BALTIMORE – Leading up to Sunday's game against the Ravens, Titans head coach Mike Vrabel compared the pack of teams jockeying for AFC playoff spots to a horse race.
As is usually the case, Vrabel said a lot of teams are bunched up, and now it's time to find out which teams are going to break away from the pack.
Enter Titans running back Derrick Henry, who broke free from the pack to score on a 29-yard touchdown run in Tennessee's 30-24 overtime win over the Ravens.
"I think that is a great analogy," Vrabel said after the game, when asked about Henry's run, and his own analogy from earlier in the week. "You could just kind of tell, as that game went into the fourth quarter, I think we were wearing on them offensively. … You could just tell [the Ravens] body language on the sideline and also on the field, I felt like we were going to be able to break through. I didn't know it was going to look like that. Bottled up on the front side and everybody stayed on their guy and finished, and Derrick was able to cut back."
Henry ran for 133 yards on 28 carries on Sunday, and he now has 1,079 yards on the season.
Henry took over the game late, just as receiver A.J. Brown predicted. It also reminded everyone of the way Henry took over last year's playoff game win at Baltimore.
"I had told Derrick going into overtime we needed a 99-yard [run]," Brown said with a smile. "I told him go and get the game over with. We knew it was coming. We knew it was coming. He just needed an opportunity. Like I told him, 'Go win the game right now, already.' I told him actually, 'You're taking too long.'"
So, what did Henry do in the process on Sunday?
-He notched his 19th career 100-yard rushing game (including regular season and playoffs) and his sixth 100-yard rushing game of 2020.
-He notched his second "walk-off" overtime touchdown run of the season, counting the team's win vs the Texans earlier in the year, and only the third in franchise history. The franchise's only other game-winning overtime touchdown run came on Vince Young's 39-yard run at Houston in 2006.
-He went over the 1,000-yard mark for the third consecutive season, becoming the fourth player in franchise history to accomplish the feat, along with Earl Campbell (1978–1981), Eddie George (1996–2000) and Chris Johnson (2008–2013).
-He improved his career total to 50 touchdowns (rushing and receiving), becoming the fifth player in franchise history to score at least 50 career touchdowns of any kind. The only other franchise players to do so are George (74), Campbell (73), Johnson (58) and Charlie Hennigan (51).
"We were just focused on putting everything together, play our style of football, play how we want to play in all three phases," Henry said after the game. "And no matter how the game is going, find a way to win, and I think that's what we did.
"I try to do anything I can with the ball in my hands," Henry added. "I was able to get in the end zone … The guys did a great job blocking, and it wouldn't have happened without the o-line, and receivers, tight ends, everyone blocking. I just had to go out there and do my job to help my team win, and I'm glad we got a W today against a great team."
