Henry having best postseason for RB in NFL history
Mike Florio and Peter King debate whether Derrick Henry is having the best postseason for a running back in NFL history.
Video Transcript
MIKE FLORIO: Welcome to PFT OT on Yahoo Sports. He's Peter King. I'm Mike Florio. We're going over some of the big topics in the National Football League. And there is no bigger name right now in the NFL, Peter, than Derrick Henry. First guy in league history with three straight games of 180 or more rushing yards, and so far games of 185 and 192 in the postseason. Is he having the most dominant postseason we've ever seen by an NFL running back?
PETER KING: He is right now. I mean, Mike, you know, I wrote this in my column this week that the top five rushers of all-time played in a total of 46 NFL playoff games. Twice out of those 46 games, they had 140 rushing yards in a game. One of them did. OK, twice, out of 46 games.
So Derrick Henry now has played four playoff games, and he's done it three times. And I think the thing about Henry, that is really special, is that when you played Jerome Bettis, Earl Campbell, Christian Okoye, you know the really good big backs in NFL-- in recent NFL history. You know, if you devoted enough energy and personnel on defense to stop them, you could.
When is the last time that Bill Belichick has ever really wanted to stop somebody, and he failed miserably? I think Derrick Henry might be the first one on his list ever as a coach of the New England Patriots. I mean, he wanted to stop Marshall Faulk, he did. He wanted to stop Marvin Harrison, he did. He wanted to make Jared Goff beat him last year in the Super Bowl, and that's how they designed their defensive game plan, and it worked perfectly.
So my point is that everybody knows that Derrick Henry is coming and still, he's rushing for 5.8 yards a carry in this postseason. And he is killing really good defenses.
MIKE FLORIO: Yeah, you know, we see it in college from time to time where the talent gap is so great you can basically announce to the defense what the play is, and they still can't do a damn thing about it. And Derrick Henry, Peter, that's a great observation, is approaching that level where you know he's going to run, you know it's coming, but there's nothing you can do about it.
You know, Bill Belichick said it's impossible to prepare to face this guy because you don't have anybody that can, in practice, even begin to play like Derrick Henry. You can never simulate it. You don't know what to do when it happens. And number one, you're getting blocked.
But number two, you've got this guy who is a freight train who is sprinting, not jogging or running, but sprinting past you. And yeah, go ahead, we're going to run the ball. Go ahead and stop us. And they're going to do it over and over again. And until someone can stop them, Peter, they're going to keep doing it.
PETER KING: Mike, I don't know if you saw, somebody tweeted out a video of Derrick Henry entering-- you know, approaching the Titans' locker room after the game. Full gear, approaching the locker room. And he gave Mike Vrabel a bear hug. Now, you look at Mike Vrabel on the sidelines. Big dude. You looked at Derrick Henry and Mike Vrabel in that hug, Derrick Henry bigger dude. He's a Redwood. He's a Redwood.
And he runs like a fast tight end. And in my opinion, I think-- who would have ever thought, Mike-- think about this. That in the final four of these playoffs, two weeks ago-- that in the final four of these playoffs that we would be talking about an offensive player on basically the 12th seed in the playoffs.
Because didn't we all think that Tennessee was number 12? We did. You know, we thought Minnesota was better than Tennessee, the sixth seed in the NFC. And so here we are with the 12 seed, in essence, in the AFC title game. And the guy we can't stop talking about is a player on that 12th seed.
MIKE FLORIO: And it's plenty to discuss as we continue to get ready for conference championship weekend where you've got the best running back that we've seen in the postseason, maybe ever, and one of the best young quarterbacks we've ever seen in Patrick Mahomes. Somebody's advancing to the Super Bowl and pick against Derrick Henry and the Titans at your own peril. Check out more PFT OT on Yahoo Sports videos throughout the 2019-2020 NFL postseason.
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