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Odafe Oweh: Laser-Focused On NFL Success

Oweh and fifth-round pick Daelin Hayes have already bonded, two rookie outside linebackers helping each other adjust to the NFL. Oweh calls Hayes "Twin," not only because they play outside linebacker, but because Wilkins often talks to them simultaneously during meetings and practices.

"Whenever Coach Drew talks to us, it's like – 'Odafe-Daelin, Odafe-Daelin,'" Oweh said. "I've learned that there isn't a second that you're on the field where you're not running. Run to the ball, chase somebody to the end zone. It's the nature of competing like you're competing in a game.

"If you practice like that, there shouldn't be any falloff in the game. We do everything at 100 miles per hour. In rookie camp, OTAs, I saw progression. It's a pride thing. I'm going against the best players I've ever seen, the best offensive linemen I've ever seen. But I just love the challenge. I just love this chance to get better."

Doubters fuel Oweh, but he doesn't need outside motivation to drive him. He has soaked up the individual coaching he has received from Wilkins and the entire staff during rookie camp, OTAs and training camp. Defensive Coordinator Wink Martindale loves having versatile players like Oweh who can morph into a pass rusher on one play, a run defender on the next play, set the edge or even drop into pass coverage.

Losing Matthew Judon and Yannick Ngakoue in free agency drastically changed the dynamic of the outside linebacker room, but the Ravens' acquisition of Justin Houston gives them a proven pass rusher to join Oweh, Tyus Bowser, Pernell McPhee, Jaylon Ferguson and Hayes in a deep outside linebacker rotation. Oweh is looking forward to Houston's arrival and knows he's another player who can help him and the Ravens get better.

"We got better – that's how I can take it," Oweh said. "It's an opportunity for me to learn from a guy that has [97.5] sacks; that's always great. I'm learning from Calais [Campbell] every day, and now you just added another guy that has a history of just getting to the quarterback. I can use help, every angle I can get. We just added another nice outside linebacker, so I just see it as competition, as well, but we got better. So, I'm good."

Oweh seems to be feeding off the intensity of training camp, and there have been times when he has whizzed past defensive tackles like a blur into the backfield. He's working on developing a signature spin move in practice that has already been effective.

"I have a lot of twitch, so I can do that pretty fast," Oweh said. "So, that's something that I'm going to try to keep on perfecting and getting better at."

Five Takeaways From The Ravens' 31-2 Win Against The Texans

The Ravens' first Christmas present came just before their game began, when the Kansas City Chiefs rolled past the Pittsburgh Steelers, 29-10. Then the Ravens routed the host Houston Texans, 31-2, to take control of the AFC North with just one week to play.

Before a national television audience on Christmas Day — at least those with Netflix — Lamar Jackson bolstered his Most Valuable Player candidacy with a dominating, record-setting performance.

Playing just a little more than three quarters, Jackson finished 10-for-15 for 168 yards and two touchdowns and ran four times for 87 yards, including a 48-yard scamper for a score.

With that, Jackson reached 6,110 career rushing yards, breaking by 1 yard the all-time NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback, previously held by Michael Vick.

The Ravens (11-5) jumped to a 10-0 lead, and save for a few nervous moments in the second quarter, were never threatened as they rolled to their third win in 11 days.

Running back Derrick Henry ran over the Texans (9-7), totaling 147 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries. Like Jackson, he took a seat for most of the fourth quarter.

Henry's 2-yard touchdown capped an effortless eight-play, 75-yard game-opening drive by the Ravens that hinted at what was to come. With that score, Henry ran into the Ravens' record book with his 16th touchdown of the season. That broke the franchise single-season record for touchdowns, set by Ray Rice (2011) and equaled by Mark Ingram (2019).

The Ravens had a 10-0 lead and all the momentum in the second quarter until the Texans downed a punt at the Ravens' 3-yard line and then tackled Henry in the end zone for a safety.

The Ravens, though, regained control when Ar'Darius Washington hammered Texans running back Joe Mixon and Tre'Davious White tossed Mixon out of bounds at the 1-yard line on fourth-and-goal.

The Ravens took over and went on a six-play, 99-yard drive that ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to tight end Isaiah Likely for a 17-2 halftime lead.

Likely's touchdown was set up by Jackson's 67-yard, improvised pass to Mark Andrews that epitomized how that duo has been the heartbeat of the Ravens' offense since they joined the league together seven years ago.

Any thoughts of a Texans rally dissipated early in the third quarter. Kyle Hamilton made a diving interception of Texans' quarterback C.J. Stroud near midfield, and two plays later, Jackson faked a handoff to Henry and raced down the right sideline for a 48-yard score.

Later in the third quarter, Jackson tossed a 1-yard touchdown pass to Andrews. Despite his uncharacteristically quiet first month of the season, Andrews now tied his career high with 10 touchdown catches, including one in five straight games.

By the middle of the fourth quarter, backup quarterback Josh Johnson was lofting passes to reserves Anthony Miller and Devontez Walker, running back Keaton Mitchell was enjoying his most extensive work of the season, and the Ravens were celebrating a very merry Christmas.

Here are five observations of the win, which makes the Ravens 13-2 all-time against Houston:

1. The Ravens are a win away from the AFC North crown.

With four games to play, the Steelers held a two-game lead in the AFC North. Since then, the Ravens have gone 3-0 and the Steelers 0-3, with the Ravens' 34-17 win against Pittsburgh last week the most significant result in that stretch.

That 3-0 run by the Ravens is more impressive considering all three games came in a span of 11 days, with two of them on the road, and included wins against a pair of playoff teams. That's a late-season performance deserving of a division title.

The Ravens now control their own destiny. If they beat Cleveland (3-12) at M&T Bank Stadium next weekend (date and time TBA), they win the AFC North for the second straight year and earn a home playoff game.

Of course, one of the Browns' three wins came against the Ravens, 29-24, in Cleveland in Week 8, so given the stakes and that result, there should be little concern about the Ravens looking past the Browns.

Pittsburgh ends the season at home against Cincinnati (7-8), which hosts Denver Dec. 28; a loss to the Broncos would eliminate the Bengals from postseason contention before facing the Steelers. If the Bengals beat Denver, they go to Pittsburgh needing a win to remain in the playoff hunt.

Even if the Ravens were to lose against the Browns next week, they still back into the division title if the Steelers also lose.

The Ravens stumbled out of the gate to an 0-2 start, but led by Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and a markedly improved defense, this team is playing its best ball at the end of the season. That's always the goal.

2. Lamar Jackson is impossible to simulate in practice.

Pity the Texans, who had a short week to prepare to face Lamar Jackson. Granted, they have seen him before, twice last season, actually, but again in this game, Jackson showed just how remarkably hard he is to scout. How do you simulate improvised greatness?

Two plays in the second quarter illustrated that perfectly. With the Ravens leading 10-2, Jackson was flushed from the pocket. He eluded the pressure by dancing to his left, then angled back to his right and floated a pass that hit tight end Mark Andrews in stride. Andrews' stiff-arm added 30-plus yards to a play that went for 67.

Two plays later, Jackson was flushed toward the right sideline by Texans' Pro Bowl defensive end Danielle Hunter. Jackson juked Hunter once near the boundary to buy time, then again, before throwing back across his body to Isaiah Likely for a 9-yard touchdown and a 17-2 lead.

That score capped a 99-yard drive that came after the Ravens stopped the Texans on fourth-and-goal, and it seemed to break Houston's will.

Teams have been known to use their fastest player — even if it's a practice squad defensive back — to simulate Jackson on the practice field in the days leading up to facing the Ravens. But there is no way to mimic how lethal he can be making things up on the fly.

3. Kyle Van Noy continues to buck Father Time, and his pedigree will come in handy.

On Houston's opening series, Kyle Van Noy barged up the middle and hammered Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, dropping him for a sack on third-and-4. It forced a punt and set a tone that nothing would come easy for the second-year quarterback and the Texans.

The sack gave Van Noy 11.5 this season, the most in his career, and it comes three months shy of his 34th birthday. It also tops his previous high of nine, set last year with the Ravens. It isn't supposed to be that way for a player in his 30s, and surely no one could have seen this coming when Van Noy began the 2023 season unsigned by all 32 NFL teams. (He joined the Ravens that September.)

After the win against the Steelers last week, Van Noy said all the regular-season winning is nice, but it doesn't really mean anything, and at the same time he casually mentioned that he has made the playoffs in nine of his 11 seasons.

Van Noy won the Super Bowl twice with New England, and indeed, he has been a mainstay in the postseason. That kind of experience can't be replicated, and young players such as Tavius Robinson and David Ojabo will surely benefit from the hours spent alongside Van Noy.

4. The Zach Orr criticism seems ages ago.

Ravens rookie defensive coordinator Zach Orr took a beating earlier this season after his group gave up big play after big play, and the Ravens' defensive reputation seemed to be withering by the week.

The players took accountability, Orr wasn't afraid to shake things up, and the results have been impressive. The Ravens' defensive renaissance has taken hold at all three levels and has been at the heart of their three-game winning streak.

This might have been their most impressive performance to date, as the Ravens essentially shut out the playoff-bound Texans in their own stadium, with a safety providing Houston's only points. C.J. Stroud missed a few open receivers en route to going 17 of 31 for 185 yards, but the Ravens also frustrated him and forced the issue.

Kyle Van Noy hammered Stroud to kill the Texans' opening drive, and later, Odafe Oweh sacked Stroud on third-and-2 to force a punt. Oweh has quietly worked up to nine sacks, easily the most of his career.

The Ravens' top-ranked run defense held Texans' back Joe Mixon to 26 yards on nine carries, and the running game was essentially taken out of play by the third quarter with the Ravens up big.

Also in the third quarter, Kyle Hamilton made a diving interception that set up Lamar Jackson's touchdown run that all but put the game away.

The revamped secondary, with Hamilton at free safety and Ar'Darius Washington inserted as a starter, is considered the key to the defensive revival, and Washington delivered yet again with a thunderous, fourth-down hit on Mixon that stuffed the Texans at the Ravens' 1-yard line.

All that criticism of Orr seems long, long ago. This defense is playing as well, and as together, as it has all season.

5. John Harbaugh and his staff deserve all the credit for this late-season run.

The NFL did the Ravens no favors with a stretch of three games in 11 days. Call it the Lamar Jackson Effect, with television eager to get Jackson on as often as possible in prime spots. Not only were the Ravens shipped on the road on Christmas for the second straight year, but this time, the game on Christmas came at the end of a frenetic 11-day stretch with three games, making a mockery of any claims the NFL might like to make that player safety matters.

Harbaugh and his staff — including trainers, nutritionists and those who handle travel logistics — were all tasked with trying to pull this off. Harbaugh was tactful in saying that the schedule is what it is, and they will plan to play it as it's set up, but this involved a lot of calculated, measured decisions.

Assistants had to look ahead and begin to implement short-week game plans knowing the turnaround time was limited. The team tweaked the practice schedule, with walkthroughs replacing some practice sessions to keep bodies fresh and ready.

Harbaugh is a creature of habit, and the NFL season has a certain rhythm to it, all of which was disrupted by the December schedule they were dealt. But the Ravens answered the challenge each time in these past 11 days. In fact, as they showed with a hot-knife-through-butter opening drive, the Ravens at Houston looked as ready to play as they have looked all season.

Harbaugh takes his share of heat for clock management, or futile, foolish challenges, but even his worst critics would have to acknowledge that this 3-0 stretch was an extremely impressive performance. And that starts with the day-to-day management and decision-making, much of it outside the public eye, by the head guy.

Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox

Ravens' Odafe Oweh: Gets Green Light Saturday

Oweh (ankle) is active for Saturday's game against the Steelers.

Oweh was listed as limited in practice Wednesday and Thursday, but he'll play through the ankle injury in Saturday's rivalry game. The starting outside linebacker has already set a career high with 8.0 sacks in his fourth NFL season.

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