ROYAL RUMBLE
‘KING HENRY’ RULES JAGS AS TITANS END RIVAL’S SEASON
NASHVILLE — The Jacksonville Jaguars entered the final day of the regular season knowing a victory would allow them to repeat as AFC South champions and return to the playoffs. Their hosts Sunday afternoon at Nissan Stadium, the division rival Tennessee Titans, entered knowing their season was hours from ending — they were eliminated from the playoff chase weeks ago — but with plenty of uncertainty about one of the biggest names on their roster.
If Derrick Henry’s time in Tennessee is over, the four-time Pro Bowl running back and two-time NFL rushing champ made his finale a day to remember.
Henry ran for a season-high 153 yards, reeling off an 18-yard touchdown run and a 69-yarder to set up the clinching score and help the Titans beat their oldest division rival 28-20. It spoiled the Jaguars’ bid to repeat a year after a loss at Jacksonville kept Tennessee from winning what would have been its third straight AFC South crown.
“This is a great way to go out, especially against a division opponent, an opponent that I grew (up) down the street watching and looking at and following as a kid growing up,” said Henry, who is from Yulee, Florida, less than a half-hour north of Jacksonville. “So it’s all full circle, which is great to be able to finish with the win and finish with class.”
The Jaguars (9-8) tried to slow down Henry, putting eight and nine defenders near the line of scrimmage. Henry still averaged 8.1 yards per carry against a team he finally admitted his favorite moment came against in December 2018 when he tied the NFL record with his 99-yard touchdown run.
“Oh, man, it says he’s the King,” Titans cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting said of how the player nicknamed “King Henry” excelled in the final game under his current contract.
Tennessee ended a three-game losing streak to wrap up a disappointing 6-11 season. Jacksonville, with no wild-card path to the postseason remaining, is also done.
Henry, who turned 30 on Thursday, wrapped up the fourth 1,100-yard rushing season of an NFL career that began after the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner at Alabama was selected by the Titans in the second round of the 2016 draft. He ran 280 times for 1,167 yards this season, and on Sunday, Henry added to his lengthy resumé:
› His touchdown run gave him 12 for the fifth season in his career, making Henry the sixth player to do that as he joined LaDainian Tomlinson, Emmitt Smith, Adrian Peterson, Shaun Alexander and Jim Brown.
› That touchdown also was the 90th of Henry’s career, tying him with Pro Football Hall of Famers Eric Dickerson and Curtis Martin and moving him into 13th on the NFL’s career list. Henry became the franchise leader with his 41st 100-yard rushing game, passing Earl Campbell (40), a star when the Titans were still the Houston Oilers.
› Finally, he passed Alexander for the most rushing yards in the NFL by a former Alabama Crimson Tide running back.
As the last member of the offense introduced during Sunday’s pregame ceremonies, Henry received the loudest ovation. Given a microphone after the win, Henry thanked fans for the “greatest eight years of my life” before running off with his last name being chanted loudly.
He and veteran quarterback Ryan Tannehill spent a moment together in the tunnel before introductions. Tannehill lost his starting job to rookie Will Levis when he sprained his right ankle in mid-October, and he started Sunday’s game with the rookie dealing with injuries to both feet.
“To see him have the day he had today it was a lot of fun for me as well,” Tannehill said of Henry. “I turn my head, and he gets through the line of scrimmage without much contact — you know there’s a chance at being a big one. And he had a couple of those … as well as the tough yards.”
Tannehill, who turns 36 in July, will be a free agent in March. So will Henry, unless the Titans sign him to an extension or use the franchise tag on him again. They did that in 2020 and agreed to a four-year contract just before the deadline that summer.
Henry sounds eager to test the market and also prove he’s not going to be declining simply because he turned 30. He said he’ll talk to some players who have been through free agency as well as members of his team after taking a break.
He also held open the door to returning to the Titans. Reaching the AFC championship game to cap the 2019 season and blowing a lead against the Kansas City Chiefs still hurts.
“I want to bring a Super Bowl here really bad,” Henry said. “I mean, that’s one of my main goals. No matter how I do in a season, just want to bring one here and … who knows what happens.”
As for the Jaguars, quarterback Trevor Lawrence called his own number on fourth-and-goal at the 1, stretching the ball out with the right arm that had him questionable for a game the team had to win.
Tennessee stopped him short with 7:13 left, and with one final chance, Lawrence couldn’t pick up a first down before turning the ball over on downs again at the 1:47 mark of the fourth quarter.
With the Jaguars losing, the Houston Texans (10-7) — who had already clinched a playoff berth with their win against the Indianapolis Colts (9-8) on Saturday night — wrapped up the AFC South title.
Jacksonville controlled its fate after an 8-3 start to the season but lost five of its final six games.
Lawrence was intercepted twice in Nashville. The Jaguars also turned the ball over on downs three times, including twice when it mattered most.
The Titans, with the NFL’s stingiest defense inside their 20-yard line, stopped the Jacksonville quarterback about a foot short as he tried to reach the ball across the goal line.
“Told them at halftime, ‘Guys, you’re the best red-zone defense in the league, and we’re going to need a stop to win the game,’” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “And that’s what they did.”