In the first game of the Baltimore Ravens’ 2025 season, Derrick Henry ran for 169 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries in a 41-40 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 7. Since then, the former Alabama All-American running back has 115 yards and one touchdown on 31 carries in three games.
In the Ravens’ 37-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday, Henry had just eight rushing attempts. Henry hadn’t had so few carries since Nov. 26, 2018, when he had eight carries for 30 yards in the Tennessee Titans’ 34-17 loss to the Houston Texans.
“Sometimes the game goes that way, and you don’t have the opportunity you want to,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. “We were certainly planning on running the ball. That was a big part of the plan, but we didn’t really have the chances to get to it like we needed to. We needed to get that third and fourth drive going. We weren’t able to do it.”
But there were first-half opportunities that seemed scripted for Henry that didn’t include him.
On fourth-and-1 at the Ravens 41-yard line, Baltimore threw a deep pass for an incompletion with 2:57 left in the first half. Kansas City capitalized on the field position to take a 20-7 lead.
On their next possession, the Ravens called a pass on third-and-1 at their 44. The Chiefs sacked quarterback Lamar Jackson, who lost a fumble.
“I mean, that’s play-calling,” Harbaugh said. “I am not going to sit here and say I’m happy about it at all. I am sure that (offensive coordinator) Todd (Monken) is not happy about it either. None of us are. You have to look at that and decide what you want to run there.
“In some of those circumstances and situations, if they work, they look good. (Kansas City) threw the ball on fourth-and-short and third-and-short a few times and completed them, so maybe we just need better plays, plays that are going to pop open. Maybe we have to do a better job of game-planning in those plays. That’s what I would say. I think that we need to put our guys in better positions and give them opportunities to make plays in those situations, because in a game like this, you have to be aggressive, you have to go for stuff. We didn’t get it done.”
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In his first season with Baltimore, Henry ran for 1,921 yards and 16 touchdowns on 325 carries in 2024, when the Ravens led the NFL in rushing yards for the fourth time in six seasons. Since 2018, Baltimore has finished no lower than third in the NFL in rushing yards in any season.
In 2025, the Ravens rank 10th in the NFL in rushing yards. Baltimore leads the league with an average of 6.2 yards per carry, but only two teams have fewer rushing attempts than the Ravens’ 86.
“We need to be able to run it better and need to call it more often,” Monken said on Thursday, “because we have really good players back there. But we have really good players at a lot of spots, so the bottom line is we’ve had games where we’ve had some explosive runs and some where we haven’t been nearly up to the level that we expect. But it’s early, and I expect us to really get back on track.”
Sunday’s matchup with the Houston Texans might be the game where Baltimore has to get Henry “back on track.” The Ravens will play without Jackson. The two-time NFL MVP will miss the game because of a hamstring injury.
“I’m going to do whatever is asked,” Henry said about Jackson’s absence. “Whatever can help us win, I’m always down for.”
The Texans and Ravens square off at noon CDT Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Houston has yielded only 51 points in its four games – 16 fewer than any other team in the NFL has given up in 2025. At the opposite end of the defensive stats, 133 points have been scored against the Ravens, the most in the league.
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“I’m just focused on doing my job better than I have during the last four weeks, and it starts off there,” Henry said. “Just keep focusing on that and let it translate to the game. It takes all of us for the run game. I’m sure everybody else is focused on that, and we need to go out there and make it happen.”
The Ravens offense will be without another Pro Bowler, fullback Patrick Ricard, and the Baltimore defense will be missing two Pro Bowlers, too – cornerback Marlon Humphrey and linebacker Roquan Smith – because of injuries. Starting cornerback Chidobe Awuzie also will miss the game. The injury report lists left offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley and safety Kyle Hamilton as questionable to play on Sunday.
Henry acknowledged “the injury bug is real right now for us,” but his response to the challenge was: “Bring it on. I look at it with a positive mindset. We are 1-3. Nobody is going to come out and do it for us. We have to go back to work.”
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