How Derrick Henry RAMPAGED through the NFL and Dominated the Playoffs 💪 😤

[Music] [Applause] when you watch Derek Henry on TV it's hard to believe he's actually real when Defence's watch him they don't really believe it either Henry is a superhero combination of size and speed his 45240 package with his 63 247 pounds from isn't really comparable to any player we've ever seen at his position somebody this big shouldn't be that fast and somebody this fast shouldn't be that big in 2019 he led the league in rushing with 1540 yards and 16 touchdowns but somehow that wasn't even the most impressive part it was his finish to the season in his last nine games which includes three in the playoffs he finished with thirteen hundred and forty two yards for a hundred and forty nine yards per game it was one of the most dominant second half's for any player that I have ever seen and watching him carry the underdog Titans to playoff road victories against the Patriots and Ravens was shocking in itself so what caused the second-half explosion and decimation of some of the best defenses the NFL has to offer it comes down to Henry's technical nuance and the modifications the Titans made to their offensive scheme when defenses prepare for the Titans they first and foremost set out to keep Henry in check Team stacked the box with eight or more defenders 35% of the time which was fifth most in the league but were consistently abused by his ability to break through those crowded boxes with power then create explosive plays with his rare acceleration and high end speed his 1200 and 68 yards after contact was the most in the 12 years since PFF started recording that data defenders are so concerned about hitting him low and trying to wrap him up that he just completely runs through them and oftentimes just blows right by them as the Titans season progressed and the wind started to pile up a small change to their scheme unlocked both Henry and the rest of the offense we all remember a few years back when the Titans announced their exotic smashmouth rushing attack but this year's change was quite the opposite keep the Smash Mouth but dumb it down to basically just one play the outside zone instead of power counter Trey's and on and on they relied almost exclusively on that one concepts and mastered it heading into week 17 against the Texans the Titans were in a win and in playoff scenario so they turned to Henry to put the team on his back and he responded by running for 211 yards the Titans are running nineteen Wanda's only a weak side outside zone concept run away from the tight end outside zone is predicated on each offensive lineman taking a play side bucket step to try and push the defenders towards the sideline to create cutback lanes for the running back the defense wants to beat the linemen to that spot to protect the edge and plug up every gap which is why cutbacks and outside zone are so deadly if Henry cuts back upfield the defense is literally moving away from him the first key to defending this concept is for the end man on the line of scrimmage to set a hard edge he must hold his position outside the tackle to force Henry back inside to the meat of the defense the Titans ran outside zone again and again but that doesn't mean Henry is the same assignment every time he's reading each defensive lineman from the outside in until he finds an open lane on his third step he is three possible reads which are called bounce bang and bent if that edge isn't set by the end Henry will make a bouncer e to punish that edge and fly up the sideline that absolutely terrifies the defense which is why it's so critical for them to set a hard edge the defender is in position which triggers Henry to start reading each D lineman from left to right until he finds an opening this is called a bang read which is a cut upfield opposite the flow of the defense if those lanes are closed he makes a bend Reed and cuts it all the way back Henry sees the will linebacker pushing to the front side of the center and the Mike linebacker flowing hard towards the sideline good running backs read the defensive lineman great running backs read the line and the linebackers Henry is the latter when he executes the bang read he knows the importance of press against lineman as close as possible so he can create additional space after it's cut he stays tight to a center to hold the linebacker outside until he explodes out of his cut at the last second you can see him shifting all his weight inside to his plant leg to generate power and momentum off the cut this right here is makes Henri special this sudden explosion no matter how much film you watch or how many hours you prepare this acceleration is just different this is that technical nuance we talked about every inch of every step is crucial for this plate to work if Henry doesn't stay close to his lineman this backside safety doesn't start to creep over if he doesn't press this hole inside the Titans block the safety doesn't begin sprinting over so when Henry does make that devastating cut and hits top speed the safety is just enough out of position turning this into a big play there's an old adage that the biggest runs break behind the back side linebacker you can see how the scheme and the threat of Henry's sprinting up the sideline conflicts that backside backer he's the free hitter on this play there are no blockers accounting for him but he's aware of the threat of Henry bouncing outside the end so he's fast flowing at the snap as quick as he can the momentum Henry billed through his cut translates directly to his long speed even though the balls in the wrong arm and the dudes chasing him are 30 pounds lighter it just doesn't matter because nobody can catch him the Titans won the game and clinched a wild-card berth as the six seed first up a trip to Foxborough to face arguably the greatest sports dynasty of all time on their home turf in the freezing cold heading into the game the Patriots closed as four and a half point favorites nobody expected the Titans to take them down surprisingly the Patriots used an eight-man box only 26% at a time and it cost them dearly the Titans ran outside zone repeatedly and Henry ripped off several massive gains a key aspect to the outside zone scheme is the usage of double teams which calls for one of the linemen to peel off to a second-level defender a center and guard double team is called a single block where they'll try and maneuver the D lineman inside then whoever as better leverage will move up to the second level béla checks game plan was to eliminate those double teams he blitz the linebacker at the snap to hold the center and create 101 blocks for each of his linemen on this particular run in addition to blitzing the linebacker the Patriots dialed up an exit or entacle stunt where the end will penetrate inside then the PACA will loop over into the C gap which is exactly where Henry is aiming his run the initial picture shows that gap is open linebacker Dante Hightower is setting the edge but kind of peeking inside so if Henry wants that C gap he can press outside to set him up then cut upfield but when he pushes forward the picture changes the tackle loops over and suddenly the C gap is closed Henry doesn't panic he presses that gap with a jab step to hold Hightower inside then explodes out on a bounce Reed instead of cutting too early here he takes the next step to press the hole and then powerfully explodes outside by pressing that hole until the last moment he influences the rest of the defense as well the safety comes down that much harder and the off-screen corner takes a poor angle too far inside most gigantic human beings do not have the speed and agility to get outside so where that corner is but Henry can get that edge remember he had the most yards after contact of anybody since the data started being tracked he smacks the corner JC Jackson at the 50-yard line and rides him eight yards down the field Henry rushed 34 times for a hundred and eighty-two yards and the Titans won 20 to 13 this meant the following week they'd faced the number one seed Baltimore Ravens they saw what happened the week before they saw the Patriots sacked the Box only 26% of the time so they said okay that is not gonna happen again then stack the box 63 percent of the time so what happened Henry ran for a buck 95 in addition to stacking the Box more than half the time their game plan included a wrinkle where they would blitz the backside anytime the Titans ran their zone concept in zone schemes the backside blocker usually doesn't block the backside defensive linemen so the offense can gain a numbers advantage they figure that linemen won't be fast enough to chase down the running back but the Ravens repeatedly rushed him and occasionally year-old Thomas around the edge when it comes to the run game the defense always wants to have at least one more defender than the offense has blockers so they can have a free hit or pursue the running back here the Titans have seven blockers and the Ravens counter with so if the Titans get a hat and a hat two defenders should be free to chase Henry down the Titans are running split zone which is almost exactly the same as outside zone except a tight end will sift across the formation to hit that and coming free this takes away some of the punch on the front side but often creates a nice seam on the backside Henry only ran a shotgun on 21% of his carries and his numbers dropped a bit when he did but here he found success the d-line is slanting strong to create space for the backside Blitzers the nose tackle gets immediate pressure and the sifter doesn't move across the formation nearly fast enough this looks like one of Henry's ball forward for 2-yard type of runs he sees that immediate pressure and tries to cut back to where the lane would be if the sifter did his job pro bowler Matthew jus daun is coming clean off the edge and as a free shot to smash Henry but it's just not about that action after that contact Henry showcases is a lead acceleration and all save you from the Earl Thomas joke I almost just made Henry finish the game with a whopping 195 yards this was the game that truly shocked the world the Ravens were supposed to roll over the Titans right into the AFC Championship game but Henry had other plans so the next week they traveled to Kansas City where the Cinderella story came to an end he was held to just 69 yards but only got to run the ball 19 times the Chiefs defense bottled him up and played with flawless execution surprisingly they didn't go out of their way to stack the box and nearly as much as the Ravens did committing eight defenders 36% of the time they didn't use any secret wrinkle or brilliant scheme but just flat-out beat the guy in front of them they kept the Titans on their toes by mixing their fronts bare odd over and under but other than that nothing too crazy the Titans line up with a fullback and an I left formation which makes for seven blockers the Chiefs are in their 4-3 defense and also have just seven in the box so if everyone is blocked Henry should come free but this Chiefs defense deserves a ton of credit the end sets the edge and holds the tight end in tackle the three technique holds a single block allowing the line back to stay clean the one technique blasts the right guard into the backfield and defensive end Frank Clarke who is the unblocked back side defender runs straight downhill and smacks Henry you can see how the blocking scheme and play could have worked if the guard comes off for the linebacker the tackle pushes the end out and the full-back mashes the other linebacker through the hole Henry would have had space to run but throughout the game the Chiefs collapsed lanes and minimized opportunities for Henry's usual dominance the Chiefs defense was no joke and honestly gets overlooked because of mahomes but to beat Henry they also add something else on their side game script in the previous two games 215 of Henry's three hundred and seventy seven yards came after halftime in fact in the regular season the third quarter was by far Henry's most efficient part of the game when he averaged a staggering 6.9 yards per attempt as the Chiefs lead grew the Titans had to ditch the run and pass more to keep up Henry only had three attempts in the second half rendering him completely ineffective he actually had more carries and more yards in the first half against the Chiefs than he did against the Ravens but game script is vital to his and any running backs production heading into 2020 Henry and the Titans are poised for similar success the offensive line remains largely intact and the defense is good enough to keep the score low and Henry's usage high the Titans stripped down their playbook to focus on one concept and Henry absolutely mastered it with this being only his fifth season he's just hitting his stride his immense power and stunning speed is one of the most unique things that I've seen ever on a football field every time Derek Henry gets the ball he can create absolute destruction thank you so much for watching this week's episode if you liked it make sure to hit like and subscribe last week's episode was so much fun if you haven't checked it out Alan Robinson came on the show for an interview in a film breakdown and I got to hear all his thoughts on how he plays the position all his techniques all his secrets it was it was incredible I was so honored and completely blown away to speak with him his insight made me see the game in a whole different way and really appreciate how good that dude really is I want to thank my patreon supporters for their support and all the questions that were submitted to ask Alan I've got some exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks I want to take a look at Carson Wentz thinking of getting an early look at Trevor Lawrence and a few others so if you have any topic ideas you'd like to see just drop them in the comments below all right that's going to do it until Nick Saturday see ya [Music]

Channel: AlexRollinsNFL

Views: 105,120

Keywords: derrick henry, nfl, derrick henry highlights, tennessee titans, derrick henry titans, derrick henry 2019 highlights, derrick henry film breakdown, derrick henry top plays, titans, football, patriots, ravens, chiefs, derrick henry mix, alexrollinsnfl, derrick henry playoffs

Id: 2mn0H40cfI0

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 13 2020