our way thus far.