Entering the final Sunday of the NFL’s 2019 regular season, four running backs had carried the football more than the Tennessee Titans’ Derrick Henry, who’d missed the previous game with a hamstring injury.

But with Tennessee needing to win to qualify for the playoffs, Henry had 32 rushing attempts against the Houston Texans on Dec. 29 to finish the regular season with a league-leading 303. Henry turned the 32 carries into 211 yards and three touchdowns as he won the NFL rushing crown for 2019 in the 35-14 victory over Houston.

Six days later, the former Alabama All-American ran for 182 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries in the Titans’ 20-13 playoff victory over the New England Patriots.

On Saturday, Henry will be back on the field when Tennessee visits the Baltimore Ravens at 7:15 p.m. CST for a Divisional Round game.

“I think Derrick trains and prepares to be able to handle that load, to carry that load,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. "He’s got a certain skill set that’s size and strength and speed, durability, which are all great qualities for a running back in January, so he’ll do everything that he has to to get ready and to do whatever it is we ask him to do in the game plan. …

"He's very unique. There's not that many players or running backs in the league like Derrick because there's not that many players in college that are like Derrick. And by that I just mean a bigger tailback. Going back to guys I played with or against where it was Jerome Bettis -- and again it was a different body type, but the size. And Eddie George."

Henry is the fifth player in the past 10 seasons with at least 30 rushing attempts in consecutive games.

Runnings backs Le'Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2017, DeMarco Murray of the Dallas Cowboys in 2014, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings in 2013 and Michael Bush of the Oakland Raiders are the only other players with consecutive 30-carry games in the past 10 seasons.

Bell had the best performance of those four players in his next outing after the back-to-back 30-carry games with 76 yards and one touchdown on 25 carries.

The most recent player with three consecutive games with at least 30 rushing attempts is Cleveland Browns running back Jerome Harrison in the final three games of the 2009 season. After rushing for 301 yards and no touchdowns on 88 carries in his other 11 games in 2009, Harrison ran for 561 yards and five touchdowns on 106 rushing attempts in three games.

During his Heisman Trophy season in 2015, Henry set an SEC single-season record with 395 rushing attempts, but he had at least 30 rushing attempts in back-to-back games once, when he ran for 271 yards and one touchdown on 46 carries against Auburn and 189 yards and one touchdown on 44 carries in the SEC Championship Game against Florida.

Baltimore coach John Harbaugh used the same words as Vrabel to describe Henry -- "very unique."

“No. 22 is about as good as you’ll see coming downhill running the ball,” Harbaugh said. “… He’s very unique. You’d be hard-pressed to say who he’s like right now. He’s kind of his own guy, the way he runs, and he does a great job with it.”

With Henry’s roster measurements at 6-foot-3 and 247 pounds, Baltimore safety Earl Thomas wondered how much the Patriots wanted to hit the running back on Saturday.

“I think (Tennessee quarterback Ryan) Tannehill threw probably like 17 times last game for like 75 yards in a playoff game, and they still won,” Thomas said. “That’s a credit to how hard he’s running and their O-line.

"He’s a cutback runner. He’s very patient. He’ll find creases. And guys didn’t seem like they were too interested in tackling him. I think our mindset is a little different. We’re going try to tackle him, try to swarm and we're going to see how it plays out.”

Former Daphne High School and Samford standout Michael Pierce, the Ravens’ nose tackle, said facing running team with a big back like Henry is something a 340-pound defensive lineman relishes.

“This is the kind of game you dream about -- rough, tough, physical," Pierce said. "I just remember when we played Le’Veon Bell when he was with the Steelers and he was rolling, so it’s the kind of game you look forward to, and that being a playoff game makes it much more, much more gratifying if you get the win.”

Henry and Baltimore’s Marlon Humphrey were teammates on Alabama’s 2015 CFP national-championship team, so the Pro Bowl cornerback has seen Henry wear down opponents. The former Hoover High School star said he planned to get in “an extra lift” to get ready for Saturday night’s game.

“Big challenge,” Humphrey said. "Derrick, seeing him against the Patriots, he looked like when he was back at Bama and he won the Heisman. It’s going to take all 11. He led the league in yards, and, shoot, he’s been doing his thing. I’m happy for what he’s done, I just hope we can get him to the ground this Saturday. …

"I'm going to get an extra lift in this week and see how that works for me. I really think it's going to take all 11. He's 6-3 and he has really elite speed also. He can run people over here and there all the time, but he also has the speed that if he gets to the edge, he can really outrun you."

The Ravens ranked fifth in rushing defense in the NFL in 2019, but with Baltimore building the best record in the league, its defense faced the fewest rushing attempts during the regular season.

Three backs ran for 100 yards against the Ravens in 2019. Cleveland's Nick Chubb did the most damage on the ground against Baltimore, running for 165 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries in the Browns' 40-25 victory on Sept. 29. That's the last time the Ravens lost.

“We’ve got to stop the run," said Ravens middle linebacker Josh Bynes, a former Auburn standout. "That don’t change regardless of who we’re playing. We played Chubb. We played (Seattle Seahawks running back Chris) Carson. We played some really great backs this year in the league -- not saying that he’s the same as them because everybody has their own individual thing that makes them great. He has his things that make him great.

"But as long as we do what we’re supposed to do – swarm, get guys to the football and make sure we've got a lot of guys to make tackles. The thing is in this league everybody gets paid. Plays are going to be made, but we've just got to hold our composure and do our job, and at the end of the day, it's all about coming away with a 'W' in the playoffs.”

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

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