History Suggests Tough Going for Henry, Titans in Postseason
NASHVILLE – It is a badge of honor Derrick Henry can carry throughout the remainder of his career. NFL rushing champion.
This week, though, it is also a burden he must bear when the Tennessee Titans face the New England Patriots in a wild card game at Gillette Stadium (7:15 p.m., CT, CBS).
With Henry and the Titans, the NFL rushing champion has now been on a playoff team eight consecutive years. The previous seven have gone a combined 2-7 in the postseason and none have gotten past the divisional round. The Dallas Cowboys won wild card contests in 2018, with Ezekiel Ellioitt, and in 2014 with DeMarco Murray and that’s it.
“We’re just happy to be in the playoffs,” Henry said Wednesday. “Great opponent. Hostile environment. Playoff football. It’s going to be a good game.”
But will it be Henry’s best game? Or even anything close to it?
He enters the postseason off the second 200-yard game of his career (211 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries Sunday at Houston) and has rushed for at least 100 yards in five of his last six appearances. Of his 1,540 rushing yards this season, 896 (58.2 percent) have come over that span.
Elliott and Murray are the only NFL rushing champions since 2012 who have produced any 100-yard games in the postseason. Elliott did it twice – 125 yards against Green Bay in 2016 and 137 yards and one touchdown in 2018 – and Murray once – 123 yards and one touchdown in 2014.
Even that has not been a formula for success. Dallas went 1-1 in Elliott’s 100-yard games and lost to the Packers in divisional round when Murray did it.
Adrian Peterson led the league three times (2008, 2012 and 2015) during his 10 seasons with Minnesota but each time the Vikings were one-and-done in the postseason. His best postseason performance was a 122-yard, three-touchdown effort after he finished fifth in rushing in 2009 (Minnesota lost that game to New Orleans).
“Running the football in this league isn’t just a once in a while thing,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “You have to commit to it, and you have to watch the toll that it takes through the course of the game. It could be some four and five-yard runs that don’t look real pretty, but you hope that those add up over the course of the game.”
A rundown of the last eight NFL rushing champions and how they have done in the postseason:
| Year | Player, team | Yards | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|
2012 | Adrian Peterson, Minnesota | 2,097 | 22-99 0 TD (1 game) |
2013 | LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia | 1,607 | 21-77 0 TD (1 game) |
2014 | DeMarco Murray, Dallas | 1,845 | 44-198 2 TDs (2 games) |
2015 | Adrian Peterson, Minnesota | 1,485 | 23-45 0 TD (1 game) |
2016 | Ezekiel Elliott, Dallas | 1,631 | 22-125 0 TD (1 game) |
2017 | Kareem Hunt, Kansas City | 1,327 | 11-42 1 TD (1 game) |
2018 | Ezekiel Elliott, Dallas | 1,434 | 46-184 2 TDs (2 games) |
2019 | Derrick Henry, Tennessee | 1,540 | TBD |
In addition to recent history, Henry also has to deal with the NFL’s best defense of 2019. The Patriots allowed the fewest points and fewest yards in the league and were one of eight teams that limited opponents to an average of fewer than 100 rushing yards per game. Six teams averaged fewer than three yards per carry against them.
Two years ago, Henry – in his second season – was merely the Titans’ leading rusher. In a divisional round playoff game at New England, the Patriots held him to 28 yards on 12 attempts. His longest gain was four yards.
“We’ve had some experience against him, and that’s a little helpful, I would say,” New England coach Bill Belichick said. “But in the end, you watch him on film, and you see the way his running style is – and he has a good variation of runs. I mean, he can make you miss in space. He can drop his pads and run with power, run over you. He’s a good inside runner, good outside runner. He catches the ball well. And he’s got the speed to go the distance.
“… There’s not a lot of guys like him in the league.”
In these playoffs, there is no one like him.
Henry is this year’s NFL rushing champion. That means he is central to the Titans’ plans on offense. And he will draw a lot of attention from the Patriots’ defense.
“They throw a variety of things at you as a defense,” he said. “They have a lot of players that do different things.”
Yet all of them are likely to be focused on Henry.
