If any Broncos defensive players or coaches settled into the couch during the bye week Sunday and watched football, they probably got a good look at Tennessee running back Derrick Henry continuing his torrid stretch against Kansas City.
Really, the entire league has been reminded why the powerful Titans running back is dubbed “King Henry” after he missed the second half of the 2021 season due to injury.
The 6-foot-3, 247-pound Henry has averaged 135.6 rushing yards over his past five games and enters Sunday’s game against Denver leading the NFL with 870 yards and is second with nine rushing touchdowns.
“He’s a great running back, there’s no sugar-coating it,” Broncos defensive lineman DeShawn Williams said.
Behind Henry, Tennessee presents a different type of challenge. Only Chicago and Atlanta, teams playing with mobile quarterbacks who are unpolished passers, run the ball more frequently than the Titans’ 55.6% clip.
“Itap very rare now, not many teams are getting in that I-formation, 13 personnel still, running the ball that many times – 40 times a game if they have to,” Williams said.
Henry is averaging 23 carries per game and has seen that rate go up even further during his current tear. In consecutive wins against Washington, Indianapolis and Houston he carried the ball 28, 30 and 32 times, respectively, before his 17 carries for 115 yards in the overtime loss to the Chiefs on Sunday night.
“That stiff arm everybody talks about, itap real. He times it up perfect,” Denver head coach Nathaniel Hackett said. “He’s got great vision. He’s able to run, break tackles. He’s niftier than you’d think with as big as he is.”
Added Williams, “You might stop him the first quarter or so, but facing a guy like that, you’ve got to have gap integrity, know the call, don’t do nothing outside the call. Just play ball, man. Itap a great challenge for sure.”
Denver has done a good job against Henry each of the past two times they’ve gone against him. Defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones pointed to the 2020 season opener when the Broncos surrendered 116 yards to the 2016 first-round pick out of Alabama, but did so over 31 carries. The year before, the Broncos did even better, limiting him to 28 yards on 15 carries.
“Some guys kind of pitter-patter. Once he sees his opportunity, he hits it,” Jones said. “Don’t get me wrong, though. He’s not going to run over no d-lineman or nothing like that. You’ve got to make sure he can’t get to the level where he can get a chance to attack DBs.
“He’s not bigger than us. Thatap not happening where he’s running us over.”
Denver, though, has struggled recently against the run despite an overall strong defensive season. The Broncos rank No. 21 in the NFL in allowing 122.6 yards per game and No. 27 at 4.9 yards per carry allowed.
Before the bye week, they managed to beat Jacksonville in London despite surrendering 154 yards to Travis Etienne. A week before that, the New York Jets ran for 155 yards and got a 62-yard Breece Hall touchdown run before he suffered a season-ending knee injury.
After keeping each of its first three opponents to 88 yards or fewer, Denver has allowed 147 per game over its past five. Even more reason to relish the chance to play against the league’s best, Jones said.
“These past couple weeks we haven’t been doing good numbers wise in the run game,” he said. “Obviously, there’s certain reasons why, but we haven’t done the best job and we are definitely eager to take on this challenge. The majority of it is just missed tackling or sometimes we’ll backdoor when we shouldn’t backdoor. Thatap on all levels of the defense from us to the linebackers to our DBs. We’re all at fault. Itap a whole defense thing.”
It will take everybody to slow down Henry, regardless of whether Tennessee is playing rookie Malik Willis at quarterback or if it gets veteran Ryan Tannehill back from an ankle injury.
“You win and lose in the trenches,” Williams said. “This is one of those games, you’re going to win or lose depending on how we play in the trenches. Itap a great challenge against a great team. We know they’re upset from the game they just played, they felt like they should have won. That was a great game to watch and we know we’re going to get their best shot.
“Coming off a bye, we need to be on all our P’s and Q’s and be on point.”
