John Harbaugh cites ‘rotation’ for Derrick Henry sitting down the stretch against Patriots

For 48 minutes on Sunday night, Derrick Henry was giving the Patriots' defense all they could handle. He seemed to only get better as the game went on, too. As he crossed the goal line for his second touchdown with 12:50 to go in the fourth quarter - giving the Ravens an 11-point lead - he had 18 carries for 128 yards. That includes nine carries for 72 yards after Lamar Jackson went out with a back injury, and the Patriots had all the reason to fully commit to the run.

Thanks in large part due to Henry's performance, all the Ravens had left to do was run out the clock. Yet as they tried to do so, they kept the future first ballot Hall of Fame running back on the sideline. Henry never got another touch after that second touchdown.

Turning mainly to backup Keaton Mitchell, the Ravens stalled out on their ensuing drive. They punted after picking up just one first down, giving the ball back to the Patriots to set up the game-winning drive. Henry remained on the sideline for the Ravens' final drive as well, when they were trying to pull off a late two-minute drill comeback. That ended with a Zay Flowers fumble, clearing the way for the Patriots' 28-24 win.

Why take the ball out of the hands of the best power back of his era with the game on the line? Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was asked about Henry's usage almost immediately in his postgame press conference.

"The second-to-last drive – yes, Derrick was coming back in the game," he explained. "Keaton had started the other drive, and then Derrick came in and finished it off. So, it's part of that rotation. He was going back in the game, then we got stopped. I think we had, what, two carries on that, out of the four plays, maybe, out of the six plays."

"Looking back, would I rather have had Derrick starting the drive? Yes," Harbaugh added when pushed on it with a follow-up. "But Derrick was kind of ready for Keaton to start that drive. And then he was planning on coming in next. So, they were working that rotation. When you look back on it, I think it's pretty easy to say, 'Hey, he should have been in there or shouldn't have been in there.' But we're rotating those guys throughout the game as two backs. But yes, [on a] game-winning drive, do I want Derrick Henry on the field? Sure, I do want him on the field."

For his part, Henry said after the game he wasn't surprised he was off the field for those plays.

"No. We've been doing a rotation for I don't know how many weeks," Henry shared. "Keaton has been doing a great job in the run game, and we are both in there doing the best we can. We have a lot of good players, so everybody has to get their touches and get opportunities, and Keaton is deserving of it. It didn't work out that way, but [we have] another opportunity to look forward next week. This one definitely hurts."

Leaning on that rotation instead of riding the hot hand could end up being a costly decision for Baltimore. Leaving Henry out in the middle of one of his best games in the year, against a Patriots run defense that had struggled, will likely be the most second-guessed decision in a game that saw the Ravens fall to 7-8, two games out of the division lead with two games to go. Meanwhile the decision helped the Patriots pick up a win that clinched them their first playoff spot since 2021.