It has to be all hands on deck this week for the Detroit Lions' defense in trying to stop Titans running back Derrick Henry Sunday in Tennessee.
Just how difficult will the challenge be for Detroit's defense?
Henry rushed for 215 yards and two touchdowns in the Titans' 31-10 win at Jacksonville last week. He is the first player in NFL history with four career games with at least 200 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.
Henry has seven career games with at least 170 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, which is tied with Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson for the third most such games in NFL history. Only Hall of Famers LaDainian Tomlinson (11) and Jim Brown (nine) have more.
Henry rushed for 212 yards and two touchdowns in a Week 6 win against Houston and 178 yards and three touchdowns in Tennessee's Week 12 victory over the Colts.
"I've seen enough of him, of Derrick Henry, to know what he brings," Lions interim head coach Darrell Bevell said Monday. "He's big, he's fast, he's strong, he's going to take a full team effort, you know the whole team, to tackle the guy. We'll start working on that (Tuesday), but it's going to be another good task for us."
Henry currently leads the NFL in rushing with 1,532 yards and 14 touchdowns. That's 497 more yards than Jacksonville's James Robinson, who's currently second in rushing yards. Henry's averaging a whopping 5.2 yards per attempt, and he has 14 rushing touchdowns. No other running back has more than nine touchdowns this season. He and Minnesota's Dalvin Cook are tied with the most 10-plus-yard rushes on the year (37).
The Lions head into Sunday's matchup ranked 29th in the NFL against the run, allowing on average 132.8 rushing yards per game. The 21 rushing touchdowns the Lions have allowed this year are tied with Las Vegas for the most in the league.
Tackling and swarming to the football are key for any defense going up against the 6-foot-3, 247-pound Henry, who can not only run over would-be tacklers with his size, strength and devastating stiff arm, but he can also run away from them with his 4.5 speed.
Detroit's been credited this season with missing 101 tackles as a team, fifth most in the NFL through 14 weeks. They'll have to be much better in that department Sunday if they hope to contain Henry.
Last week it was Aaron Rodgers and the terrific Green Bay aerial attack. It doesn't get any easier for Lions defensive coordinator Cory Undlin and his guys this week going against Henry and a stout Tennessee rushing attack.
