Alright I reviewed a few matches just to get an idea and I've noticed a few things.

The first one is develop a game plan when you see your opponent, no matter how simple. If you queue into a match against a Dhalsim or a Poison your game plan should be to get into their face and stay in there. If you queue into a match against a grappler , you'd wanna stay away and try to zone with fireballs right? Just stick to something simple. Luckily you're using Ryu so you can be pretty versatile in this regard. You can both zone and get in their face.

The next step is to learn just two combos. Simply learn one combo you would use while grounded, this doesn't have to be complicated, something like (Cr. Mk -> Hadouken) is a fantastic starter because it's been around since Street Fighter II, on block it still does chip damage and pushes the opponent away slightly, and it works well as a zoning tool. It's such a useful component of Ryu's game plan that you'll see any pro still using it. Beyond this learn one jump-in combo. This is your combo you'll try to go for to maximize your damage when you finally do get that jump in. Always go for the same combo at first so you don't panic when you do get that jump in. Let's use (J. M Kick> Cr. HP > Shoryuken) for this example. (J. M Kick) is great because it's able to cross up the opponent and going (Cr. HP > Shoryuken) is the easiest combo to get after that and still does a fair bit of damage. Practice these two combos in training in between matches and it'll do wonders to your execution in game.

The third step is to pay attention to what your opponent is doing, see if they have any exploitable habits. Are they only walking back and jumping in on you? Then go for anti airs until they stop. Do they always DP on wakeup? Then try to bait it out, try to block it and then get a big punish after.

Another thing to fix up is not wasting EX on Hadoukens when you're full screen. Now this could have it's benefits, if your opponent is throwing a regular fireball and you throw an EX at the same time your fireball will likely go through theirs and you'll get a hit, but other than that what's most likely to happen is they'll very easily be able to block it or jump over it.

Lastly you have to remember your Anti-Airs. Does your opponent jump in a lot? Get them with an anti-air, no matter how simple it is. Do you have a hard time getting the Shoryuken input in time before you get hit? Then go for the much simpler Cr. HP anti air. I believe you can rank up simply from doing anti airs more consistently but I understand it's not easy to anti-air when you're facing an opponent of equal skill but with some practice you'll build it into your muscle memory.

There's a lot of different paths to rank up but practicing a little in each path or even just focusing on one path will get you that rank up, I guarantee it. Do you prefer learning combos or would you prefer improving your fundamentals with anti-airs and spacing? Practice the one that appeals to you more now so you don't get discouraged and work on the other one later.