All-22 for 22: Derrick Henry's 2018 season

[TitansFan23]

3 minutes ago, Number9 said:

Can Henry be consistent?  Or is he a big game or bust RB?  He has huge games, but for some reason the coaches seem have been unwilling in the past to feature him.  He has good ypc numbers, but somehow he seems to disappear for long stretches.  2019 it looks to be all on him, so we'll see.

I believe he has the ability but not the conviction. What else would explain it?

[bizzyeddie]

1 hour ago, Number9 said:

Can Henry be consistent?  Or is he a big game or bust RB?  He has huge games, but for some reason the coaches seem have been unwilling in the past to feature him.  He has good ypc numbers, but somehow he seems to disappear for long stretches.  2019 it looks to be all on him, so we'll see.

he sat behind a pretty good RB his first year

coaches took too long to realize the was the best option after that pretty good RB fell off a cliff his second year

coaches tried to force their new toy at RB his third year till they saw the light.

Henry is a solid RB...he's not the best but his big play potential will win you a couple games during the year.  That's what matters.

[Number9]

3 hours ago, bizzyeddie said:

he sat behind a pretty good RB his first year

coaches took too long to realize the was the best option after that pretty good RB fell off a cliff his second year

coaches tried to force their new toy at RB his third year till they saw the light.

Henry is a solid RB...he's not the best but his big play potential will win you a couple games during the year.  That's what matters.

Right. He’s never going to be a Gurley.  They will need a back like how they should have used Lewis. They just tried to use Lewis like Murray.   The question is why?

[titansfan]

Skimming through a few of those videos, a couple of things are pretty clear. One, Henry is a pretty nimble back-- he's very good at getting skinny and generally making the first defender miss. Secondly, Josh Kline got his lunch eaten often, goodness at lot of blown up plays were directly from his inability.

[nine]

For what it's worth:  it's been my theory that Henry's early struggles were due more to poor OL play than poor RB effort or execution.    Not that Henry was great early in the season....but I felt his execution was at least "okay".  Certainly better than the O-line, for sure.

 

I decided to put my theory to the test by reviewing every run and noting where he was initially hit or forced to redirect to avoid a tackler (i.e. yards before contact) and how many yards he ultimately gained on the play.

 

Week 1:   10 attempts, 26 yards.   According to my review, on these ten attempts, Henry got a combined total of -2 yards before contact.   (Yep...minus two yards).    Henry gained 28 yards after contact (2.8 yards per play)....yet had only 26 yards total.   He was hit at or behind the LOS on 5 out of 10 attempts (50%)

 

 Week 2:  18 att, 56 yds.      With 18 total attempts, Henry got a combined 3 yards before contact (.2 yds/att....about seven inches.).  53 of his 56 yards came after contact. (3.0 yds/att).   Hit at/behind the LOS on 10 of 18 attempts.  (56%)

 

Week 3:  18 att, 57 yds.    11 total yds before contact (.6 yds/attempt);   46 Yds after contact  (2.6 yds/att).   Hit at/behind the LOS on 9 of 18 attempts.  (50%)

 

I'll continue going down the list tomorrow...but it's interesting seeing the actual  yards before /after contact and how often he was actually getting hit behind the LOS.

[OILERMAN]

The coaches, Robinson and Henry clearly thought the early struggles were on him based on the actions and comments. Eddie George clearly thought it was on Henry too 

[IsntLifeFunny]

Pocket post. 

[Justafan]

4 hours ago, nine said:

For what it's worth:  it's been my theory that Henry's early struggles were due more to poor OL play than poor RB effort or execution.    Not that Henry was great early in the season....but I felt his execution was at least "okay".  Certainly better than the O-line, for sure.

 

I decided to put my theory to the test by reviewing every run and noting where he was initially hit or forced to redirect to avoid a tackler (i.e. yards before contact) and how many yards he ultimately gained on the play.

 

Week 1:   10 attempts, 26 yards.   According to my review, on these ten attempts, Henry got a combined total of -2 yards before contact.   (Yep...minus two yards).    Henry gained 28 yards after contact (2.8 yards per play)....yet had only 26 yards total.   He was hit at or behind the LOS on 5 out of 10 attempts (50%)

 

 Week 2:  18 att, 56 yds.      With 18 total attempts, Henry got a combined 3 yards before contact (.2 yds/att....about seven inches.).  53 of his 56 yards came after contact. (3.0 yds/att).   Hit at/behind the LOS on 10 of 18 attempts.  (56%)

 

Week 3:  18 att, 57 yds.    11 total yds before contact (.6 yds/attempt);   46 Yds after contact  (2.6 yds/att).   Hit at/behind the LOS on 9 of 18 attempts.  (50%)

 

I'll continue going down the list tomorrow...but it's interesting seeing the actual  yards before /after contact and how often he was actually getting hit behind the LOS.

This is good stuff.  I absolutely believe Henry was a large part of the reason for his own early struggles.  He struggled to play well behind the same line that Murray dominated with.  He's been inconsistent from the start and not nearly as physical as he's capable of but the O-line was a huge problem last year and this shows it.  Communication problems were really taking a toll early.

 

Henry has to be more consistent and I still think he needs to work on pass protection but it's impossible to really evaluate him when the line is playing that poorly.  

[nine]

Week 4:   8 att, 24 yds.    4 total yds before contact (0.5 yds/att),  20 yds after contact (2.5 yds/att).   Hit at/behind the LOS on 6 of 8 attempts  (75%).

 

Week 5:  11 att, 56 yds.     4 yds before contact (0.4 yds/att), 52 yds after contact (4.7 yds/att).   Hit at/behind LOS on 6 of 11 attempts (55%)

 

[Justafan]

@titanruss, I worded that post poorly.  I was trying to say that Henry was inconsistent but the line really struggled early to help him out.  Didn't really come out that way.  My bad.  

[titanruss]

Nm

[titanruss]

Henry and the line sucked early. He maybe sucked less than the line early on. Then the line blocked better and was playing better than Henry... then Henry caught up and some magic happened. 

 

At least that’s how I saw it without diving too deep into stats

[heyitsmeallen]

I’ll just leave this here...

 

 

[nine]

1 hour ago, OILERMAN said:

The coaches, Robinson and Henry clearly thought the early struggles were on him based on the actions and comments. Eddie George clearly thought it was on Henry too 

 

Obviously.   And the tape clearly shows Henry had his share of plays where he could have/should have been more decisive, more physical, or finished stronger.

 

But it's hard to expect any RB to finish strong on plays where they barely get started before being hit.....which happened on exactly 59% of Henry's carries in weeks 1-5.   (36 of 61 carries)

 

In fairness to the O-line, not all of these plays were their fault.   There were several instances of Henry running into a stacked front with a defender who was unblocked or unaccounted for at the point of attack.   But there were also several plays where Henry had to put forth tremendous effort just to get back to the LOS, and lots of plays where OL failed to sustain their blocks and allowed defenders to disengage just as Henry reached the LOS.

 

For  much of the season, people acted as if Henry was playing poorly and consistently leaving yards on the field....even Henry himself.  The game film does show some instances where this happened....but it also shows that most of the time, there was simply nothing there to start with.

[nine]

36 minutes ago, heyitsmeallen said:

I’ll just leave this here...

 

 

 

For weeks 1-5:

0.3 yds before contact per att

3.1 yds after contact per att

 

90% of Henry's yards were gained after contact....crazy.