The Baltimore Ravens’ 41-31 win on Monday Night Football over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was a classic example of a game that totally changed course due to one player’s injury absence.
When Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans suffered a hamstring injury and left the game, his team was up 10-0. The Ravens then rattled off 27 unanswered points and never looked back.
It was reminiscent of the 2018 Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal. Notre Dame kept it close with Clemson until elite cover cornerback Julian Love (now a safety with the Seattle Seahawks) exited due to injury.
That opened up the deep ball for Trevor Lawrence and the Clemson receiving corps, and the route was on.
As the Ravens entirely turned the tide of the game, it was left to Derrick Henry to close it out, which he did with authority. Just like in the thrilling win at Cincinnati, Henry started very slow but finished with a flourish.
The King keeps getting stronger as the game goes on. Flashback to May, when Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken said the following: “We want him to finish; we want him to be the closer.”
Henry has been doing that, and a look inside his situational stats on NFL.com verifies this theory.
He has 524 second-half rushing yards this season versus 287 in the first half. Henry’s second-half yards per carry average is 7.4, juxtaposed against his 4.9 avg. in the first halves of games.
Although it is a minimal sample size, especially when compared to the other stats, his overtime numbers pop off the page. He’s averaging 15.5 yards per carry (4 for 62 yards) in OT,
Henry is most potent in the third quarter, where he sports an elite 9.2 yards per carry average. His fourth-quarter YPC is his second-highest, at 5.9 yards per rush. He averages 5.0 yards per rush in the first quarter and 4.7 in the second.
He’s been improving as the game goes on, and his running sends a message to opposing defenses: ” From here on out, it only gets rougher” (in the words of Outkast).