The Tennessee Titans suffered a brutal loss in Week 15 to the Houston Texans. With their playoff hopes hanging on by a thread, they watched a two-score lead disappear throughout the game. It resulted in a 19-16 overtime loss to their AFC South rivals, who were without star rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud and their top two receivers, Nico Collins and Tank Dell.
It was a bad loss for a Titans team, who had a record-setting comeback on Monday Night Football in Week 14 against the Miami Dolphins. They were unfortunately unable to ride that momentum into this weekend’s game against the Texans.
Their rookie quarterback, Will Levis, struggled throughout most of the afternoon. The Texans were able to pin their ears back and rush the passer as Tennessee got nothing going on the ground, taking no pressure off of Levis all afternoon.
It was a shocking turn of events as running back Derrick Henry entered the game on quite a hot streak against the Texans. He had rushed for at least 126 yards in five straight contests, including four instances in which he recorded at least 211 yards, averaging 203.6 yards per game.
However, he didn’t come close to that total on Sunday. Henry rushed the ball 16 times for a shocking nine yards. He caught four passes as well but gained only one yard on those plays. The worst game in Henry’s career coincided with the Titans officially being eliminated from playoff contention.
“Yeah, definitely today you had that feeling [that it could be the end of my career with the Titans],” said Henry, who is normally one to stay in the moment. “I had hope of kind of slipping in there [the playoffs], and then being eliminated with three games left. I’ve been here my whole career. Definitely wanted to go out strong, which that isn’t the case.”
Set to hit free agency this offseason, Henry’s career with the Titans could be coming to an end. This is certainly not how he envisioned it going, as he made some ugly NFL history against the Texans on Sunday afternoon.
According to Ryan McDowell on X, Henry is the first player in league history to have at least 20 touches in a game and produce less than 15 total yards from scrimmage.
One of the best running backs in the NFL for five years, Father Time looks to be hitting Henry harder than any defender ever has. Like so many other great running backs, the wear and tear of the position looks to be taking a toll on Henry, who is having arguably the least productive season of his career.
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