With Another Big Finish, Henry Will Run Away With Rushing Race
It felt like a waiting game.
Derrick Henry and Dalvin Cook had been neck and neck with each other in the NFL rushing title race for the past few weeks. Now, there’s distance once again between them.
Advantage Henry.
The Tennessee Titans running back gashed the Indianapolis Colts for 178 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries in a 45-26 win Sunday.
Henry now has 1,257 yards on the season – and a clear lead in the rushing race. It was his seventh 100-yard rushing performance this season and his 13th in his last 19 contests dating back to last season, including three postseason games.
Cook didn’t keep pace. The Minnesota Vikings back had rushed for 100 yards or more in five of his previous seven games, including against the Titans in Week 3, but mustered 61 yards on 18 carries in the Minnesota Vikings’ 28-27 victory over the Carolina Panthers. He missed time in the first half with an ankle injury.
Cook has 1,130 yards on the season and trails Henry by 127 yards.
This sets the stage for a situation similar to the one that played out late last season. Whether it’s in the second half of games or in the back half of a season, Henry, the 2019 rushing champion, thrives when time runs short.
“As the games get going and as the season has gotten going, this is where he usually picks up some steam,” offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said last week.
Henry’s surge has started earlier than it did last season. He has rushed for 100 yards or more in four of his last five games, including in each of the last three. He’s done it against two defenses -- Indianapolis and Baltimore -- that rank in the top half of the league against the run. In the five-game stretch, Henry has rushed for 594 yards.
Cook was in the top five in rushing yards for the better part of the 2019 season, and he held the No. 1 spot for nine weeks in total, including after Week 10. After that, though, things shifted. Henry rose as Cook slid.
After Week 11, Christian McCaffery of the Carolina Panthers took the lead as Cook fell to second place while Henry sat in eighth, more than 200 yards behind both. At the conclusion of Week 12, Cook dropped to third place behind McCaffery and Nick Chubb of the Cleveland Browns. Henry, who had 991 yards at that point, trailed Cook by a narrow margin. By the end of Week 13, Henry had surpassed Cook and climbed to third place while Chubb took the lead and McCaffery sat in second.
From then on, it became a three-horse race as Cook became a non-factor. He amassed just 144 yards in his final four appearances and missed the last two games of the season. Henry ran for 100 yards or more in five of his last six contests (896 yards in total) and finished as the rushing champion.
While much can still happen with five games remaining, Henry distanced himself from Cook once again with his performance against the Colts. Now, it’s a matter of finishing.
And if there’s anything Henry has proved in his five NFL seasons so far, it’s that he is as good a closer as any.
“He’s unique. All of these guys are different,” Smith said. “But it’s certainly been impressive, how he finishes the season and how he finishes games.”
