INDIANAPOLIS - Derrick Henry carried the Tennessee Titans into the AFC South lead. Now the bruising back and his teammates can focus on other daunting tasks, such as clinching the division title and making another long run in the NFL playoffs.
Henry battered the league's second-stingiest - but shorthanded - defense by rushing for 178 yards and three touchdowns Sunday afternoon, leading the Titans to a 45-26 road rout of the Indianapolis Colts.
Tennessee avenged a 34-17 loss to its division rivals that occurred just 17 days earlier in Nashville, and Henry was a big reason why the Titans headed home happy this time. His 20th straight game with at least 18 carries is the league's second-longest streak since 1948, and he has three 100-yard games against Indianapolis since 2018 - the only three against the Colts during that span.
"I just had to go out there and get north and south and finish runs and finish forward, get to the end zone," said Henry, who entered the game having already rushed for more than 1,000 yards for the third straight season. "Credit to all those guys blocking. A lot of credit goes to them. I just had to go out and do my job and be efficient when I had the ball."
Don't mistake Henry's workmanlike demeanor for the significance of this victory. Tennessee (8-3) now has sole possession of the AFC South standings lead over Indianapolis (7-4), a split in the two-game season series and the current tiebreaking edge based on the teams' division records.
Henry made all the difference in this one. He did the heavy lifting with 27 carries, breaking tackles, eluding defenders and occasionally dragging along those who tried to bring him down.
AP photo by AJ Mast / The Indianapolis Colts chase Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry during Sunday's AFC South showdown with the division lead on the line.It was his third consecutive 100-yard game, his seventh this season and his eighth straight on the road, tying former Titans running back Chris Johnson for the second-longest streak since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Only Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders had a longer streak, with 10 in 1996-97 for the Detroit Lions.
Henry also became the second player in franchise history with 10 touchdown runs in three straight seasons, joining Earl Campbell, the Hall of Fame running back who played when the team was known as the Houston Oilers.
With the Indianapolis defense down three key starters - Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, starting linebacker Bobby Okereke and defensive end Denico Autry - Henry set the tone quickly. He touched the ball six times in Tennessee's first 10 plays, including a 12-yard run for the game's first points. A week earlier, Henry's 29-yard run to the end zone supplied the final points of an overtime win against the Baltimore Ravens.
"We just did not execute," Colts coach Frank Reich said. "In big games, it's about doing the little things right. We didn't do that. At times, we have done that right in the big games. We didn't do that today."
The Colts caught up with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Philip Rivers to Trey Burton, but the Titans' Ryan Tannehill made it 14-7 with a 69-yard scoring strike to A.J. Brown in the final seconds of the first quarter. Indianapolis answered with Jacoby Brissett's 1-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, and then Henry went back to work.
The NFL rushing leader scored on a 1-yard run midway through the period, then added an 11-yard touchdown run to make it 28-14. The 6-foot-3, 247-pound former Alabama standout also played the perfect decoy to free Tannehill for a 1-yard score to give the Titans a 35-14 halftime lead. Henry had 140 rushing yards at the break, and Indy never recovered as the Titans totaled 230 yards on the ground and produced a season high in points.
Henry, the league's reigning rushing champion, has 1,257 yards and 12 touchdowns on 256 carries this season, his fifth in the NFL. His dominant stretch that bridged the end of the 2019 regular season and the playoffs helped Tennessee make a wild-card run to the AFC title game, but the Titans are eager to win a division title for the first time since 2008 and bring the playoffs back to Nashville for the first time since then.
"We like to establish the run game whether we're at home or away, and Derrick is consistent," Tannehill said after finishing 13-of-22 passing for 221 yards with no interceptions and being sacked just once. "He does his thing no matter where we're at. He's a football player, and a really good one at that."
The Titans' Brown became the fourth player in franchise history - the first since Drew Hill in 1988-89 - with eight touchdown receptions in consecutive years. He had four catches for 98 yards at Indianapolis and returned an onside kick 42 yards for a score.
For the Colts, who allowed more points in the first half than in any full game previously this season, Rivers was 24-of-42 passing for 295 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in his 235th consecutive NFL start. He's tied with retired defensive back Charles Woodson for ninth on the league's career starts list.
T.Y. Hilton caught four passes for 81 yards and his first touchdown this season, becoming the sixth player in Colts history with 9,000 yards from scrimmage and the fourth with 9,000 receiving yards.
Titans left guard Rodger Saffold III, who had been dealing with an ankle injury, returned to the lineup as center Ben Jones and right tackle Dennis Kelly fought through knee injuries to play and David Quessenberry became the third left tackle to start for Tennessee this season. On the other side of the ball, the Titans didn't miss a beat without linebacker Jayon Brown (elbow), but defensive backs Amani Hooker and Kenny Vaccaro were shaken up late in the game.