How Derrick Henry found his place in Ravens offense vs. Cowboys

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — In the locker room following Sunday’s 28-25 win at the Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh had one final game ball to hand out.

“The thing that was the key difference in the game — that made it all happen — was 151 yards rushing by King Henry,” Harbaugh told the players before delivering the ball to running back Derrick Henry and giving him a hug.

While Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was explaining to reporters in another part of AT&T Stadium that his team couldn’t afford Henry this offseason, the Ravens were celebrating how Henry helped Baltimore to its first win of the season. From stiff-arming tacklers to motivating his offensive linemen, Henry produced one of his vintage performances by running for 151 yards on 25 carries and scoring two touchdowns.

In his first two games with Baltimore, Henry found the end zone but not a place in the offense. Backup running back Justice Hill received 72 snaps while Henry played 65. On Sunday, the Ravens made it clear — from their run-heavy formations to the number of carries — that Henry was the centerpiece of the game plan.

“You’ve just got to get him lanes [to] just hold up and just let him do his thing,” Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “He showed off. He did what kings do — [he’s] Derrick Henry.”

Henry was Baltimore’s biggest free-agent addition this year. The Ravens didn’t have much salary cap space, but they signed Henry to a two-year, $16 million contract. He will total $9 million this year, which ranks seventh among running backs in 2024.

The Ravens have long admired Henry and saw his physical style as a perfect fit for their hard-hitting mindset. Henry was the back Baltimore envisioned on Sunday, forcing 12 missed tackles — the second-most by any player in a game this season, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

He also shoved Cowboys cornerback Caelen Carson to the ground with a nasty stiff-arm in the third quarter. That was Henry’s league-leading 56th stiff-arm on a rush since ESPN began tracking the stat in 2017.

Confirmed: Derrick Henry is big, fast, and strong 😤

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— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024

“I hold myself to a high standard,” Henry said. “I definitely wanted to come out here and be able to have an impact to give us a chance to win by the way I played. I feel like the first two weeks I kind of got going a little slow.”

In his first two games, Henry was limited to 130 yards on 31 carries. He wasn’t getting many running lanes from a revamped offensive line that was receiving most of the criticism for the team’s 0-2 start.

Before Sunday’s game, Henry told his offensive line: “When you go, I go.” The offensive line responded by pushing the Cowboys off the ball, allowing Henry to run 18 times in between the tackles for 113 yards and two touchdowns.

After the game, Henry made a point to compliment each starting offensive lineman by name.

“I was letting them know, ‘I believe in [you all]. We’ve got to do this together,'” Henry said. “It’s not an individual thing — we’re all tied in together. It’s a long season, so [there’s] going to be adversity. As long as we stick together and believe in one another, then we’ll be good.”

Henry is usually one of the first offensive players on the field for practice, going through drills off to the side.

On Friday, Henry spent time with the offensive linemen during their walkthrough.

“He challenges them in a way that is [like], ‘You’re capable of so much more. Let’s go be that,’ and then [he’ll] dig in there and work with them on it,” Harbaugh said.

This marked Henry’s 12th game with over 150 yards rushing and multiple rushing touchdowns. Only one player in NFL history has recorded more: Jim Brown with 13.

Pro Bowl fullback Patrick Ricard called it “a dream” to block for Henry.

“He is such a beast,” Ricard said. “It fuels me to really make sure I hit my guy and I move him so he can get a little bit of space to hit the hole full speed, because when he has full steam ahead, it’s really hard to bring him down.”

For the first two weeks of the season, the Ravens totaled more yards of offense (835) than any team in the league but faced questions about their identity. On Sunday, Baltimore’s offense finally clicked as Jackson delivered big runs to the outside and Henry gashed the Dallas defense up the middle.

“To get the running game going that we did with Derrick Henry … and to have Lamar take over the game the way he did, to me, that’s our identity,” Harbaugh said. “That’s our personality.”