The one thing the Baltimore Ravens never had for Lamar Jackson was a great running back to help him out. Mark Ingram had a good run near the end of his career. Between injuries, J.K. Dobbins was effective.
But the Ravens, in this era, have had a back like Derrick Henry. We could only imagine what the rushing lanes would look like with defenses focused on Lamar Jackson. Now we know. And it’s clear that Henry still has plenty left to offer at age 30.
Henry started off the night with an 87-yard touchdown and had a huge night as the Ravens put an 0-2 start behind them with their second straight win, a dominant 35-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills. Henry rushed for 199 yards on 24 carries. Last week against the Cowboys he had 151 yards on 25 carries. He looks like he’s well within his prime, even at age 30.
When Henry was available this past offseason, he reportedly wanted to sign with the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys claim they decided they couldn’t afford one of the best backs of this era. The Ravens are pretty happy it unfolded that way.
Henry adds an element to the offense that the Ravens haven’t experienced before. If the Ravens make it back to the playoffs Henry can carry some of the load that Jackson is used to having on his shoulder. That can’t be a bad thing.
Derrick Henry has a huge night
On the Ravens’ first play of the game, Henry made some history. Henry got between some good blocks and broke into the secondary. Henry is 247 pounds but also one of the fastest players in the NFL, and even though he’s 30 years old with the heaviest workload in the league over the past few years, nobody was going to catch him. Henry went 87 yards for the touchdown, and that’s the longest run in Ravens history. With that, Henry became the only player in NFL history to have the longest run for two different franchises. His 99-yard run for the Tennessee Titans is tied for the longest in NFL history.
Henry scored again on a 5-yard pass from Lamar Jackson early in the second quarter and the Ravens led 14-3. The Bills were fantastic for three weeks to start the season, but suddenly in Week 4 they were unable to keep up with the Ravens.
A couple of punts didn’t help. The Bills punted on fourth-and-2 from midfield in the first quarter, and fourth-and-1 from their own 39 in the second quarter when they trailed by 11 points. It made no sense for Sean McDermott to punt in either spot, and it clearly hurt his team’s chances of staying in the game. The Ravens scored two touchdowns after those two punts.
McDermott hasn’t been that conservative on fourth down this season, but like his team as a whole, he seemed overwhelmed by the Ravens on Sunday night.
Ravens close strong
The Bills started the second half with some momentum. Josh Allen had a ridiculous downfield pass to Khalil Shakir while he was going out of bounds, and that gained 52 yards and set up a touchdown. The Bills got the ball back right away, but Allen’s arm was hit by Kyle Van Noy on a throw, it was a fumble that the Ravens recovered and soon after Jackson scored on a 9-yard touchdown run to put the Ravens back ahead by 18 points.
Even when Henry made a mistake it turned out well. After Henry had a 38-yard run to set up the Ravens inside the 5-yard line, he fumbled on his way into the end zone. But fullback Patrick Ricard recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown and Baltimore led 35-10.
One of the reasons the Ravens started 0-2 was that in Week 2, they stopped feeding Henry in the fourth quarter and that allowed the Las Vegas Raiders to come back and beat them. Since then, Henry has destroyed the Cowboys and then the Bills. It didn’t take the Ravens too long to figure out that Henry can handle as many carries as anyone is willing to give him, and they’ll be a better offense as a result.
The Ravens had a great team last season but nobody like Henry. In an AFC championship game loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, they forgot almost completely about the running game and that was a big reason they lost. That won’t happen again if the Ravens find themselves in a similar situation. Henry is a future Hall of Famer, and the Ravens are a much different team with him in their backfield.