When Tennessee has concluded its regular season on Sunday, Titans running back Derrick Henry will be the NFL rushing champion for the second year in a row. It’s just a question of how many yards the former Alabama All-American will finish with in the 2020 campaign.
Henry will become the 12th player in NFL history to repeat as the rushing champion in consecutive seasons. The first to accomplish the feat was New York Giants fullback Bill Paschal in 1943 and 1944. Henry will join Paschal as the only back-to-back champs not yet in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In addition to Paschal, the players with back-to-back rushing titles are Joe Perry, Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly, O.J. Simpson, Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Edgerrin James and LaDainian Tomlinson, who is the most recent to accomplish the feat in 2006 and 2007.
Henry enters the final Sunday of the regular season with 220 more rushing yards than second-place Dalvin Cook of the Minnesota Vikings. If that already hadn’t been enough to assure “King Henry” of the 2020 rushing crown, then Cook’s personal tragedy this week did. Cook’s father died on Tuesday at age 46. The running back isn’t expected to play when the Vikings complete their season against the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
“Me and Dalvin talk a lot throughout the season,” Henry said. “Always encouraging each other and telling each other good game. I reached out to him and told him I’m praying for his family and sending my condolences. It’s bigger than football losing his dad. Very sad and I feel for him and his family. Praying for his family. …
“The rushing title, that’s an accomplishment for you, your O-line, everybody that’s blocking for you and me just going to do my job. But like I said, prayers out to Dalvin Cook and his family.”
Even if the rushing race had been closer, it wouldn’t have mattered if Henry had what has become his usual game against the Houston Texans, the Titans’ opponent for Sunday’s regular-season finale.
In the final game of the 2019 regular season, the Titans needed to beat the AFC South champion Texans to reach the postseason. Henry ran for 211 yards and three touchdowns in Tennessee’s 35-14 victory.
In the teams’ first meeting this season, Henry ran for 212 yards and two touchdowns in the Titans’ 42-36 victory over Houston on Oct. 18.
Henry is one of nine NFL players who has had two 200-yard rushing games against the same team, but no player has had three 200-yard rushing games against the same franchise.
Henry is not concerned about how Tennessee beats the Texans as long as it beats them on Sunday.
“Whatever it takes to win and keeps us to have an opportunity to get in the playoffs,” Henry said. “Even though their record’s not good, they’ve been playing good football. Every game they’ve been in has been pretty close. We got to go out there and play. We’re division opponents. We both know each other well. They have good guys on defense that play hard-nose football, play to the football, tackle well.”
The Titans have not swept their annual home-and-away series with Houston since 2007. In the 12 intervening years, the Texans swept the series three times.
After earning AFC South titles in 2018 and 2019, the Texans have slipped to 4-11 in 2020. The Titans have a 10-5 record and have four ways to secure a postseason spot on Sunday (not including all the ways that tie games will affect the standings).
If Tennessee defeats Houston, it not only will secure a playoff berth, the Titans also will earn the AFC South title and the accompanying first-round home game in the postseason. Tennessee also could get that if the Indianapolis Colts lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
The Titans and Texans are scheduled to kick off at 3:25 p.m. CST Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston. By that time, Tennessee could know if it’s going to the playoffs.
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At noon Sunday, the Miami Dolphins visit the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens visit the Cincinnati Bengals. If the Dolphins or the Ravens lose, the Titans will go to the postseason as a wild-card team even if they lose to the Texans and the Colts beat the Jaguars.
Wild-card teams open the playoffs on the road. Tennessee would prefer to enter the postseason as a division champion.
“I’d like to win a game,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “I hope the players would like to win a game as well. I think that’s our only focus. …
“I think the milestone we’re looking for is trying to find our 11th win. I think that would be probably easy to figure out if we’re going to be able to do that as the game goes on. All the other stuff I don’t think is very important right now.”
For the fourth year in a row, the Titans are entering the final Sunday of the regular season knowing that a victory would put them in the playoffs.
In 2017, with starting running back DeMarco Murray sidelined by injury, Henry ran for 51 yards on 28 carries and caught a 66-yard touchdown pass in a 15-10 victory over Jacksonville. In 2018, Henry ran for 93 yards on 16 carries in a 33-17 loss to the Colts. In 2019, Henry steam-rolled Houston and left Tennessee in position to earn back-to-back playoff trips this season for the first time since the 2007 and 2008 campaigns.
“I think it definitely helps because we know what’s at stake,” Henry said of the Titans’ win-and-in experience in regular-season finales. “We’ve been in this situation before. But at the end of the day, it’s preparation and doing what we need to do in all three phases to win.”
Henry won the 2019 rushing title with 1,540 yards and 16 touchdowns on 303 carries. This season, he has 1,777 yards and 15 touchdowns on 344 carries.
Only one player with Alabama football roots has rushed for more yards in one NFL season than Henry has in 2020. Former Alabama standout Shaun Alexander ran for 1,880 yards for Seattle in 2005, when he won the NFL MVP Award and the Seahawks reached the Super Bowl.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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