Kirby Lee / USA Today Sports
The Game That Made Henry The King
By John Glennon
NASHVILLE – Derrick Henry and the Tennessee Titans are struggling as they ready for the arrival of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
In that sense, the scenario isn’t all that different from what it was four years ago this week when the Jaguars came to town.
Heading into that memorable Dec. 6, 2018 contest, the Titans had lost two of their last three games, and Henry had been held under 50 yards in all three of those contests.
But on that cold, clear Thursday night at Nissan Stadium, Henry treated a national television audience to one of the greatest rushing performances in NFL history, carrying 17 times for 238 yards and four touchdowns – a total that included a record-tying 99-yard sprint to the end zone.
It was also the single most important game in Henry’s career, the one that began his transformation from a so-so running back for the better part of three seasons into “The King” – the player who, since then, has recorded four 1,000-yard seasons, produced one 2,000-yard season, earned All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors, and was named the NFL’s 2020 offensive player of the year.
In 43 regular-season games prior to the monstrous 2018 night against the Jaguars, Henry had averaged just 40 yards per contest.
In the 55 games including the Jacksonville contest, Henry has averaged 112.1 yards per game, the highest figure in the league by more than 20 yards.
Henry was in no mood for reflection on Thursday. Instead, he focused on helping the Titans get back on a winning track after back-to-back losses to Cincinnati and Philadelphia. The two-time NFL rushing champion was limited to 28 carries for 68 yards in those contests.
“I don’t care about (the 2018 Jacksonville game),” Henry said. “It’s over with. I’ve been asked too many questions about that game. That game is in the past. New team, new players. It don’t matter.”
A look at Derrick Henry's rushing statistics prior to Dec. 6, 2018 and since:
| Games | Att. | Yds. | Avg. | Per Game | Rush TDs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Before | 43 | 414 | 1,708 | 4.1 | 39.7 | 15 |
After | 55 | 1,245 | 6,167 | 5.0 | 112.1 | 60 |
Running backs coach Tony Dews was much more willing to re-live Henry’s epic performance that night.
His first recollection? Henry didn’t even start the game.
Sure enough, Henry, who’d started the first nine games of the season, had given way to 5-foot-8, 195-pound Dion Lewis for a fourth straight contest, an illustration of how much difficulty Henry was having living up to his second-round draft selection in 2016.
But Henry did run three yards for the Titans’ first touchdown of the game.
And with a drive that started on their own 1-yard line midway through the second quarter, it was Henry in the backfield And it was Henry who went 99 yards down the left sideline, stiff-arming three Jaguars defenders out of his way en route to the end zone.
“We were backed up on the 1-yard line, so it was like, `OK, Derrick is the bigger guy, let him go pound it,’” Dews said. “Then he took off, and then he went in the next series and he took off on another run. Kind of the rest is history.”
Dews’ memory is accurate, as Henry recorded his third and fourth touchdown runs of the game – of 16 and 54 yards, respectively – in the third quarter to put the Titans ahead 30-2.
Another interesting moment that Dews recalls happened one quarter later, when Henry – after helping the Titans drive to Jacksonville’s 3-yard line – basically took himself out of the game.
“We were down near the goalline area, and he asked (coach Mike Vrabel) to put Dion in and let Dion score,” Dews said. “The stadium was screaming `Hen-ry,’ and … he wanted Dion to score. So, that tells you a little bit about who (Henry) is. From that point on, it’s kind of taken off.”
That it has.
Henry ran for a combined 347 yards over his next three games to top 1,000 yards in a season for the first time in his career. He then hit stratospheric levels in 2019 and 2020 when he totaled a combined 3,567 rushing yards and 33 touchdowns.
It’s mind-blowing to think Henry hadn’t even nailed down the starter’s role prior to the 238-yard performance against Jacksonville, which ranks No. 20 on the list of the NFL's top rushing performances in a single game.
“No one saw it coming. I wish I could tell you I was coaching him to run for 200 yards,” Dews said. “But you know what? He kept working … We had made the change and started starting (Lewis). (Henry) just kept working, and eventually it took off and the rest is history.”
Who knows what Henry might have in store for the Jaguars this time around? He’s steamrolled Jacksonville over the years, carrying 213 times for 1,143 yards (5.4-yard average) and 14 touchdowns in nine games.
No matter what he does, it’s hard to believe his performance will be as significant as the one that launched the legend of “King Henry” four years ago.
He hasn’t been the same running back since.
“When you start to have success, you start to feel better about yourself,” Dews said. “(Players) just kind of get in that groove, get in that flow, whatever you want to call it. I don’t know what it is. They kind of get in the zone, and then they just take off.”
