Chiefs found way to neutralize Derrick Henry
Coming into Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, the biggest question for Kansas City was whether or not they were going to be able to find a way to stop Derrick Henry, which is something no one had been able to do over his last eight games after he racked up 1,273 rushing yards, 11 rushing touchdowns and one passing touchdown during that stretch.
The Titans’ star running back came into the AFC title game on a hot streak like we’ve never seen. Henry became the first player in NFL history to rush for a minimum of 180 yards in three straight games and was hoping to make it four straight on Sunday.
However, to the surprise of many, the Chiefs had other ideas and found a way to hold the former Heisman winner to his lowest yard total in his last nine games. Henry found the end zone early but only finished with 69 yards on 19 carries, numbers that are far from the absurd totals he had been putting up over the last two months.
Once the Chiefs found themselves ahead on the scoreboard, they forced Tennessee to rely more on their passing attack than the team preferred, which ultimately neutralized Henry. As that happened, it became an extremely tall task to get into a passing match with Patrick Mahomes for a team that relies on the run as much as the Titans do.
Tennessee may have fallen just short, but this experience in a game of this magnitude will undoubtedly help the team prepare for the 2020 season, and they may come out swinging from the very start as opposed to waiting seven weeks to do so.