Tracking Derrick Henry’s progress towards 2,000 yards
By Will Lomas
Finishing November strong was key
I’m not trying to pat myself on the back here, but halfway through the season Derrick Henry had 843 rushing yards and the Tennessee Titans were coming off of a stretch where they went 1-2. Henry had just come off of a game against the Chicago Bears where he averaged less than 4 yards per carry and the offense had lost a lot of their luster.
But, whether you call it Dehember, Dehenber, D-Henber, or some other amalgamation, we all knew that winter was coming. When the weather gets cold, Derrick Henry gets hot and I was relying on that when I said that he could actually get 2,000 yards this season.
However, that didn’t mean that it was going to be easy. In fact, Weeks 10-12 could make or break any possibility of a 2,000-yard season. That started with the Indianapolis Colts run defense, a matchup the Titans saw twice in 17 days.
The Colts have only allowed one running back to go over 100 rushing yards since Matt Eberflus was hired as the DC back in 2018, and that running back is Derrick Henry. The big question was, could he do it again with a banged-up Rodger Saffold, Dennis Kelly, and with both Ty Sambrailo and Taylor Lewan out (even though we didn’t know about it at the time).
Not only did he do it once, or twice, but in two games against the Colts defense Henry put up 281 rushing yards.
Through that three-game stretch that included the Baltimore Ravens defense, Henry added 414 yards to his total bringing his total rushing yards up to 1,257.