Derrick Henry needed to make a statement that Tractorcito was back against the AFC’s top defense. Instead, he was held to his lowest single-game yardage total since 2018 in a 41-7 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills in primetime.
The 28-year-old running back, fresh off a season where he missed multiple games due to injury for the first time in his NFL career, was held to only 25 yards on 13 carries. Five of his runs — 38 percent! — ended in negative yardage. With the exception of a first quarter touchdown plunge that briefly tied the game at 7-7, this game was nothing but misery for a player whose odometer has rolled into the range where many lead running backs begin to break down.
But Monday night’s performance can’t be laid solely on the legs of Derrick Henry. The Buffalo defense, the league’s top-ranked unit in 2021, made Tennessee’s blocking look stupid time and again in order to shut down the strongest arrow in the Titans’ quiver.
Let’s take a closer look at those negative plays and watch just how thoroughly Henry’s blocking failed him, leaving him stuck in no-win situations.
Let’s start at fullback. Head coach Mike Vrabel let Khari Blasingame, a former Vanderbilt linebacker who craves contact like Michael Bay needs explosions, leave in free agency this spring and replaced him with Tory Carter. This was a minor move on paper, especially for a team whose need for a bulldozing lead blocker is mitigated by the bull-sized tailback with the ball behind him.
But Carter was a mess against the Bills’ swarming defense. Here he’s supposed to seal off the edge and gets a favorable matchup against rookie cornerback Christian Benford. Carter has a 40-pound advantage over the guy who played FCS football in 2021. He still loses badly, forcing Henry to consider kicking inside, realizing that won’t work, then eating a four-yard loss.
Here’s Carter trying to square up with Matt Milano, who weighs 21 pounds less than he does. The fullback instead gets eaten up on a toss sweep that result in a loss of one.
Of course, even if Carter had erased Milano it may not have mattered. No one decided to give Terrell Edmunds a second look as he blasted across the line of scrimmage and into the backfield for the tackle:
Now let’s see what happens when Tennessee puts Geoff Swaim, the team’s best blocking tight end and a key part of the team’s rushing offense a week earlier, into the lineup and attempts to run behind him instead of a fullback.
Oh right, Von Miller. Nevertheless!
What if the Titans get a little more creative? How about they go single-back, try to obfuscate their intentions with pre-snap motion and use pulling guards and a moving tight end to clear a path? It’s an interesting idea that’s had success in the past and could work against a less athletic front seven.
The Bills aren’t that kind of front seven, however. By the time the pulling guard gets to edge defender Gregory Rousseau, he’s already got his hands on Henry four yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Finally, since we’ve had linebackers, edge rushers and cornerbacks get in on the fun here comes safety Jordan Poyer. After walking from his spot 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage to a place in front of his own linebackers, he crashes through the line, completely untouched, to generate a loss of one yard.
This is all wildly unproductive. While a younger Henry may have broken one or two of these ankle tackles there was constantly another layer of poorly-blocked Bills defenders in close pursuit to keep him from snapping off a big run. Eliminate these five runs where the Titans treated blocking like the “I would like to donate $3 to my political party” box on your annual taxes and Henry’s night looks slightly better: eight carries for 36 yards and a touchdown.
That’s reasonable! Not All-Pro material, but not Todd-Gurley-no-longer-has-it levels of concerning, either. Don’t sell your Henry stock just because the best defense in the league shredded his blockers into ribbons. Instead, hope Vrabel can figure out how to set the dominoes in front of him like it’s 2020 all over again.