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

[nine]

Here's where it should start to get fun.....

[nine]

Week 14  vs Jags     17 att, 238 yds, 4 TD

 34 yds before contact  (2 yds/att)

204 yds after contact (12.0 yds/att)

Hit at/behind LOS on 11 of 17 attempts  (65%)

 

I've always felt this game was an absolutely dominant O-line performance.....but after digging into it, I was very surprised to learn this wasn't necessarily the case, as Henry was hit or redirected at or behind the OL on almost 2/3 of his carries.   Which just makes his performance that much more incredible.

[Mythos27]

14 minutes ago, nine said:

Week 14  vs Jags     17 att, 238 yds, 4 TD

 34 yds before contact  (2 yds/att)

204 yds after contact (12.0 yds/att)

Hit at/behind LOS on 11 of 17 attempts  (65%)

 

I've always felt this game was an absolutely dominant O-line performance.....but after digging into it, I was very surprised to learn this wasn't necessarily the case, as Henry was hit or redirected at or behind the OL on almost 2/3 of his carries.   Which just makes his performance that much more incredible.

Probably asking for a lot but can you go into how much yardage was gained on those plays where he was redirected? Also even this 34 yards before contact is a massive outlier compared to most of the season save for the 42 during the Pats game.

Edited April 21, 2019 by Mythos27

[Supernope]

I've not followed this stat and I will grant it looks tough for Henry last year.  But with that said, is contact at the LOS that big of a deal?  Should that be more or less expected? 

[nine]

Week 15  @ Giants    33 att, 170 yds, 2 TD

34 yds before contact  (1.0 yd/att)

135 yds after contact  (5.2 yds/att)

Hit at/behind LOS 17 times in 33 carries (52%)

 

 

[nine]

43 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

Probably asking for a lot but can you go into how much yardage was gained on those plays where he was redirected? Also even this 34 yards before contact is a massive outlier compared to most of the season save for the 42 during the Pats game.

I'd have to go back and re-examine every video to determine which plays were "hits" and which were "redirects".   Honestly, I'm just too lazy. 

 

For what its worth...by "redirected",  I'm referring to plays where Henry was forced to make a hard stop/cut due to an unblocked/un-engaged defender a step or two directly in front of him.   They're not exactly broken tackles...but I'm still counting them as YAC since Henry earned those yards with little/no help from blocking. 

 

[Justafan]

3 hours ago, nine said:

Week 10 vs Patriots:    11 att, 58 yds, 2 TD

42 yds before contact  (3.8 yds/att)

16 yds after contact  (1.5 yds/att)

Hit at/behind line on 2 of 11 carries ( 18%)

 

Both touchdowns were well-blocked plays where Henry went into the end zone untouched.   An excellent game by the O-line.

Or a poor game by the Patriots D.  

[Justafan]

1 hour ago, Supernope said:

I've not followed this stat and I will grant it looks tough for Henry last year.  But with that said, is contact at the LOS that big of a deal?  Should that be more or less expected? 

It gives good insight into how well the offensive line was in the running game.  NFL averages around 1.47 yards before contact.  Really good teams will get up to 2.0 and really bad teams will go down to around .6 yards per attempt.

 

So the Patriots and Jags game WERE good OL efforts and well blocked.  The rest of the season so far according to @nine's analysis, they were pretty mediocre to bad. 

[Justafan]

These breakdowns go to show you how razor edge the difference between really good and really bad in the NFL really is.  Give Henry an extra yard to get going and he becomes the most dominant RB in the NFL.  Hit him a yard sooner and he can't going and looks like garbage.  Obviously, some of that is on him but damn if offensive line play isn't more important than ever.  

[Mythos27]

1 minute ago, Justafan said:

These breakdowns go to show you how razor edge the difference between really good and really bad in the NFL really is.  Give Henry an extra yard to get going and he becomes the most dominant RB in the NFL.  Hit him a yard sooner and he can't going and looks like garbage.  Obviously, some of that is on him but damn if offensive line play isn't more important than ever.  

Football has a lot of stupid cliches but the one about it being a game of inches is as true today as it ever was. The margin between success and failure is incredibly slim.

[big2033]

1 hour ago, nine said:

Week 14  vs Jags     17 att, 238 yds, 4 TD

 34 yds before contact  (2 yds/att)

204 yds after contact (12.0 yds/att)

Hit at/behind LOS on 11 of 17 attempts  (65%)

 

I've always felt this game was an absolutely dominant O-line performance.....but after digging into it, I was very surprised to learn this wasn't necessarily the case, as Henry was hit or redirected at or behind the OL on almost 2/3 of his carries.   Which just makes his performance that much more incredible.

That's what he's capable of.

 

That's what a star RB is supposed to do. 

 

He'd been building towards that since the bye-week though.

 

With the way this offense is built and how opponents see our passing game, he's going to have to make chicken salad A LOT until the passing game makes them pay. 

Edited April 21, 2019 by big2033

[heyitsmeallen]

5 hours ago, nine said:

 

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.

The Line was terrible all year. Even when they improved they were still bad. Imagine the season yardage numbers if he got 1-2 yards before contact. I think he will take a big jump this year. The left is his fav side to run to and the LG was drastically improved and Delanie will be back for improved blocking on the end.

[big2033]

1 hour ago, heyitsmeallen said:

The Line was terrible all year. Even when they improved they were still bad. Imagine the season yardage numbers if he got 1-2 yards before contact. I think he will take a big jump this year. The left is his fav side to run to and the LG was drastically improved and Delanie will be back for improved blocking on the end.

It might be harder for him. He's no longer a player who has potential to dominate. Teams have seen it consistently. They are going to gear to stop him specifically in this offense.

Edited April 21, 2019 by big2033

[Justafan]

17 minutes ago, big2033 said:

It might be harder for him. He's no longer a player who has potential to dominate. Teams have seen it consistently. They are going to gear to stop him specifically in this offense.

Which is why you stack the offensive line and hope Mariota is good enough to make them pay when they crowd the LOS.  They have to spread teams out a little more too, imo, than they've done the last couple of years. 

[heyitsmeallen]

39 minutes ago, big2033 said:

It might be harder for him. He's no longer a player who has potential to dominate. Teams have seen it consistently. They are going to gear to stop him specifically in this offense.

21 minutes ago, Justafan said:

Which is why you stack the offensive line and hope Mariota is good enough to make them pay when they crowd the LOS.  They have to spread teams out a little more too, imo, than they've done the last couple of years. 

Exactly. They also will get walker back who is really good at chipping the end and getting open in the seam or flats really quickly, and a real proven slot reciever in Humphries that will able to run proper hot routes.