Turnaround teams on remarkable runs
Perhaps, never before has Week 1 of an NFL season been as big of an aberration as it was this season.
A record three teams that lost the opener have won every game since, while two others that won in Week 1 have lost the next five games.
There have been some remarkable turnarounds.
The teams that have done it on the positive side are the Cowboys, Packers and Ravens. Before this season, only 30 teams since the merger opened the season 5-1 despite losing the opener, and it never happened more than twice in any single season.
The last time two teams did it came in 2014, when the Cowboys and Chargers pulled off the feat. The Cowboys made the playoffs that year, while the Chargers fell just short.
On the other end of the spectrum are the Dolphins and Texans, who felt good after season-opening wins but haven’t tasted victory since.
That matches the most teams in a season that started 1-5 despite winning the opener. It’s happened several times, including last season when the Washington Football Team and Jaguars did it. The WFT turned things around to win the NFC East at 7-9 and make the playoffs.
The Jaguars lost 20 straight following the win over the Colts for the second-longest losing streak ever. They snapped it Sunday in London against the Dolphins.
A couple of other teams have fallen flat after fast starts, with the Panthers and Broncos going from 3-0 to 3-3. That had happened only five times since 2010 and there haven’t been two teams that did it in the same season since the Ravens and Jets did it in 2009.
King Henry
Titans star running back Derrick Henry keeps working his way into the NFL record books.
Henry ran for 143 yards and three TDs in a win over the Bills on Monday night for his third game this season with at least 125 yards rushing and three TD runs.
That’s tied for the most of those games in a season in the last 70 years with Shaun Alexander the last to do it in his 2005 MVP season. Jim Brown did it twice in 1958 and 1965, while Priest Holmes (2004) and Joe Morris (1985) the only others to do it.
Henry’s six career games with at least 125 yards rushing and three TDs are tied for the second-most ever to Brown’s nine.
Henry had a 76-yard TD run against the Bills, for his sixth touchdown run of at least 70 yards, one shy of the record held by Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson.
Henry has been on a remarkable run that started when he ran for 238 yards in Week 14 of the 2018 season against the Jaguars. Since then, Henry has 5.421 yards rushing in the regular season and playoffs. Nick Chubb is next in that span with 3,532.