The Tennessee Titans are entering a three-game stretch that will make or break their 2019 NFL season, and their workhorse running back has a hamstring problem.

Based on Derrick Henry’s answer to how he got through Sunday’s 42-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders, expect the former Alabama All-American to be on the field for the Titans’ next game.

“Ain’t no quitting in me,” Henry said. “My leg’s going to have to be halfway off for me to stop, so I’m going to go out there and help my team win games and play through it.”

With three weeks left in the NFL's 2019 regular season, Tennessee and the Houston Texans are tied for the top spot in the AFC South at 8-5. The Titans and the Texans will tangle on Sunday and again in the regular-season finale on Dec. 29.

Between those games, Tennessee plays the 10-3 New Orleans Saints and Houston plays the 6-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 22.

During Sunday's game, Henry didn't carry the football after breaking a 24-yard run with about two minutes left in the third quarter.

“It’s a fine line sometimes,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said about his decision to pull Henry with Tennessee three touchdowns ahead. “I think you have to understand the players and who they are. I’ve got a good feel for Derrick. He wants to be out there every single snap. He does. It was my choice there at the end to make sure that we were able to get him on to the next week.”

Henry said he and Vrabel “had a conversation” during the game.

"Just checking in to make sure I’m good and being smart about everything,” Henry said. “I’ll let him know if I feel like I couldn’t go. But I felt good.”

Against the Raiders, Henry didn't carry an outsized portion of the Titans' offense, as he had in the previous three of Tennessee's four straight wins. Henry ran for 103 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries as the Titans' offense rolled up 552 yards -- the sixth-most in team history and the most since 1991, when the franchise was still the Houston Oilers.

“We were definitely hitting on all cylinders," Henry said. “That’s just a credit to everybody on the offense, executing their job and just playing a four-quarter game.”

Henry has appeared on the Titans’ injury report for the past two weeks. Before Tennessee’s 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Dec. 1, Henry was a limited participant in the practices on Wednesday and Thursday before practicing fully on Friday. Before the game against Oakland, Henry didn’t practice on Wednesday, practiced in a limited capacity on Thursday and practiced fully on Friday.

Vrabel said he planned to follow the “exact same” practice plan with Henry this week as he did last week.

“It’s late in the season,” Vrabel said. “Guys play a lot of reps. There’s a lot of things that guys manage to get to the game on Sunday, and that’s our job. That’s their job as a professional to be ready mentally with limited reps.”

In Tennessee's past four games, Henry has run for 599 yards -- 121 more than any other player in the NFL since Week 10 this season even though the Titans had a bye week in that span.

With four consecutive 100-yard rushing games, Henry could accomplish something on Sunday that no player from an Alabama high school or college has done in the NFL. Stephen Davis (Auburn) in 2003 for the Washington Redskins, Shaun Alexander (Alabama) in 2005 for the Seattle Seahawks and Ronnie Brown (Auburn) in 2007 for the Miami Dolphins also had four-game streaks of 100 rushing yards, but no state player has had five consecutive 100-yard rushing games.

The Titans and Texans kick off at noon CST Sunday at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

“It needs to be loud, it needs to be packed, it needs to be filled,” Henry said. “We know at the beginning of the season it was kind of rough as we tried to find our identity. But we got this thing rolling, so we need our fans to back us up. It’s a big game, a division opponent, so we hope everybody’s there. We hope it’s loud. We want them to feel everything from our fans screaming. We just need a lot of support in a big game.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.

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