Less Is More for Ravens Linebacker Justin Houston

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Justin Houston leads team with 8.5 sacks
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OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens have been more conservative with the snaps for outside linebacker Justin Houston.

The team has put him on the field less, which has led to more production.

Houston leads the team with 8.5 sacks and feels good physically at the midpoint of the season.

"I think it’s very beneficial, especially at this point in my career," Houston said about playing fewer snaps. "I was used to playing the whole game, but [when] you take a couple of years off from not playing the whole game, it’s kind of tough to get back into the swing of that. But I think it’s just keeping everybody fresh. 

"If you can put a fresh edge guy out there all game and putting pressure on their guys … Their tackles, they play all game – they don’t get a break – so if you can rotate and keep a guy fresh on him at all times, that helps a defense a lot.”

The return of fellow outside linebacker Tyus Bowser and the impending debut of David Ojabo will help Houston even more.

He's on the verge of becoming the first Ravens player to earn double-digit sacks since Terrell Suggs in 2017.

“First of all, it’s definitely God healing me, and renewing me, and giving me my strength, but I think it’s [also] the defense as a whole," Houston said. "We’re doing a great job covering, and the linebackers are playing well, the DBs are playing well. [When] you’ve got everybody on the same page, it’s easier to get to the quarterback – he’s got to hold the ball, he can’t get rid of it fast – so it makes my job easy.”


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Todd Karpovich
TODD KARPOVICH

Twitter: @toddkarpovich Email: todd.karpovich@gmail.com Skype: todd.karpovich Todd Karpovich has been a contributor for ESPN, Forbes, the Associated Press, Lindy's, and The Baltimore Sun, among other media outlets nationwide. He is the co-author of “If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Baltimore Ravens Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box,” “Skipper Supreme: Buck Showalter and the Baltimore Orioles,” and the author of “Manchester United (Europe's Best Soccer Clubs).” Karpovich, a Baltimore native, is a graduate of Calvert Hall College high school, Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, and has a Masters of Science from Towson University.