Derrick Henry — Week 2: Sixteen Carries, One in the Fourth
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Henry carried 16 times for 68 yards and a 1-yard touchdown on a direct snap, with 13 of the 16 successful and none longer than 8, and caught all 3 targets for 19. Eleven carries came before halftime and five after, one of them in the fourth quarter, as his 24 carries from Week 1 became 16 in a 24–17 loss to the Saints.
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Nothing to nothing, two 57 left in the first quarter, second and goal at the New Orleans one. With an extra player reported as eligible, Baltimore snapped the ball directly to Derrick Henry, and he went around right end for the touchdown. It finished a drive on which he touched the ball seven times for 47 yards: carries of five, six, five on third and two, eight to the one, and the score, plus catches of 22. The 20 came on first and 15 from the Baltimore 39, a throw caught four yards behind the line, right after a nine-yard catch of his had come back on an illegal shift. +1.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 4.3 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it.
The line: 16 carries, 68 yards, one touchdown, five first downs, +2.9 expected points on the carries. 13 of the 16 were successful, meaning they came out above zero in expected points. The carries went five, −1, five, six, five, eight, one, five, eight, two, seven, seven, three, five, nothing and two. That is a steady day without a long one: two eights were the high, where Week 1 had four runs of 10 or more. Three targets, three catches, 19 yards — the 20, two, and a loss of three on first and 15 late in the third. 11 carries before halftime for 51 yards, five after for 17. His only carry of the fourth quarter was two yards on second and three from the Baltimore 35 with nine oh five left in a tied game. On third and one Baltimore threw deep, incomplete, and punted, and the Saints kept the ball for 16 snaps.
Henry had 16 of the 18 running back carries; Justice Hill had two. Baltimore called 12 designed runs before halftime and six after, against 17 pass plays in each half. All five running back carries inside the New Orleans 20 were his.
Back in June the preview's read on Henry was a back turning 32 whose seventh-place finish leaned on touchdowns, the least repeatable input, and its advice was to let someone else pay for them. Week 1 handed him three touchdowns on 24 carries, and that episode said the carries were the number that would have to hold. They did not hold: 16, in a game Baltimore led or had tied until a minute 32 was left, so the score did not force it. One touchdown on 16 carries is closer to the season the preview described than the opener was. Two games, one of each. Baltimore is the road team against the Cowboys on Sunday the 20-seventh, at Maracana Stadium.
_Data via nflverse._
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