Jaguars Looking For Answers to Henry After 'Putting Everything on the Table' to Stop Him
At least the Jacksonville Jaguars will always have Week 2, right?
That is the last time the Jaguars were able to make Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry look mortal, after all. It certainly wasn't on Sunday when Henry had one of the most productive days of his career, carrying the Titans past the 1-12 Jaguars in a 31-10 blowout that left the Jaguars looking for answers.
"I mean, he’s the best running back in the league for a reason and obviously, we put everything on the table to try to stop him today and we weren’t able to get that done," Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone summed up after the game.
Marrone was right -- the Jaguars deployed an all-out strategy to defend Henry. They stacked the box with eight or more defenders on 46.15% of Henry's carries per NFL's Next Gen Stats. This was even a boost from the 40% of stacked boxes they threw at Henry in Week 2.
Only three other running backs have seen more stacked boxes this week than Henry. The Jaguars' entire defensive strategy was to stop him ... and he still ran for 215 yards on 26 carries (8.3 yards per carry) and two touchdowns, a historic performance. It was the same type of performance Henry has inflicted on the Jaguars over the last several December matchups between the rival squads.
"Yeah, I mean, we had everyone up at the line of scrimmage. We had a bunch of guys up there and you get the same thing, if someone gets washed from the gap or we don’t hit the gap fast enough or we don’t squeeze fast enough. I mean, he’s too good of a running back to give him a start on that stuff," Marrone said following the loss.
"We’re going to go back and obviously look at it, but we’ve just got to be able to execute that better. I don’t think we can get any more people up there and have it covered like that. So, again, it’s not from a lack of effort, it’s just sometimes those other guys win, too. They win on those plays and they cost us, and that’s one of the things that happen. [They] were able to rip off a couple of those runs, those big runs and just some of the surges that you saw at times, staying on the inside for the four or five yards."
Despite Jacksonville pulling out all the stops against Henry, he had four rushes of 20 or more yards, including a 36-yard touchdown. And unfortunately for the Jaguars, Henry isn't a problem going away anytime soon.
The Jaguars are one of three teams in the NFL that have the misfortune of landing Henry on their schedule twice a year. These squads sometimes limit Henry, like when the Jaguars held him to below 100 yards rushing and below 4.0 yards per carry in Week 2. But more often than not, Henry is running wild.
Henry is under contract through the 2023 season so the Jaguars, Colts, and Texans will still have to deal with the All-Pro on a frequent basis for the foreseeable future. And since the only guaranteed way to earn a trip to the postseason is to win your division, stopping Henry from making an impact in AFC South games has to be a focus for all three clubs, but specifically the Jaguars.
There is a blueprint to stopping Henry -- it is just so much easier said than done. With his combination of speed and power, you need the right defensive personnel and a bit of luck to ensure you can limit him. The Jaguars, even at their best, have only flashed this type of defense.
"The biggest thing is just, you can’t let him get started. You can’t let him get into the open field because, if you’re able to keep him inside the tackle box, get guys on him, get hits on his legs, then you’ll be able to stop him," linebacker Joe Schobert said after the game.
"But if he gets through the line and he gets out into the second level, he gets out into open space with his stiff-arms, with his speed, he’s a dangerous runner. He’s obviously got good vision so he knows when to bounce it if guys are crashing too hard on the outside, which he did a couple times today. You’ve just got to really be on top of it, dot your I’s and cross your T’s.”
The entire NFL has been searching for an answer to Henry for the better part of three years. But no team needs that answer as desperately as the Jaguars and their AFC South counterparts.
