The Titans Turned To A Derrick Henry Direct Snap To Knock Off The Texans In Overtime

Having Derrick Henry is quite the ace for the Tennessee Titans to have up their sleeve. The team’s standout running back toted the rock 22 times for 212 yards on Sunday afternoon and ended up being the hero in the team’s 42-36 overtime win over the Houston Texans.

The thing that makes Henry such a difficult running back to beat is his ability to turn on the jets despite being 6’3 and 238 pounds. That was on display in the fourth quarter when Tennessee had the ball on its own 6. Ryan Tannehill turned around, handed the ball to the big man, and watched him shoot out of a cannon for a 94-yard score.

The bad news for the Titans is the other team had Deshaun Watson, who is really, really good. Watson threw for touchdowns on each of the Texans’ next two possessions — a 53-yard strike by Will Fuller, then after a Tannehill pick, he marched Houston down the field and found Brandin Cooks in the end zone for six, putting the Romeo Crennel-led squad up, 36-29.

Tannehill atoned for his mistake on the ensuing possession, picking apart the Texans secondary and eventually finding AJ Brown for six.

Stephen Gostkowski drilled the extra point, setting the game up for an overtime period. The Titans won the toss, and Watson seemed to have a pretty good idea of whether or not he was going to get the ball back.

Tennessee got the ball into Henry’s hands on the first two plays of the extra period. One, a run, didn’t go for much, while the other was a simple dump off that he took 53 yards and deep into the heart of Houston territory.

The Titans kept chipping away from there, and facing a third-and-goal from the Houston 5, they decided to do something a little unconventional. Tannehill was sent out wide, Henry lined up alone in the backfield, and they made it clear that they were going to try to win this game by challenging the Texans to prevent him from picking up five yards. Here is how that went:

In what might go down as the NFL’s game of the year, Tennessee came out on top, 42-36, to move to a perfect 4-0 on the season.