Ground Control: Ravens-Titans Will Battle in the Trenches

Both teams have dominant running attacks

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — There's no secret as to how the Ravens and Titans are going to attack one another.

Both teams want to establish an effective running game to set the tone in their AFC divisional round matchup on Jan. 11. 

While Tennessee has the best running back in the game with Derrick Henry, the Ravens had the best rushing attack in league history behind quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Titans coach Mike Vrabel is trying to come up with some creative ways to slow down Jackson. 

"Other than try to tie his shoelaces together, not many people have had success," Vrabel said in a conference call with the Baltimore media. 

Henry led the NFL with 1,540 yards rushing in the regular season. Henry was also the difference in Tennessee's 20-13 victory over the Patriots in the wild-card round, running for 182 yards on 34 carries with a touchdown.

In two career games against Baltimore, Henry has gone 1-1 and has run for 47 yards on 15 carries (3.13 y.p.c) with a touchdown. However, he is a much better runner this season.

Overall, the Titans were ranked third in the NFL with 138.9 yards per game. 

Ravens safety Earl Thomas suggested the Patriots simply were not aggressive enough with Henry. 

"He’s a cutback runner. He’s very patient. He’ll find creases,"Thomas said. "And guys didn’t seem like they were too interested in tackling him. So, our mindset is a little different. I think we’re going to try to tackle him and try to swarm, and we’re going to see how it plays out.”

Meanwhile, Baltimore set a new NFL single-season team record for rushing yards (3,296). Jackson finished with 1,206 yards rushing — sixth best in the league and the most by a quarterback in NFL single-season history.

Jackson is also the only quarterback in NFL history to produce at least 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a season. Jackson is just the third quarterback in league history to produce at least 35 passing touchdowns and seven rushing touchdowns in a season, joining Steve Young (1994) and Cam Newton (2015), both of whom won MVP honors after accomplishing this feat.

However, running back Mark Ingram, who was second on the team with 1,018 yards on 202 carries, is still dealing with a calf injury. He missed practice on Tuesday and Harbaugh declined to provide an update on his potential status for the game.

The Ravens do have depth at running back with Gus Edwards, who led the team in rushing last season as a rookie, and Justice Hill. 

Edwards had 711 yards on 133 carries (5.3 y.p.c) with a pair of touchdowns and the rookie Hill finished with 225 yards on 58 carries with two scores.  

The Ravens also had an extra to week rest and prepare for the Titans as the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

"We’ll have to prepare and try to get our players as ready as possible to defend not only him, but Mark Ingram and Edwards," Vrabel said."It's impressive what they've done. [Offensive coordinator] Greg [Roman] has done a great job with that offense, and players really seem to understand it and play fast and look like they’re enjoying themselves.”