Derrick Henry enjoyed a breakout game with the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, rumbling over the Dallas Cowboys for 151 yards and two touchdowns.
Fittingly, his best game in a Ravens jersey thus far came in Dallas, where he spends his offseason training.
"I hold myself to a high standard. I definitely wanted to come out here and be able to have an impact to give us a chance to win by the way I played," Henry said, via the team's official transcript. "I feel like the first two weeks I kind of got going a little slow. But like I said, we're all tied in together, and we all just want to come out here and execute and be able to win -- and we did that today. Being in Dallas -- this is where the offseason is [for me and] where I spend most of my time in the offseason. It felt a little good today, for sure."
As the Ravens stumbled to an 0-2 start Henry scored a TD each week but generated 46 yards in Week 1 and 84 in Week 2. Sunday, he more than doubled that rushing total.
Henry became the first Baltimore running back with 25-plus carries in a game since Justin Forsett in Week 4, 2015 (27). Sunday marked his 12th career game with 150-plus rush yards and two-plus rush TDs (tied second-most all-time with LaDanian Tomlinson, behind only Jim Brown).
Henry is the first 30-plus-year-old with 150 rush yards and two rush TDs in a game since the Vikings' Adrian Peterson in Week 12, 2015 (14th to do so at age 30-plus in the Super Bowl era).
The scuttlebutt all offseason was how the Cowboys could have used a player like Henry. The running back even discussed his desire to play in Dallas but noted in April that the Cowboys never reached out to him.
After Henry ran over Dallas, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he had no regrets about how the offseason unfolded.
"Hats off to him. He had a great day today. Have all the respect in the world for him," Jones said, per ESPN. "And so that's what happens when you don't sign good ones: They can come back and have a great game against you. But bottom line is we couldn't afford Derrick Henry."
Henry inked a two-year, $16 million deal with the Ravens, including $9 million in guaranteed money.
Added Jones: "Why can't you buy a mansion when you live in a different kind of house? We couldn't afford him. We can't make that all fit. That's as simple as that."
Through three weeks, Henry has 281 rush yards and four rush TDs (5.0 yards/carry), the third-most rush yards and the most rush TD through any Week 3 in his career. The four-time Pro Bowler hasn't averaged more than 4.4 yards for a full season since 2020.
After two weeks of struggling, the Ravens' ground game finally caught fire, with better blocking and more cohesiveness between Lamar Jackson and Henry on read plays. The Ravens rushed 45 times for 274 yards with three ground TDs.
The question in Baltimore is whether they simply took advantage of a porous Cowboys run D and a positive game script or whether this is the type of attack we should expect to see as the 2024 season ages.
